Last year we heard that Angelina Jolie’s next movie would be an untitled Luc Besson thriller set up at Universal. However last month Disney hired Robert Stromberg to direct Maleficent, a live-action take on the wicked fairy godmother who cast the original spell on Sleeping Beauty, and now Jolie has confirmed that will be her next project instead.

From THR:

Jolie, speaking at a crowded news conference Saturday at the Berlin International Film Festival, where her feature directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey is screening out of competition, brought up the project — without directly mentioning a title — when asked about the next step in her career.

“I haven’t acted in two years, and I haven’t done anything else since this [Land of Blood and Honey]. The next thing I am looking at is a Disney movie,” said the actress

Jolie has previously expressed her enthusiasm for the Maleficent script, which has been written by Alice in Wonderland screenwriter Linda Woolverton. While Robert Stromberg hasn’t direct a movie before, he served as production designer on Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and Sam Raimi’s upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful. Stromberg has also worked on visual effects for such films as 2012, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Master and Commander.

Disney is aiming to begin shooting Maleficent sometime this year, so Luc Besson’s thriller will have to wait.

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No, I’m not talking about Twilight. Competing studios have been drooling over Summit’s annual box office haul from the Stephanie Meyer adaptations and are continuing to capitalize on the trend. There are a few more blood sucker projects lined up, and one involves Russell Crowe. Hit the jump for more.

Vulture reports that Crowe is in talks to join Harker, a potential franchise movie centered around a Scotland Yard detective who follows Dracula’s path of murders across England. Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) will direct before he turns his attention back to that pesky live-action adaptation of Akira that WB seems so determined to make.

The other revived project is Dracula: Year Zero, once a Sam Worthington vehicle with Alex Proyas attached to direct. Proyas went to take on Paradise Lost, and we all know how that turned out. Gary Shore is now in the director’s chair, and Worthington is no longer connected, but the movie is still supposed to be an origin story about Vlad the Impaler, who provided the basis for the Dracula myth. Seems like Universal got jealous when they heard about WB’s vampire-related news today, so they released some of their own to stay in the game. This is Hollywood after all, and it’s all about perception.

What about you? Sick of the vamp trend, or can’t wait to sink your teeth into these movies? Sound off in the comments.

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We have four wide releases this weekend, two new, one sequel, and a 3D re-release. Date movie The Vow has the best chances to claim the top spot with Star Wars and Safe House fighting for 2nd place. Sequel Journey 2: The Mysterious Island should come in 4th.

Now we might be in for a strong weekend at the box office but at least according to critics The Phantom Menace is all eye candy with no substance, The Vow is shallow, Safe House is uninspired, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is, and I quote: “aggressively unambitious”. But then again, what do they know, right? Chances are there’s something for everyone this weekend.

The Vow is looking to replicate the success of Dead John, a movie released 2 years ago starring the same Channing Tatum and opening with $30.4 million. Then there’s Rachel McAdams and she’s been in quite a few hits. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I guess couples will boost this to around $30 million, more than enough for the top spot.

For 2nd place I’m split between Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace and Safe House. For Star Wars we have to keep in mind that there’s still a generation out there that grew up with Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars series, one that never experienced Star Wars in theaters. They should be part of the driving force behind The Phantom Menace. Now Safe House stars Denzel Washington and that’s more than enough for an opening north of $20 million. As an added bonus we get Ryan Reynolds in what should be at the very least a cool action flick. I’m thinking both should gross $22-23 million over the weekend.

Journey to the Center of the Earth opened in 2008 with $21 million and went on to gross $101.7 million, becoming one of the surprise hits of that year. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island is the sequel to that flick and while it lacks one Brendan Fraser, it certainly makes up for that with Dwayne Johnson, while Josh Hutcherson acts as the only familiar face returning. Four years ago digital 3D was still a new thing, today it’s everywhere so I can’t see this sequel replicating the success of the original. Maybe $17 million over the weekend, 4th place.

Rounding out the top 5, Chronicle should beat The Woman in Black again with around $11 million for a 10 day total of $38 million. That’s already more than twice the $15 million reported budget.

Next week is Valentine’s Day and Fox brings in the heavy guns with McG’s This Means War, Sony unleash Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, while Disney brings to the states the latest Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) animated flick, The Secret World of Arrietty.

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Looks like yet another fairy tale is getting the big screen treatment. Beauty and the Beast will star Lea Seydoux (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), actors who generally play supporting roles but will now be tasked with carrying an entire film on their shoulders. More on the project after the jump.

For me, this casting is spot-on. Cassel is perfectly capable of playing both suave charm and primal rage, and Seydoux, who made an impression on me with a tiny part in Midnight in Paris, certainly has the “beauty” part taken care of. But the most interesting element of this film isn’t who’s in front of the camera – it’s the guy behind it.

