Neil Gaiman has signed to pen a film adaptation of ancient Chinese folk tale Journey to the West.
TV producer Zhang Jizhong is behind the epic $300 million (£187m) trilogy project, reports Variety.
No director has boarded the trilogy yet, but Zhang hopes to sign Oscar nominee Guillermo del Toro, who is a friend of Gaiman.
“[Del Toro] has shown a lot of interest but he wants to see the treatment first. Obviously the more celebrated the director, the busier they are,” Zhang said.
Nicole Scherzinger has revealed that she plays a “badass” in Men In Black 3.
It was previously confirmed that the Killer Love singer will join the cast as Lilly, who Scherzinger describes as a “futuristic vixen of a villain”.
“I play Lilly, the girlfriend of the lead character, Will Smith,” she told The Sun. “She is a futuristic vixen of a villain. Oh, and I get to carry a rocket launcher. I am kinda badass in the movie, I’m not going to lie.”
Speaking about her time on set, she added: “Will Smith made me feel like family and Emma Thompson is lovely. Tommy Lee Jones was cool too.”
Guillermo del Toro will not move forward with his H.P. Lovecraft adaptation At The Mountains Of Madness, reports Coming Soon.
The Pan’s Labyrinth director has instead exited the long-in-development production to helm Legendary Pictures’ monster movie Pacific Rim.
Studio Universal had allegedly been unwilling to commit to the $150 million budget needed to bring Mountains Of Madness to the big screen. The 3D project had Tom Cruise attached to star and James Cameron on board as a producer.
Pacific Rim takes place in the near future when mankind must band together to defeat vicious creatures. The blockbuster project will be penned by Travis Beacham and is being targeted for a PG-13 audience.
Paramount’s Western animation Rango topped the US box office this weekend in the biggest debut of 2011 so far.
The film, which reunites Johnny Depp with his Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, took $38 million in its opening weekend, well ahead of Matt Damon’s sci-fi thriller The Adjustment Bureau, which entered in second place taking $20.9 million.
Alex Pettyfer’s second offering of 2011, the teen fantasy drama Beastly, exceeded expectations by entering third in the top ten with $10.1 million.
Owen Wilson’s comedy Hall Pass falls to fourth with $9 million, while last week’s box office topper Gnomeo & Juliet rounds out the top five with $6.9 million.
This week’s US box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Rango – $38,000,000
2. (-) The Adjustment Bureau – $20,900,000
3. (-) Beastly – $10,100,000
4. (2) Hall Pass – $9,000,000
5. (1) Gnomeo & Juliet – $6,900,000
6. (3) Unknown – $,6,620,000
7. (7) The King’s Speech – $6,501,000
8. (4) Just Go With It – $6,500,000
9. (5) I Am Number Four – $5,702,000
10. (6) Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – $4,325,000
Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr have said that they are both open to the idea of continuing the Sherlock Holmes film series after this year’s upcoming sequel.
Both Law and Downey Jr have returned for the follow-up as Watson and Holmes respectively, and have admitted that they are excited at the possibility of future instalments.
“We were talking so much about the possibilities of more, and loads of ideas and situations, on the first one,” Law told MTV News. “We’ve got even more ideas now, and I hope we’re going to be allowed to do another one again.”
Downey Jr reiterated Law’s comments, admitting that he hoped to continue playing Holmes as long as he is allowed to.
Resident Evil 5 will open in cinemas in September next year, reports Coming Soon.
The sci-fi horror, based on Capcom’s hit video game series, will be released on September 14, 2012 through Sony’s Screen Gems. The date lines up the untitled fifth film’s opening with the previous three franchise instalments, which also had September debuts.
Milla Jovovich will reprise her role as Alice in Resident Evil 5.
Last year’s Resident Evil: Afterlife, the series’ first in 3D, took in $290 million at the worldwide box office. The franchise has grossed more than $660 million at the box office in total.
Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox have announced a released date for the 3D theatrical opening of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
The 3D version of the first Star Wars prequel will arrive in cinemas on February 10, 2012.
George Lucas previously announced that he plans to convert all six Star Wars films to 3D and re-release them in theatres in the epic story’s chronological order.
The Phantom Menace was originally released in cinemas in 1999 and grossed more than $924 million at the worldwide box office.
Sir Elton John has blasted Disney over their apparent lack of support for his film Gnomeo & Juliet in the US, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The musician, who is an executive producer on the animated movie through his company Rocket Pictures, hit out at the company on The Marilyn Dennis Show for not congratulating him on the 3D film’s box office success.
“We fought resistance from the studio for so long, and to be honest with you, the film has taken $75 million in America, and we haven’t had a message of congratulations from anyone within the studio,” he said.
“Gnomeo & Juliet took us 11 years to make. We defied all the odds and all of the people at Disney who said this wouldn’t be a hit. And it’s the biggest hit, but it could have been a bigger hit if Disney got behind it more.”
Actress Jane Russell has died of respiratory failure at the age of 89.
Born in Minnesota in 1921 to Roy William Russell and Geraldine Jacobi, Russell was discovered by movie mogul Howard Hughes in 1940. Her first film The Outlaw catapulted her to fame three years later. Its poster, showing the actress posing provocatively with a gun in a bale of hay, sparked controversy at the time.
She worked with many of the industry’s stars in the ’40s and ’50s, appearing alongside Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953. She also worked with Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx and Vincent Price during the ’50s.
In a statement to Reuters, her son Buck Waterfield said: “Jane Russell passed away peacefully today (Monday) at home surrounded by her children at her bedside.”
She is survived by three children.
The King’s Speech and Inception have dominated the 2011 Academy Awards, taking home four Oscars apiece at the Hollywood ceremony.
The British-produced royal drama, about King George VI’s attempts to overcome a crippling stammer with the aid of speech therapist Lionel Logue, took home ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Actor’ for star Colin Firth, ‘Best Director’ for Tom Hooper and ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for David Seidler.
Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending science fiction thriller Inception ruled in the technical categories, scooping awards for ‘Cinematography’, ‘Sound Editing’, ‘Sound Mixing’ and ‘Visual Effects’.
The Social Network emerged with three Oscars (‘Adapted Screenplay’, ‘Editing’, ‘Original Score’), while True Grit, which notched up ten nominations, walked away empty-handed.