Kevin Bacon recently joined the cast of director James Gunn’s latest project ‘Super.’ Bacon will star along side Canadian actress Ellen Page — who was nominated for both a best actress Oscar and a best actress Golden Globe for her performance in ‘Juno’ — and Rainn Wilson, best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the American television show, ‘The Office.’ Liv Tyler, who recently played Betty Ross in ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ also plays a major part in the film.

Bacon will play the villain in ‘Super,’ which is currently shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana and is expected to complete production by next month.

According to Screen Daily, Gunn, who made his directorial debut in 2006 with the horror film ‘Slither,’ said “Kevin Bacon is one of the few actors nimble enough to give life to Jacques, our supervillain with a nice streak. We need to love Jacques even while he’s doing horrible things — Kevin is one of the only actors I know who can pull that off.”

Gunn is also the writer of the ‘Super’ script, an action comedy. Bacon’s character is a smooth-talking drug dealer who steals the wife (Tyler) of an average guy (Wilson). To get revenge, Wilson’s character suits up as a superhero who goes by the name Crimson Bolt but has no superpowers. According ETonline, Page will throw on a cape to act as Crimson Bolt’s sidekick.

Thelastreel.com reports that Gunn described his script as a “dark, comedic, gritty, very unusual, and grounded film with love, violence, perseverance, and faith.”

Gunn is familiar with the territory of lesser superheroes. The director, writer, and actor both wrote and starred in, ‘The Specials,’ a 2000 comedy about the sixth or seventh most popular superheroes in the world.

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It’s not usually a good sign.

The ‘Clash of the Titans’ remake is reportedly going through studio enforced reshoots, which often means aspects are seriously problematic. Not to mention, the screen telling of the myth of Perseus is scheduled for release in March and the reshoots are said to be taking place in January. That is cutting it very close. But, according to Total Film, ‘Titans’ star Sam Worthington (also the star of ‘Avatar’) is putting a positive spin on the turn of events.

Speaking at a Los Angeles screening of ‘Avatar’ on Friday night, Worthington said, “We’re going to be going back and shooting more scenes for it. They [Warner Bros] cut loose with some money so we can add to it. We’re going to be shooting more scenes in January, so we’re going to be right up against it – the movie comes out in March.”

Worthington went on to explain, “There were some creaky parts. But they are the parts that we knew were creaky and that we knew were going to be creaky going into it. The studio is also letting us add some gods and scenes. And they’re talking about making the movie a 3D film.”

‘Titans’ also stars Gemma Arterton as Io, Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades.

The 1981 original, on which the remake is based, featured Harry Hamlin, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress and Laurence Olivier. Creators employed stop-motion animation to create the various creatures, including the gorgon Medusa. It was a box office success and the 11th highest grossing film of that year.

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Canadian director David Cronenberg has reportedly recruited Keira Knightley, Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbender for his adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s ‘The Talking Cure.’

The Playlist website says the project has been in the works for a while but that, now that the distribution rights have been bought by an Australian company, real work will likely be getting underway sooner rather later.

A synopsis posted on Playlist reads, “A beautiful young woman, driven mad by her past. An ambitious doctor on a mission to succeed. An esteemed mentor with a revolutionary cure. Let the mind games begin…Hampton’s play follows the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, and their complicated relationships with a brilliant and beautiful patient, Sabina Spielrein.”

‘The Talking Cure’ is a 2002 play by Hampton. The writer won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1988 for the screen adaptation of his play ‘Dangerous Liaisons.’ He was nominated again in 2007 for adapting Ian McEwan’s novel ‘Atonement.’

Cronenberg was reportedly planning a Tom Cruise-Denzel Washington-starrer, ‘The Matarese Circle,’ but The Playist says that project fell apart earlier this year when Cruise chose to star in James Mangold’s ‘Knight & Day’ instead. Cronenberg then turned to an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s ‘Cosmopolis’ which was due to begin in 2010.

It’s not known whether that project is still in the works.

Cronenberg’s most recent films are ‘A History Of Violence’ and ‘Eastern Promises.’

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Movie bosses are on the hunt for Brittany Murphy’s replacement.

The studio behind Murphy’s latest project will go ahead with the film and will find a replacement for the 32-year-old actress, who died suddenly of cardiac arrest on Sunday December 20.

Murphy was to begin work on ‘Shrinking Charlotte,’ a comedy with Kathleen Turner, Matthew Lillard and True Blood’s Sam Trammell. Producer Darren VanCleave reportedly told TMZ.com that they are now looking to recast the part – and are also planning to dedicate the project to Murphy.

Reports continue to emerge about Murphy’s appearance and work ethic in the months prior to her death, with various industry people using complimentary adjectives. This is surely in response to speculation about the state of the actress’s mental and physical state and rumours that she suffered from anorexia nervosa and/or was abusing drugs.