According to Deadline, Christophe Gans will be directing. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, check out a 2001 movie called Brotherhood of the Wolf – it’s an amazingly stylistic piece of cinema that covers a lot of the same ground as Beauty and the Beast, but features a lot of crazy martial arts. It had a great cast: Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Monica Bellucci, and – wait for it – Vincent Cassel. I’m excited to hear that Gans, who has only directed 2006′s Silent Hill in between now and then, is coming back for a project that seems right in his wheelhouse.

Have you seen Brotherhood of the Wolf? What do you think about this cast and director taking on the classic story of Beauty and the Beast?

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Though it seems hard to believe, Alfred Hitchcock only directed one film during his prolific career that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards: 1940′s Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Now the gothic story based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel is getting a remake, courtesy of the folks at DreamWorks.

Variety has the news, and add some more intriguing info: Eastern Promises writer Steven Knight will write this version, using the original book as inspiration. The story follows a “naive young woman who marries a rich widower and settles in his gigantic mansion, only to find that the memory of the first wife maintains a grip on her husband and the servants.”

If Knight – who, by the way, is also working on a draft for Eastern Promises 2 – is using du Maurier’s novel, I doubt we’ll see a Disturbia-esque modern take on the story. I saw Rebecca for the first time last year and it’s got a great sense of unease throughout, so I’d highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t gotten around to it.

Do you think Hitchcock’s filmography should go untouched, or are you OK with a remake like this?

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According to Deadline Paradise Lost, the action epic inspired by John Milton’s 17th Century poem, has been scrapped by the producers after failing to bring the budget down on the VFX-heavy movie. Production was halted in December as the budget surpassed $120 million, making Legendary Pictures reassess the situation. Now the project is said to have been cancelled entirely. For now, anyway.

Alex Proyas (I, Robot) was set to direct the movie which follows Michael (Benjamin Walker), an archangel engaged in an epic battle of good and evil with Lucifer (Bradley Cooper), who mounts an army after after he is cast out of heaven. The Angel of Death (Djimon Hounso) turns his back on The Devil to tell God of Lucifer’s defection, and God’s six-winged messenger Gabriel (Casey Affleck) also joins the fight to defeat The Devil.

The movie would have required over 72 weeks of post-production due to the digital effects involved. There are said to be three epic battles in the story. One that takes place in Heaven, another in Hell, and a third in Eden. It’s unlikely Paradise Lost will move forward “until technological advancements in visual effects bring to a reasonable cost the task of creating a believable depiction of the celestial battles that are at the heart of this film.”

This move in unfortunate as Paradise Lost sounded like an ambitious project, and no doubt the cast and crew will be disappointed. The movie joins Guillermo del Toro’s Mountains of Madness and Ron Howard’s The Dark Tower on the development scrapheap, after studios passed on the adaptations due to the budgets.

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It seems Warner Bros.’ 300 spin-off is having a bit of an identity crisis, starting with the title; originally being called Xerxes, after Frank Miller’s prequel comic by the same name, only to be renamed 300: Battle of Artemisia. But even now, that title isn’t official and may change later on.

As a matter of fact, not even the plot is official. It was originally pegged as a prequel, but that’s now an uncertainty. The current word is that the film is “neither a prequel or a sequel and that the filmmakers are still figuring out its positioning.” So possibly a film taking place at the same time but from a different perspective? Who knows?

Well, today’s news has nothing to do with a title change or plot news, but rather the fact that the first actor is in final negotiations to join the historical epic. According to Variety, that actor is none other than Sullivan Stapleton, most notable for his role in the Australian film Animal Kingdom, as well in the upcoming Gangster Squad.

So who will he play? Well, it was originally speculated that the actor would portray Xerxes – the central antagonist in 300 played by Rodrigo Santaro – but it’s looking likely he’ll play Themistocles, “the famed archon and general who led the Greeks to victory against the invading Persians in 480 BCE”. Regardless to who he will play, Stapleton is in talks to be the main character.

Though not official yet, Eva Green (Casino Royale) is reportedly finalizing a deal to join the film as Artemisa, a fact-based character formulated in Kurt Johnstadt and Zack Snyder’s screenplay. On that note, Snyder is also producing, but is giving up the director’s chair Noam Murro due to the scheduling of Snyder’s Man Of Steel.

Like I stated before, the plot has not yet been confirmed but it may be safe to bet that it might somewhat resemble the plot to Miller’s Xerxes comic:

“This is a more complex story. The story is so much larger. The Spartans in ’300? were being enclosed by the page as the world got smaller. This story has truly vast subjects. The Athenian naval fleet, for instance, is a massive artistic undertaking and it [sic] dwarfed by the Persian fleet, which is also shown in this story. The story has elements of espionage, too, and it’s a sweeping tale with gods and warriors.”

