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Billy Bob Thornton has announced that he is in talks to star in a sequel to Bad Santa.

The Eagle Eye actor played a criminal who poses as a mall Santa Claus in the 2003 comedy directed by Terry Zwigoff.

Speaking at a panel at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas on Friday, Thornton revealed that he is currently in negotiations to reprise his role in the forthcoming Bad Santa 2.

The Weinstein Company announced that it was partnering with Miramax Films to develop a Bad Santa sequel last December. Thornton said in November that he was interested in returning for the follow-up.

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British actor Michael Gough has passed away at the age of 94.

The screen star appeared in more than 150 film and TV roles, including the first four Batman movies as Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth and as The Celestial Toymaker in Doctor Who in 1966.

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Gough started his career in the 1947 movie Blanche Fury and gained a cult following for his parts in Hammer Films productions such as 1958’s Dracula and 1962’s Phantom Of The Opera.

He was cast by Tim Burton in the big screen relaunch of Batman in 1989 before Michael Caine took over the role in 2005’s Batman Begins. Gough continued to work with Burton late into his career, featuring in Sleepy Hollow and taking on voice acting jobs in Corpse Bride and Alice In Wonderland.

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Darren Aronofsky has quit the director’s chair for 20th Century Fox’s The Wolverine.

The Oscar-nominated Black Swan director released a statement saying that he exited the blockbuster because it would have taken him away from his family for an extended period of time.

Fox had planned to film a large portion of the Christopher McQuarrie-scripted Wolverine, which sees the title character become a samurai, in Japan.

Aronofsky said: “As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, who have been totally supportive throughout my work on the movie, it became clear that the production of The Wolverine would keep me out of the country for almost a year.

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Warner Bros has withdrawn Hereafter from cinemas in Japan following last Friday’s earthquake and tsunami.

The drama, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon, opens with a sequence reconstructing 2004’s Indian Ocean tsunami as it decimates a seaside resort.

According to AP, Warner Entertainment Japan’s Satoru Otan said that the movie is “not appropriate” after the country experienced its strongest earthquake in recorded history last Friday.

It is estimated that more than 1,000 are dead and 10,000 unaccounted for after the quake triggered a tsunami which affected Japan’s Honshu island.

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Jonathan Liebesman’s Battle: Los Angeles has taken an estimated $36 million for its opening weekend to arrive at number one on the US box office chart.

The science fiction epic toppled last week’s number one Rango, which falls to second place with a total of $23 million.

Catherine Hardwicke’s supernatural horror Red Riding Hood, starring Mean Girls alumnus Amanda Seyfried, enters in third with $14.1 million, followed by the Matt Damon science fiction thriller The Adjustment Bureau, which took $11.4 million.

Rounding out the top five films of the weekend is Disney’s latest 3D animation Mars Needs Moms, which took a disappointing $6.8 million.

This week’s US box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Battle: Los Angeles – $36,000,000
2. (1) Rango – $23,050,000
3. (-) Red Riding Hood – $14,100,000
4. (2) The Adjustment Bureau – $11,450,000
5. (-) Mars Needs Moms – $6,800,000
6. (4) Hall Pass – $5,105,000
7. (3) Beastly – $5,090,000
8. (8) Just Go With It – $4,000,000
9. (9) I Am Number Four – $5,702,000
10. (7) The King’s Speech – $3,625,000

Bradley Cooper has confirmed speculation that there are currently no plans for a sequel to last year’s remake of The A-Team.

Cooper, who starred in the film alongside Liam Neeson, Quinton Jackson and Sharlto Copley, admitted that the poor commercial success of the film meant that any future instalments are highly unlikely.

“I loved it too,” Cooper told Empire, when a fan wrote in and told the former Alias actor how much he had enjoyed their version of the classic ’80s series.

“But unfortunately, outside of you, a few of your friends and myself, there just wasn’t enough revenue to supply a second instalment of that franchise,” Cooper confirmed.

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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.

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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.”

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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.