Also, in the weeks before she passed away, Murphy was dogged by rumours about her on-set behaviour and reports that she was difficult and erratic. She was supposedly fired from Sylvester Stallone’s ‘The Expendables’ as well as from the thriller ‘The Caller,’ in which she was replaced by Canadian actress Rachelle Lefevre. There were also rumours that her husband, Simon Monjack, fought with the locals in Puerto Rico.

A rep for Murphy refuted the reports, telling OK! Magazine, “The allegations currently circulating on the Internet about Brittany Murphy and her husband, Simon Monjack, read like a fictional plot from one of the 50 plus movies Ms. Murphy has successfully completed without incident.

“She was not, nor has she ever been, fired from any job big or small. Mr. Monjack did not engage in any alleged scuffles. Though due to creative differences, Ms. Murphy and the production mutually parted ways.”

Murphy had recently completed work on ‘Abandoned,’ in which she plays a women searching for her missing boyfriend. She also wrapped the mystery thriller ‘Something Wicked,’ in which she plays a psychiatrist.

Executive producer of ‘Something Wicked,’ Scott Chambers, told the Los Angeles Times that Murphy appeared frail but that he was impressed with her work ethic. And writer-director of ‘Shrinking Charlotte,’ Rene Eram, told E! News that Murphy was “impressive” and professional, but looked very thin.

Meanwhile, TMZ has obtained details about prescription drugs contained in an investigator’s report on Murphy’s death. The report apparently notes that numerous bottles of prescription medications, ranging from depression and anti-anxiety meds to painkillers, were found at the home where she collapsed. The county coroner’s office is reportedly investigating how TMZ obtained the report.

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When Johnny Knoxville set out to make ‘Jack*ss: The Movie,’ he probably didn’t expect that it would ever enter the third dimension. But Paramount Pictures recently announced that the third Jack*ss instalment will be in 3D.

Knoxville and his crew (including Steve O) will start shooting late January 2010 with D*ckhouse Productions’ Jeff Tremaine directing and producing. Knoxville and Spike Jonze will also co-produce the eye-popping picture.

The Jack*ss films are notorious for their in-your-face comedy. The New York Times announced that ‘Jack*ss: Number Two’ was “debased, infantile and reckless in the extreme, [and that] this compendium of body bravado and malfunction makes for some of the most fearless, liberated and cathartic comedy in modern movies.”

The third film is likely to strike the same note but, with the addition of 3D technology, Paramount is taking Knoxville’s work an octave higher. Knoxville said, “We’re going to take the same 3D technology James Cameron used in Avatar and stick it up Steve O’s butt. We’re taking stupid to a whole new dimension.”

Paramount Pictures has made a healthy habit out of taking on low budget films that yield disproportionate returns. Most recently, ‘Paranormal Activity,’ which had a budget of $15,000, earned over $100,000,000 at the domestic box office alone. With ‘Paranormal Activity,’ Paramount celebrates what is considered one the most profitable films of all time. Comparable, though not as monumental, are the ‘Jack*ss’ movies. Not including DVD sales, the first two — with a combined budget of $17,000,000 — made over $164,000,000 worldwide.

The featured film is expected to hit the big screen in September or October of next year.

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After Bryan Singer mutated out of the ‘X-Men’ franchise for ‘Superman Returns,’ many thought that would be the director’s last involvement with the comic-book film series. But now Singer is at the helm of ‘X-Men: First Class,’ a prequel that explores the early relationship between the leader of the X-Men, Charles Francis Xavier, and his old friend Eric Lensherr, a.k.a., Magneto, a Jewish Holocaust survivor.

Speaking with Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Blog, Singer said, “It’s basically about the formation of the X-Men. How they began and the relationship between a young Xavier and a young Magneto.”

Singer did not divulge too much information, saying the story is “a secret” but “I’ve written a pretty concise treatment. There’s a story that I really want to tell.”

With ‘X-Men Origins: Magneto’ planned for release in 2013, the question of redundancy may be a matter of concern. But Singer told Heat Vision that there is nothing to worry about. “I don’t see an exhaustion. The X-Men universe is boundless. These are great characters. And as young characters, they are quite different than the characters we have seen in the contemporary movies,” he explained.

“This story would probably utilize some of the Magneto story because it deals with a young Magneto, so it might supersede that because this would explore that relationship between a young energetic professor and a disenfranchised victim of the Holocaust.”

Singer is well versed in mutant characters, having directed ‘X-Men’ and ‘X2′ before bailing on ‘X3′ to work on Warner Bros’. ‘Superman’ movie. The director also addressed the question of negative circumstances surrounding his departure from the mutant franchise, saying that such talk was ”comical and exaggerated.”

Singer said, “it’s been about 10 years since the first ‘X-Men,’ and this is a nice opportunity to look back at the origins of that universe.”

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If you thought the case was closed on the ‘Spy Kids’ movie series, think again.  It’s not Game Over, but it will be 3-D.

