Whitewater Films and "Akeelah and the Bee" producer Reactor Films have optioned Amy Morland and Vicki Rocco's romantic comedy screenplay "The Transitional Guy."

The film centers on struggling writer who uses his own dating experiences for a book and becomes known as the perfect "transitional guy" for women just leaving relationships. Problems arise when he falls for one of his temporary dates.

via hollywoodreporter.com

Director James Cameron's upcoming "Avatar" must rank as one of the most anticipated film projects in recent memory. His first narrative film since making the No. 1 box office hit of all time, 1997's "Titanic," "Avatar" will be the realization of Cameron's long-held dream of melding digital 3-D stereo with epic bigscreen storytelling. Variety's David S. Cohen conducted this email interview with Cameron, which is the director's most extensive exploration of 3-D to date.

via variety.com

Bloody-Disgusting.com posted a full cast listing for Universal’s upcoming “The Wolfman,” due out April 3, 2009.

Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Art Malik, Rob Dixon, Hugo Weaving, Nicholas Day, Michael Cronin, David Schofield, David Sterne, Roger Frost, Clive Russell and Geraldine Chaplin are set to appear opposite Benicio Del Toro’s Wolfman in the Joe Johnston directed film.

The production is currently filming in London and will follow the same plot as the original.

via movieblog.ugo.com

Dolph Lundgren is about to get one of those chairs with his name on the back for his next film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lundgren is set to star and direct Command Performance. He also co-wrote the script with Stave Latshaw.

Lundgren describes the project as, "Die Hard at a rock concert," with Lundgren to star as a drummer for a opening act for a major American rock band that is performing in Moscow for the Russian premier, when baddies break up the gig and the drummer, an ex-Marine, springs into action.

"I got the idea from Madonna," Lundgren said. "She did a concert for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin a few years ago."

The film is slated to begin production in Moscow and Bulgaria this summer.

via movieweb.com

Will Arnett is getting his passport ready for a trip to Italy. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the comic actor has signed on for When in Rome.

Mark Steven Johnson will write and direct this romantic comedy that already has Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Jon Heder, Anjelica Huston and Dax Shepard cast.

Bell will star as a New York City curator who, while on vacation in Rome, takes some magical coins from the Trevi Fountain, but she's followed back to New York by the men who originally threw the coins into the fountain and have fallen in love with her. Arnett will play one of these mysterious suitors.

The film will start shooting in April.

via movieweb.com

Mamma Mia! has a new poster, featuring Meryl Streep in an uncomfortably spritely pose. Isn’t she like 70? Seems awfully limber. But then I guess you’d have to be in order to do a singing, dancing, movie musical.

The movie is an adaptation of the stage play of the same name, and features an all star cast dancing and sing to Abba tunes. You know Abba, they sing Dancing Queen. Please stop cringing.

Mamma Mia! hits theaters July 18th.

via cinemablend.com

The upcoming comedy This Side of the Truth is turning into quite a star-studded event, as Tina Fey, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Guest, and John "I'm a PC" Hodgman.

That's in addition to the already-in-place Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., and Rob Lowe.

Gervais wrote the script, which is about a man who discovers lying in a world that only ever tells the truth.

via thecinemasource.com

Simon Pegg tells Australia’s Herald Sun Newspaper today that, for the most part, he’s completed his contribution to the new “Star Trek” movie.

“I have to go back next week for a couple of effects shots but otherwise I’m done. Eric’s [Bana] only just started”.

Pegg says the film is a very-serious science-fiction movie. “It’s not at all ironic. It’s not a jokey take on the original series. It’s a faithful and loving instalment in the ongoing mythology of the show”.

The Brit comic says he was asked to do the film by director J.J Abrams over email.

“We got on really well on Mission : Impossible 3 and then I got back from New York where I’d been shooting How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and I switched on my phone and there was an email that just said “Do you want to play Scotty” on the top which was the most shocking email I’d ever received.

via moviehole.net

Wolfgang Petersen (Troy, The Perfect Storm) is set to direct the sci-fi thriller Uprising for Columbia Pictures.

According to Variety, the story revolves around the resistance efforts of some citizens after Earth has been occupied by a powerful alien race. Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) is penning the screenplay.

No production date has been set.

via movieweb.com

Paramount Pictures and Sam Raimi are teaming up to bring the upcoming graphic novel Monster Zoo to the big screen say Variety.

Raimi is only producing at this point.

To be published in the spring by Image, Monster Zoo tells the story of a young boy who discovers his local zoo contains critters much more frightening than the ordinary collection. Creator Doug Tenpal was also the guy responsible for Earthworm Jim.

via obsessedwithfilm.com

Miramax Films and producer Scott Rudin have acquired screen rights to The Unnamed, an upcoming novel by Joshua Ferris about a man who comes down with a mysterious affliction that fractures his family.

The deal comes the same week that Ferris' last novel, "Then We Came to the End," was awarded the 2008 Hemingway Foundation/Pen Award; the novel is also a finalist for the National Book Award. Ferris is adapting "End" for HBO.

Rudin acquired "The Unnamed," to be published by Little, Brown, based on a partial manuscript sold by CAA.

via comingsoon.net

Luke Wilson is poised to star in the college comedy Tenure, Blowtorch Entertainment's first original production, with Mike Million making his directorial debut.

According to Variety, Million wrote the script centered on a beleaguered college professor (Wilson) who competes for tenure with an impressive new female colleague. The Office regular David Koechner co-stars as Wilson's anthropology professor sidekick.

Filming begins in April in Philadelphia.

via movieweb.com

Michelle Rodriguez is set to reprise her role of Letty in Universal Pictures' The Fast and the Furious 4. Also returning for the fourth film are first installment cast members Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster.

According to Universal Pictures, in the anticipated film The Fast and the Furious 4, Brian (Walker) and Dominic (Diesel) team up to help the feds stop a heroin importer known as Braga. Brian - and ultimately Dominic - wins a place on the criminal's team, where he and his flashy Nissan plan to catch the man red-handed.

Rodriguez's credits include Girlfight, Resident Evil, ABC's Lost, and James Cameron's upcoming Avatar.

The Fast and the Furious 4 hits theaters on June 5, 2009.

via movieweb.com

Director Ridley Scott is making a new movie about late President Ronald Reagan's dealings with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

The as-yet-untitled film will reportedly focus on the pair's famous 1986 summit conference that took place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Scott tells the Hollywood Reporter, "I want to show who they were and why they did what they did.

"Their actions helped shape history, paving the way for the end of the Cold War."

And although the American Gangster director has yet to begin casting, he insists "physical resemblance is secondary."

He adds, "It's less about visible appearance, more about the acting. (But) you have to acknowledge the physicality. Reagan was tall and elegant while Gorbachev was stocky, like a front-row rugby player. In some ways, Gorbachev is easier to cast. Reagan is more colorful."

Reagan, the 40th American president, died in 2004 following a decade-long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

via hollywood.com

Warner Bros. Pictures and Columbia Pictures have released new trailers for their upcoming summer comedies, Get Smart and Step Brothers.

You can watch the trailer for Get Smart, the big screen adaptation starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Alan Arkin and Terence Stamp, here! Warner Bros. will release the Peter Segal-directed action-comedy on June 20.

via comingsoon.net