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Christian Bale will lead the cast of Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s latest film Nanjing Heroes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Zhang – who helmed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and made Hero and House Of Flying Daggers – will next turn his attention to a film about the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which Japanese troops killed thousands of Chinese citizens in the nation’s capital.

Bale will play an American priest named John who helped many Chinese escape death.

“I met Christian in America and was impressed with his serious book research for the role,” Zhang said.

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Leonardo DiCaprio has been declared the highest-grossing actor of 2010.

The list, compiled by Forbes, concludes that DiCaprio’s starring roles in Shutter Island and Inception – both of which took more than £650 million worldwide – made him the most bankable star of the year.

In joint second place are Alice In Wonderland co-stars Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska, whose positions on the countdown are augmented by The Tourist and The Kids Are All Right respectively.

Iron Man 2‘s Robert Downey Jr. and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1‘s Daniel Radcliffe complete the top five.

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Avatar has been named the most pirated movie of 2010.

James Cameron’s record-breaking blockbuster was downloaded illegally more than 16 million times, according to website TorrentFreak. The figure is a 33% increase on the 11 million downloads for Star Trek in 2009.

Superhero movie Kick-Ass is second in the 2010 list with 11.4 million downloads, while two Leonardo DiCaprio movies – Inception and Shutter Island – chart at numbers three and four.

Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man 2 is at number five on the list and the actor’s other big action movie this year, Sherlock Holmes, is the eighth most downloaded film.

The top ten list of 2010’s most pirates films is as follows:
1. Avatar – 16,580,000
2. Kick-Ass – 11,400,000
3. Inception – 9,720,000
4. Shutter Island – 9,490,000
5. Iron Man 2 – 8,810,000
6. Clash Of The Titans – 8,040,000
7. Green Zone – 7,730,000
8. Sherlock Holmes – 7,160,000
9. The Hurt Locker – 6,850,000
10. Salt – 6,700,000

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc has revealed that it has officially come out of bankruptcy.

The studio declared today that its corporate restructuring has been effective and that it has emerged from bankruptcy with $500m (£321m), reports Deadline.

“MGM is emerging from one of the most challenging periods of its storied history,” stated Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, the co-chairmen and chief executive officers of MGM.

“We are honoured and inspired at the opportunity of leading one of Hollywood’s most iconic studios into its next generation of unforgettable filmmaking, global television production and distribution, and aggressively pursuing, developing and exploiting new digital entertainment platforms.”

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New footage of 2001: A Space Odyssey has been found in perfect condition.

The sci-fi premiered in 1968, with a running time of 160 minutes. However, 19 minutes were cut by director Stanley Kubrick and buried in a salt-mine vault in Kansas, according to The Film Stage.

It is alleged that 17 of the missing 19 minutes were found by Warner Bros in the salt-mine “perfectly preserved”. As of yet, there is no word on what the studio plans to do with the extra film. In fact, the scenes may not even be released to the public.

The footage found reportedly features an assortment of scenes, including some additional shots from the opening sequence and an extended shot of Frank Poole’s space walk before he is killed.

2001: A Space Odyssey tells the story of the discovery of a strange artefact buried on the moon and mankind’s subsequent quest.

Long-awaited sequel Tron: Legacy has beaten Yogi Bear to top the US box office this weekend.

Tron: Legacy took $43.6 million on its opening weekend, compared to the $16.7 million taken by the Warner Brothers family film.

Last week’s box-office topper The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader falls to third, taking $12.4 million, followed by new entry The Fighter with $12.2 million.

Rounding out the top five is the Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp thriller The Tourist, taking only $8.7 million in its second week.

Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson’s new romantic comedy How Do You Know fails to crack the top five films, bringing in $7.6 million to land at number eight.

The US box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Tron: Legacy – $43,600,000
2. (-) Yogi Bear – $16,700,000
3. (1) The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader – $12,400,000
4. (-) The Fighter – $12,200,000
5. (2) The Tourist – $8,700,000
6. (3) Tangled – $8,670,000
7. (6) Black Swan – $8,300,000
8. (-) How Do You Know – $7,600,000
9. (4) Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – $4,645,000
10. (5) Unstoppable – $1,800,000

Lou Ferrigno claims that he has signed on for a role in the upcoming film adaptation of The Avengers.

However, the actor admits that he does not currently know how big of a role he will play in the big screen team-up film.

“I’m going to be involved in The Avengers,” Ferrigno confirmed to Nuke The Fridge.

Ferrigno originally appeared in the 1978 live-action television series The Incredible Hulk as Bruce Banner’s famous alter ego.

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Sam Worthington has praised director James Cameron’s ideas for the upcoming sequel films to Avatar.

Fox announced earlier this year that Cameron has begun work on two follow-ups to the box-office smash, and confirmed that Worthington would be reprising his role as Jake Sully.

“I talk to Cameron all the time,” Worthington told MTV News. “I think at the moment he’s still doing the [Avatar] bible, the book, and I think the book will then inspire where he wants to take it.

“He’s got great ideas, what he told me about where he wants to set it, things he wants to explore,” Worthington added.

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Rumours that actor Tom Hardy is to play supervillain Professor Hugo Strange in the next Batman film are reportedly untrue.

According to Batman-on-Film, a source who is working on The Dark Knight Rises confirms that Hardy won’t be playing the original Batman villain.

The casting rumour began after it was reported that Nolan was taking inspiration for the film from the comic book storyline ‘Prey’, in which psychiatrist Professor Strange becomes obsessed with discovering Batman’s secret identity.

It has not been revealed who Hardy will portray in the film, but an announcement is expected be made in early 2011.

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Joseph Kosinski has revealed that he attempted to recreate the feeling of the original Tron when bringing Tron Legacy to the big screen.

Talking to MTV News, the director admitted that he has high hopes that film fans will embrace the movie in the same way they did the first instalment in 1980.

“Hopefully, people will have the same reaction I did when I saw the first Tron,” he said.

“It looked different than anything else out there; it sounded different than anything else out there; it was bold in its concept and in the technology, the way it pushed technology. So hopefully, audiences feel the same way about this film, because that’s what we tried to do.”

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