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Producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed to the LA Times that Disney chairman Rich Ross wants the company to be “mean”, “lean” and “cost effective”.

Screenwriters Ted Eliott and Terry Rossio have been instructed to give Johnny Depp’s character Jack Sparrow more scenes on land rather than at sea, because of the high cost of water scenes. Other changes include moving filming locations from LA and the Caribbean to Hawaii and London, and cutting back on shooting days and visual effects shots.

“The hard thing is you have to make painful decisions that cut into some very entertaining sequences,” said Bruckheimer.

“You have to figure out how to keep the movie very entertaining and give the audience more than what they expect and yet be cost-effective about it.”

However, he also insisted that the audience would not notice the cuts in the final product.

Shooting for the Rob Marshall-directed On Stranger Tides, which will star Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane and Penelope Cruz, starts in June.

Film and stage actress Lynn Redgrave has died at the age of 67.

Redgrave was nominated for two Oscars in 1967 for ‘Best Actress’ in Georgy Girl and over thirty years later in 1999 for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in Gods and Monsters.

“Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer,” her children said in a statement.

“She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives.”

Redgrave was the third child of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson – her sister is Vanessa Redgrave.

Shakespeare For My Father, Mrs Warren’s Profession and The Constant Wife were highlights of her stage career, all receiving Tony nominations.

She recently made guest appearances in TV dramas Desperate Housewives, Law & Order and Ugly Betty.

Ben Stiller has hinted that Paramount isn’t going to finance a Zoolander sequel.

Writing on his Twitter page, Stiller said that the studio won’t back another outing for his dimwitted male model character Derek Zoolander.

“Ron Burgundy and Derek Zoolander looking to appear in sequels,” he said, referring to the recently shelved Anchorman 2. “Both men destitute, without means or intellect to fund their own comebacks.”

Stiller confirmed earlier in the year that Tropic Thunder writer Justin Theroux would write and direct a follow-up to the 2001 comedy hit.

A Nightmare On Elm Street has debuted at the top of the US box office.

The remake of the Wes Craven horror classic, starring Jackie Earle Haley, took in $32.2 million over the weekend.

Falling to number two is the animated feature How To Train Your Dragon with $10.8 million, while Steve Carell’s and Tina Fey’s comedy Date Night claims the number three position with $7.6 million.

Jennifer Lopez’s rom-com The Back-Up Plan slips to fourth place with $7.2 million, ahead of family adventure movie Furry Vengeance with $6.5 million.

Kick-Ass lands at number eight with $4.4 million and Chris Rock’s Death At A Funeral drops to ninth place with $4 million.

Finally, the documentary Oceans claims the number ten position with $2.6 million.

The US box office top ten in full:

1. (-) A Nightmare On Elm Street – $32,205,000
2. (1) How To Train Your Dragon – $10,825,000
3. (3) Date Night – $7,600,000
4. (2) The Back-Up Plan – $7,240,000
5. (-) Furry Vengeance – $6,500,000
6. (4) The Losers – $6,000,000
7. (6) Clash Of The Titans – $5,980,000
8. (5) Kick-Ass – $4,450,000
9. (7) Death At A Funeral – $4,000,000
10. (8) Oceans – $2,600,000

William Shatner has expressed his sympathy for Sandra Bullock and her estranged husband Jesse James.

The veteran actor, who co-starred with the Oscar-winning actress in the comedy Miss Congeniality, has revealed that James is “in a terrible emotional state”.

Bullock announced her plans to divorce James and raise the couple’s newly-adopted son Louis by herself after the revelation of her husband’s 11-month affair came to light.

Speaking to The Insider, Shatner said: “My heart goes out to Sandra, who I know and love. My heart goes out to Jesse. I was at their wedding. I know he loved her. That marriage, that wedding was just beautiful.

“Jesse’s being tormented like a matador with a bull. The paparazzi have nothing to lose so they are constantly waving the red flags. He’s in a terrible emotional state. His whole life has been turned upside down. He doesn’t know what he’s doing right now.”

The Lord of the Rings helmer received the honour at a ceremony in the town of Wellington on Wednesday, reports BBC News.

His official title is now Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Jackson said that he was accepting the title on behalf of his collaborators in the film industry.

