“The Hobbit” rumors, the “Wizard of Oz” prequel, DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover & more!

UPCOMING FILM PROJECTS!

Disney has offered Sam Raimi the job as director of OZ, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, according to Vulture. The project, a prequel to the classic “Wizard of Oz” story, would focus on the character of the Wizard himself and his humble beginnings in Omaha, leading to the balloon accident that leaves him stranded in Oz. The project is being developed as a starring vehicle for Robert Downey Jr…

Over two weeks after the announcement that director Guillermo del Toro had departed the planned two-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT, there’s been a lot of rumors and speculation about who might take over. According to Deadline, who have had a lot of contact with Peter Jackson’s manager, the two studios behind the anticipated prequel, Warner Bros. and MGM, are working hard on getting Jackson to change his mind and direct the two movies. So far no one else has been offered the job, although there’s been talk of David Yates, who just finished filming the last of his four “Harry Potter” movies, Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin and yes, even Brett Ratner…

M. Night Shyamalan has completed a script for a new film and already has some stars lined up, reports Heat Vision. Outside of a “loosely attached” cast that includes Bruce Willis, Bradley Cooper and Gwyneth Paltrow, almost nothing is known about the project. Shyamalan is reportedly shopping the script to various studios with his trademark secrecy, offering reads to only to highest level executives with a personal assistant on hand at all times to take the script back once the read is completed…

Framestore, the UK special effects company that won an Oscar for “The Golden Compass” and has worked most recently on “Avatar,” as well as Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men,” has revealed new details on Cuarón’s GRAVITY. The 3D Warner Bros. sci-fi film will star Robert Downey Jr. Here’s what Framestore says on its official website:

Framestore is about to embark on one of its greatest challenges yet, Gravity is the next Avatar in terms of ambition. There are many innovative and visually stunning aims for this project. The entire film will be made here at Framestore. In effect the film, as Avatar was, is 60% CG feature animation with the balance being hybrid CG and live action elements. Starring Robert Downey Junior, the film is a contemporary survival thriller that follows a woman as she attempts to make her way back to earth after a satellite crash sets off a chain reaction of further crashes. Because it’s set in space, most shots require every element to float in zero-gravity. But then factor in that this a stylish Cuarón flick, directed with his trademark languid feel, and you begin to realise the full scale of our challenge. Cuarón’s long and fluid style (the opening shot alone is slated to last at least 20 minutes) leaves no cut points to hide behind. In short, this is a hybrid of a fully animated, photo-real feature film with a blockbusting visual effects movie…

CASTING NEWS!

According to Deadline, Leonardo DiCaprio is set to play J. Edgar Hoover in the still untitled biopic. Already getting early Oscar buzz for Chris Nolan’s “Inception,” Leo will be directed in the epic FBI drama by Clint Eastwood who’s producing with Brian Grazer and Rob Lorenz through Imagine and Malpaso. Scripted by Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”),  production begins later this year…

The cast has been revealed for Steven Spielberg’s next film, WAR HORSE, to be released by DreamWorks Pictures on August 10, 2011. Set in 1914, the film centers on Joey, a beautiful bay-red foal with a distinctive cross on his nose that is sold to the army and thrust into the midst of the war on the Western Front. With his officer, he charges toward the enemy, witnessing the horror of the battles in France. But even in the desolation of the trenches, Joey’s courage touches the soldiers around him and he is able to find warmth and hope. But his heart aches for Albert, the farmer’s son he left behind.

According to Empire magazine, young actor Jeremy Irvine has landed the lead role of Albert and is joined by Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis and Benedict Cumberbatch. Watson and Mullan play Albert’s parents. Cumberbatch will play military man Major Stewart. Rounding out the internationally diverse cast are Niels Arestrup (“A Prophet”) as the grandfather of a young French girl (Celine Buckens) who takes Joey in, plus Nicolas Bro, David Kross, Leonard Carow, Rainer Bock, Robert Emms and Patrick Kennedy. Also in talks to join the cast are Tom Hiddleston and Stephen Graham. The film will start shooting in August…

According to Variety, Nicolas Cage will team-up with Nicole Kidman, who has seemingly gone from being in four movies a year to roughly one, in the Joel Schumacher-directed action-adventure TRESPASS. Written by Karl Gajdusek and Eli Richbourg, the duo would play a married couple taken hostage by four brutal perpetrators seeking easy cash, though things don’t work out as planned…

Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum will star in romantic pic THE VOW, to be directed by Michael Sucsy (HBO’s “Grey Gardens”). The film tells the real-life story of a newlywed New Mexico couple, played by McAdams and Tatum, who end up in a car crash. The wife is put in a coma, where she is cared for by her devoted husband. When she comes to, without any memory of her husband or their marriage, the husband woos her and attempts to wins her heart again…

Jennifer Garner and Nick Nolte are in talks for ARTHUR, the upcoming remake of the 1981 comedy, claims The Hollywood Reporter. The new version will see Russell Brand stepping into the role of the title character (played in the original by Dudley Moore): a young playboy would-be billionaire whose mother (Helen Mirren in the new film) threatens to give away his inheritance unless he marries. Garner is said to play, “an heiress who carries her own secrets and whom Brand must marry,” while Nolte would play her religious father…

Heat Vision is reporting that “True Blood” star Alexander Skarsgard will star opposite Taylor Kitsch in Universal’s BATTLESHIP, an adaptation of the Hasbro game. Peter Berg (“Hancock”) is directing the action-adventure movie, which adds an “alien invasion” element to the screen story. The script, by Jon and Erich Hoeber, revolves around an international fleet coming together to battle a water-bound armada of otherworldly origin. Skarsgard will play Kitsch’s brother, a straight and narrow naval officer whom Kitsch, a wildly spirited naval officer, idolizes. “Battleship” will start shooting on August 30 in Hawaii for a May 18, 2012 release…

In the oddest casting news of the week, Christian Slater, Gary Oldman and Dane Cook will star in GUNS, GIRLS & GAMBLING, a stylized crime thriller from writer/director Michael Winnick, reports Heat Vision. According to the trade, the story throws Elvis impersonators, Indians, modern cowboys, a 6-foot-tall blond assassin, a frat boy, a corrupt sheriff and a prostitute into a chase for a priceless American Indian artifact stolen during a poker game at an Indian casino. Slater plays a normal guy who in a drunken stupor joins an Elvis impersonation contest. Oldman is the contest’s mega-contender, and Cook will play the sheriff. Filming starts on July 6…

According to Variety, Lasse Hallström will direct the coming-of-age story TOM’S DAD, starring Patrick Dempsey, for Point Blank Productions. Variety says the story is “set in 1962 Las Vegas with a successful character film actor and a comedy vaudevillian nightclub performer at a crossroads because of the changing styles of comedy is making him obsolete. His situation’s complicated by the arrival of his long estranged young son”…

THE TRAILER FOR SOFIA COPPOLA’S NEW FILM!

Focus Features has released the cool, largely dialogue-less trailer for writer/director Sofia Coppola’s SOMEWHERE, starring Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning and Michelle Monagahan. The trailer features Julian Casablancas’ song “I’ll Try Anything Once” – the slowed-down version of The Strokes’ “You Only Live Once,” and the film, opening in New York and Los Angeles on December 22, the movie is an intimate story set in contemporary Los Angeles; Johnny Marco (Dorff) is a bad-boy actor stumbling through a life of excess at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood. With an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter (Fanning), Johnny is forced to look at the questions we must all confront:

AT THE MULTIPLEX!

Disney•Pixar’s eleventh movie and their first threequel, TOY STORY 3, featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and more, helped get the summer back in gear with a estimated opening gross of $109 million in 4,028 theaters including Digital Disney 3D and IMAX 3D. 3D showings accounted for 60% of that opening with IMAX 3D bringing in $8.4 million, a new record for an animated film in the format, topping “Monsters vs. Aliens’” $5.1 million IMAX opening last year. Besides being Pixar’s biggest opening, surpassing The Incredibles’ $70.5 million, it was the third-biggest opening of the year after Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Iron Man 2,” and Disney’s 4th $100 million opener to enter the Top 10 domestic opening weekends of all time. The debut of Warner Bros.’ take on the DC Comics Western hero JONAH HEX, starring Josh Brolin, tanked with just under $5.1 million in over 2,800 theaters, a pitiful average of $1,800 per site. Opening in four theaters in New York and L.A., the Duplass Brothers’ third film CYRUS (Fox Searchlight), starring John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei, scored $180,000 over the weekend, an impressive per-theatre average of $45,000. The movie expands to other cities over the next month…

…Until next week!