Director Robert Rodriguez has confirmed that his production company, Troublemaker Studios, is reopening the ‘Spy Kids’ file for a fourth instalment. The studio initially planned to end the set as a trilogy but now the director of ‘Sin City’ and ‘Planet Terror’ says he’s going back to the family fare and working on a fourth addition, that will be three dimensional.

Rodriguez said to IESB in an interview, “I had an idea for [a third sequel]. I even went back and pulled off my old original first script and found some ideas that I couldn’t bring to life back then; I was like ‘Wow these are good ideas.’ So they get to finally come back up.”

‘Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over’ was released in 2003 and the young actors (Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega) who played the lead roles are now 18 and 21 years old. The actors have outgrown their characters and so Rodriguez said they will not reprise their roles.

“It’s different kids not the old kids,” the filmmaker said. But Rodriguez did not comment on his suspects for the roles of Juni and Carmen Cortez in the fourth ‘Kids’ flick.

Considering Rodriguez is also planning to get ‘Sin City 2′ — the script for which has been shelved since 2007 — up and running next year, the filmmaker and CEO will obviously by keeping busy.

“I’d probably do [Spy Kids] in the early part of next year March or April,” Rodriguez said.

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The ‘21 Jump Street’ movie is slowly moving along. And now it appears that Columbia Pictures may have found a couple of directors. Variety says the studio is negotiating with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the team behind the successful animated film, ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.’ The pair is also known for the animated series ‘Clone High,’ which ran for one season on MTV and Teletoon.

‘21 Jump Street’ was the cop drama that helped launched the career of actor Johnny Depp. It was an early hit for Fox and ran for five seasons from 1987-1991.

The show centered on young police detectives working undercover in high schools and colleges, uncovering crime, setting the kids straight and ostensibly preventing them from becoming career criminals. Many of the episodes ended with public service announcements about the particular issues addressed (alcohol, drugs).

The story for the film was devised by Mike Bacall, who wrote the screenplay, and Jonah Hill, who will star. Jonah Hill is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Seth in ‘Superbad,’ directed by Greg Mottola and produced by Judd Apatow. He has also featured in ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall.’

As such, one can probably assume that the movie adaptation of ‘21 Jump Street’ will have comedic leanings.

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James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ topped the box office over the weekend, to no one’s surprise, taking in $77million domestically and $232million worldwide.

The Alien world presented in 3-D and IMAX took Cameron years to bring to the big screen. And he plans to make a trilogy out of it. Cameron talked about his plans with MTV News, saying, “I have a trilogy-scaled arc of story right now, but I haven’t really put any serious work into writing a script.”

But MTV says the next two films won’t require the four years of production time it took to perfect Avatar’s motion-capture technology and computer-generated environments and beings. “Part of what we set out to do is create a world and create these characters,” Cameron said. “From the time we capture and finish the capture, it’s literally nine to 10 months to get the CG characters working, to get their facial musculature working. … So now we have Jake, we have Neytiri. Sam can step right back into it, the characters will fit them like a glove, and we’ll just go on. So a lot of the start-up torque that had to be done for one movie really makes more sense if you play it out across several films.”

The ‘Titanic’ and ‘The Abyss’ director went on to explain, “My next goal is to refine the technique, make it easier so it doesn’t take as long. We were doing a lot of pioneering work on ‘Avatar.’ It wouldn’t have taken as long if we already knew exactly how to do it.”

MTV says the second ‘Avatar’ won’t be Cameron’s next project, however, and has speculated that, among the possibilities are ‘Forbidden Planet’ and ‘Battle Angel Alita,’ an adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s popular manga.

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The Marvin the Martian movie was announced in 2008 and will finally land on Earth Christmas 2011. The L.A. Times reports that producers are probing lists of actors to find the voice of Bugs Bunny’s alien nemesis, and that Canadian-born Mike Myers’ name keeps sky rocketing to the top of their list. Myers, who lent his talents to the lead character in DreamWorks’ successful ‘Shrek’ series, is considered a top contender.

The planned Christmas release fits well with plot details. The CG/live action hybrid will take off with Marvin buzzing to Earth with intentions to destroy Christmas. But, the miniature Martian gets trapped in a gift box, thwarting his plans for an Earth-shattering kaboom.

The film will not be Marvin’s first appearance in a Holiday-themed picture. He also starred in Looney Tunes’ 2006 ‘A Christmas Carol, Bah, Humduck!’ as an employee of Daffy Duck. Daffy would not allow the homesick Marvin to take time off during the holiday season to visit Mars, his home-planet. After Daffy is visited by Christmas ghosts; however, he sees the light and gives Marvin a rocket ship so fast it can deliver Marvin to Mars in time for the yuletide.

Filmmakers are trying to get visual work underway in 2010. Further production details are still scarce. According to The L.A. Times, Warner Brothers, in collaboration with Alcon Entertainment, has only recently delegated central cast and crew tasks. Up and coming director Alex Zamm (‘Inspector Gadget 2′) was named captain of the ‘Martian’ spaceship while veteran television writers Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgove (‘Spin City’) have been selected to create the Looney script.

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