“I feel incredibly humbled. The truth is, making movies is not a solo effort – it involves hundreds of people, thousands of people – so I feel as though I’m accepting it on behalf of the industry,” he said.

Jackson recently confirmed that both scripts for the upcoming Hobbit films have been delivered to MGM and the project is currently in the budgeting stages.

Sharlto Copley has revealed that a District 9 follow-up is two years away.

Copley, who played Wikus van der Merwe in the sci-fi film, told Empire that both he and director Neill Blomkamp are keen to revisit the property.

“Neill wants it and I want it. Neill’s doing another film first. Then I think if everything goes according to plan we’ll do the second film in about two years time,” Copley commented.

The actor added that Blomkamp has not yet decided whether to make the next District film a sequel or prequel.

“That story can go in so many different ways. There’s a whole universe,” he noted. “I’m sure a lot of writers say that, but we actually have an entire universe. There’s a million ways you can go. Neill’s actually very interested in prequels as well; he’s said that a few times. We wouldn’t do the traditional Hollywood version of the sequel which would just be 100 aliens fighting humans.”

Copley can next be seen as ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock in The A-Team, opening in the UK in July.

How To Train Your Dragon has remained at the top of the US box office with $15 million.

Debuting are Jennifer Lopez’s rom-com The Back-Up Plan at number two with $12.2 million, action film The Losers at four with $9.6 million and documentary Oceans in eighth place with $6 million.

Meanwhile, last week’s debuts Kick-Ass and Death At A Funeral slip to number five and seven respectively.

Finally, Miley Cyrus’s The Last Song and Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland claim the ninth and tenth positions.

The US box office top ten in full:

1. (1) How To Train Your Dragon – $15,025,000
2. (-) The Back-Up Plan – $12,250,000
3. (3) Date Night – $10,600,000
4. (-) The Losers – $9,605,000
5. (2) Kick-Ass – $9,500,000
6. (5) Clash Of The Titans – $9,000,000
7. (4) Death at a Funeral (2010) – $8,000,000
8. (-) Oceans – $6,000,000
9. (6) The Last Song – $3,700,000
10. (8) Alice In Wonderland (2010) – $2,200,000

Avatar has set an all-time record for Blu-ray sales on its first day of release.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Avatar has sold 1.5m copies in the US, outpacing sales of the former reigning top-seller The Dark Knight.

An early industry estimate set overall disc sales of the title comfortably above 4m units, putting it well on track to become the year’s top-selling release to date.

Retailers sold out of 60% of their Blu-ray inventory on average, a Fox rep said. He declined to specify unit shipments.

Mass merchants moved roughly 50% of their “Avatar” DVDs, the spokesman added.

The release was intended to coincide with Earth Day, following the film’s ecological theme.

James Cameron has called for studio bosses to form a special organisation to regulate the quality of future 3D films.

The director utilised the technique on his hugely successful sci-fi epic Avatar, but criticised the “stupid” decision to retro-fit movies such as Clash Of The Titans to incorporate 3D effects.

Cameron declared that industry officials need to establish a committee to publicise as well as protect 3D films, insisting that poor quality effects will harm the fledgling genre.

He told WENN: “What I’d love to do is put together some kind of a forum with the DGA (Directors Guild of America), let’s say, and maybe the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) and we’d have to do it in Canada, too. I think some quality standards do need to be discussed. I think the studios and big distribution companies need to be included in that dialogue. Let’s not do stupid stuff that’s going to hurt this burgeoning marketplace.”

Cameron singled out the Clash Of The Titans remake as an example of such cynical use of 3D, after producers delayed its release in order to add the special effects.

He added: “They worked against themselves with that film. I’ve heard people say that they couldn’t watch [Clash Of The Titans] in 3D and thought it looked better in 2D and they enjoyed the film more. I haven’t seen the film, so I don’t want to say too much, but I heard from enough sources that it was borderline unwatchable. And I have to say, I predicted that.

“When they said they were going to try to convert it to 3D in seven weeks, I said it’s not possible. You can’t do it. You can slap a 3D label on it and call it 3D, but there’s no possible way that it can be done up to a standard that anybody would consider high enough.”