So things may not seem stable or official just yet, it’s still good to see the film actually getting on track and out of production limbo. With that being said, it can almost be certain that the film will take a less stylized, artistic approach than Snyder’s 300, due to the nature of the plot. But, again, hardly anything can be confirmed just yet so take these as just speculations. Considering the prequel/sequel is slated to shoot in summer 2012, confirmations may be coming soon.

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Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol passed the $600 million mark last week and thanks to that it’s now the all time highest grossing spy flick worldwide as well as Tom Cruise’s biggest yet, besting War of the Worlds, unadjusted for inflation. Besides that we have a new French comedy making the rounds, more after the break.

Ghost Protocol was number one again, making this the 5th time since its opening. With $24.3 million last weekend, the spy movie is at $424.3 million internationally and a whopping $629.8 million worldwide. That’s more than the previous biggest spy flick, Casino Royale ($594.2M) and it looks like it can still push a few millions more and probably overtake Kung Fu Panda 2 ($665.7M) to become the 5th highest grosser of 2011 worldwide.

In 2nd place we have French comedy La Verite si je Mens! 3 with $14.7 million. Now as the name suggest, this is the 3rd entry in a series that started back in 1997. I have no idea how much the first one made but I can tell you that according to wikipedia, the 2nd one (2002) sold 7.7 million tickets (that’s actual butts in seats), so quite a lot. For reference, last year’s huge hit Intouchables also opened with $14.7 million but went on to gross $161.1 million in France (2nd ever). Don’t expect this movie to make even a quarter of that freakishly large number.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island was 3rd with $14.1 million for a total of $41.5 million. Now this flick has been slowly lurking around the world for a few weeks now, ahead of its US opening this Friday. As you can see, it’s doing quite well around the world so far.

Found footage superhero flick Chronicle is 4th with an opening of $12.6 million in 32 countries. It’s not going to break any records but it should pull a good $70-80 million internationally for a strong $140 million worldwide by the end of its run, give or take a few millions.

Rounding out the top 5 was Underworld Awakening with $11.5 million which means $58 million internationally, a series best, as well as $109.3 million worldwide, 2nd best behind only Underworld: Evolution‘s with ($111.3M). Awakening should make at least $50 million more around the world before the end of its run, maybe good enough to green light a 5th Underworld flick.

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With around 5 months left of filming, Scottish comedian and actor Billy Connolly is the latest addition to the cast of The Hobbit. Connolly will play Dain Ironfoot, a great dwarf warrior and cousin of Thorin Oakenshield (played by Richard Armitage).

In the press release director Peter Jackson confirmed Connolly will be the final actor to join the films:

“We could not think of a more fitting actor to play Dain Ironfoot, the staunchest and toughest of Dwarves, than Billy Connelly, the Big Yin himself. With Billy stepping into this role, the cast of “The Hobbit” is now complete. We can’t wait to see him on the Battlefield!”

Jackson’s reference to the Battlefield is relevant because Dain Ironfoot is mainly involved in the Battle of Five Armies, so Connelly’s casting suggests they’ll be shooting that soon.

Connolly has appeared in films such as The Last Samurai and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and will be seen later this year in Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut Quartet. He’ll also provide the voice of King Fergus in Pixar’s Brave.

The Hobbit follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild (Richard Armitage). Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is set to open December 14, 2012 and will be followed a year later by The Hobbit: There and Back Again on December 13, 2013.

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In recent years, Hollywood has had quite an obsession with bringing retro cartoons on to the big screen, like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Yogi Bear, Garfield, as well as last year’s The Smurfs, and, like any live-action rendition of a popular cartoon, they don’t really have a great reputation. But despite the poor response they still make money, which in return makes a sequel, which makes even more money; a very common cycle for movies targeting a younger audience and families.

So, of course, when it was revealed that Warner Bros. was intending to make a live-action Jetsons movie, it understandably angered those who grew up with the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon, mostly due to the iconic nostalgia that the original series had and to turn it into a big-budget film would only diminish it.

Now, the project hasn’t really moved much since it was announced, but Variety confirms that Warner Bros. has hired newcomers Evan Susser and Van Robichaux to rewrite the script. The pair have created some buzz with their spec script Chewie, that centers around Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew and his account of making the original Star Wars. The script was originally being penned by Fanboys writer Adam F. Goldberg, who was one of the many writers originally signed on to the project.

So going off both Susser’s and Robichaux’s experience alone, it’s impossible to even guess if the project has the potential to be good or doomed to be the latest laughing stock, but knowing that the producers have been trying to get the project moving for a few years doesn’t sound to promising. The producers, Donald Di Line and Denise Di Novi (who both worked on Green Lantern and Yogi Bear), have had trouble sticking with a director, with both Peter Segal (Get Smart) and Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids) being in talks.

But, the most surprising bit of news here? Kanye West is attached to the project to serve as an unofficial art department supervisor, so this can almost guarantee that the film will be much more than the typical CGI-riddled comedy (maybe). So what do you think? Interested in seeing the Jetsons on the big screen?

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