Now that it’s been a few years since Justin Timberlake brought sexy back (and thank God he did,) the former *N Sync-er has been working on expanding his Hollywood career as an actor.

After a slow buildup in such films as Alpha Dog, Southland Tales, Black Snake Moan and The Love Guru (okay, that one was a mistake) JT is now in line to make his biggest move yet to movie stardom.

The Like I Love You singer is playing it smart and covering all the bases, appearing in the upcoming The Social Network – David Fincher’s exploration of the origins of Facebook – as well as the family friendly live-action/CGI comedy Yogi Bear.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Timberlake is now on the brink of signing on to his biggest role to date, as he is in talks to take the lead role in the sci-fi blockbuster I’m.mortal.

EW reports that New Regency and 20th Century Fox have been meeting with the pop star about the project, which is “one of the most sought-after sci-fi projects in the marketplace today.”

To be written and directed by Gattaca filmmaker Andrew Nichol, the story is about a future earth in which no one gets old and nothing is more valuable than time. Timberlake would play a poor man falsely accused of murdering a rich man for his time.

Mamma Mia! star Amanda Seyfried has already signed on to play a rich girl JT’s potential character kidnaps while on the lam.

Timberlake’s people are keeping quiet, refusing to confirm or deny the speculation. Shooting is scheduled to begin in just a couple of months however, so we should know something soon.

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Over the course of his long career, Sylvester Stallone has made ten films that feature either Rocky or Rambo, his two most popular characters. Even though the actor has claimed at various times to have retired both the boxer and the soldier of fortune, for some reason the brawny brawlers keep coming back.

Now, while promoting his brand new macho extravaganza The Expendables, the 64-year-old actor has admitted he finds the idea of yet another Rambo film “intriguing.” This time, however, with a twist.

When last we saw John Rambo, he was older and more reticent than he’d been in the past. But what has Stallone interested now is the idea of a prequel, in which the early years of the tough guy are revealed.

While participating in an online Q&A with readers of the website Ain’t It Cool News, Stallone was asked his thoughts on shooting a Rambo movie with a younger actor in the lead.

“I certainly think this is worth pondering because it’s intriguing to find the whys and wherefores of how people have come to become what they are,” says the star. “The traumas, the loss and the tragedy of being in Vietnam would certainly be a great challenge for a young actor and it would be ironic that Rambo directs younger Rambo after having played it for 20 plus years.”

There’s nothing more set in stone than that, but the idea has promise. If The Expendables surpasses expectations to become one of the biggest hits of the summer, Hollywood’s recent love for reinvention may lead Stallone to the director’s chair.

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Poor M. Night Shyamalan.

The Last Airbender director started off his filmmaking career with the kind of success that can be hard to top. When The Sixth Sense debuted in 1999, it shocked and delighted crowds, made almost $700 million at the box office and was nominated at the Oscars for Best Picture.

But ever since, Shyamalan has struggled to reconnect with audiences and critics, as films such as Signs, The Village and The Happening have drawn as many jeers as cheers.

Faced with staggeringly bad reviews for Airbender, Shyamalan has found himself on the defensive, lashing out at critics and suggesting that he’s being unfairly picked on by the critical elite.

Now the director claims to have figured out why critics give him such a hard time. According to an interview Shyamalan gave to Britain’s Total Film magazine, it’s because he suffers from the same fate as retired basketball legend Michael Jordan.

“Look, I loved Michael Jordan, right?” Shyamalan says. “He was my favourite basketball player. When I used to watch him at Madison Square Garden there would be 25,000 people booing every time that he touched the ball, screaming abuse at him. And it was because the entire stadium was there to see him be spectacular. They were like, ‘I don’t want you to disappoint me or hurt me.’”

Shyamalan says the public’s reaction to him is the same. “I’m no Michael Jordan but maybe I get a little of that… Reviews of my movies often spend a lot of the time talking about me, not the movie!”

Despite the harsh criticism, The Last Airbender has grossed over $150 million at the global box office.

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For the past couple of years it’s seemed as though the quickest way to get a green light in Hollywood has been to base your project on a hit flick or TV show from the 1980s. But the question has always been, what happens when that well runs dry?

We may be getting our first clue from today’s news about Columbia Studio’s plans to remake the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi hit Total Recall, which was originally released in 1990. That’s right kids, it’s time to break out the flannel because 90s retro is here.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman is in talks to direct the remake. Based on the Philip K. Dick story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, the original picture was directed by Paul Verhoeven.

The story, you’ll recall, is about a man who dreams of traveling to Mars, goes to Mars and ends up leading an insurrection in a Martian colony. It’s basically Arnie Goes To Mars.

OR DOES HE? The great thing about the movie was that, much like current blockbuster Inception, audiences had a tough time figuring out which part of the movie was “real” and which part was just a dream.

Scribe Kurt Wimmer is hard at work on the script as we speak, but no star is yet attached to the project. In addition to helming the last of the Die Hard flicks, Wiseman also wrote, directed and produced the Underworld series of vampire versus werewolf movies.

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The bad news continues to pile up for Mel Gibson. Even as the former Sexiest Man Alive weathers a tidal wave of bad publicity, the actor still hopes to maintain his directing career.

But that’s going to be a challenge for the Lethal Weapon star if his peers in Hollywood decide to keep their distance from both him and his scandals. And it looks like that might be what’s happening.

Throughout the controversy surrounding tape recordings that appear to capture Gibson using racist and sexist language while threatening physical violence against his ex-girlfriend, the Passion of the Christ director has continued to develop an epic movie he hoped to shoot about Norse Vikings.

Leonardo DiCaprio had been slated to lead the cast of the seafaring drama, but now it appears the Inception star may be the first to jump ship.

Radar Online claims to have spoken to an inside source who has confirmed that Leo is backing out of any commitments he may have made to work with Gibson. “Not a chance,” said the source when asked if DiCaprio was still considering the film.

The insider continued, “Leo has earned the right to pick and choose who he works with and Mel Gibson is not one of them.”

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