Looks like Melissa Leo is capitalizing on her Oscar fame to get some more high profile roles. The Best Supporting Actress winner for The Fighter has just signed on to star in Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion opposite Tom Cruise.

In case you’re just joining us, Oblivion is set “in a future where the Earth’s surface has been irradiated beyond recognition and the remnants of humanity live above the clouds, safe from the brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when surface drone repairman Jak discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows.”

Deadline has the report, but they’re not quite sure which role Leo will play in the futuristic thriller. Leo joins a strong cast that also includes Jessica Chastain, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, and “Game of Thrones” star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. It’s fitting that Leo won the Oscar for The Fighter, since both she and co-star Christian Bale are two of the most versatile actors working in the business today. Seriously – if you haven’t seen much of her work yet, give it a shot.

Kosinski is coming off a visual success with TRON: Legacy, and this script is based on a 2009 comic he produced for Radical Publishing. The Departed screenwriter William Monahan wrote a draft of the script, and both Karl Gajdusek and Michael Arndt rewrote the film before it went before the cameras. Production just started, and Oblivion hits theaters on April 26th, 2013.

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After Disney dropped Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion Universal picked up the project, set Tom Cruise to star, and set a July 19, 2013 release date. Now according to Variety the studio has changed the title to Horizons (something Disney considered when it was with them) and they’re now searching for two female leads.

As we’ve come to expect with big budget tentpoles, none of the actresses are above the age of 35 and it’s all very vanilla. The names said to be testing soon include Brit Marling, Olivia Wilde, Jessica Chastain, Noomi Rapace and Olga Kurylenko.

Wilde being considered makes sense since she worked with Kosinski on Tron: Legacy, and Cruise met with Noomi Rapace for Mission Impossible 4 but she decided to appear in Sherlock Holmes 2 instead. Chastain is hot property at the moment after starring in Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life and The Help, while Marling was the breakout star of this year’s Sundance Film Festival having co-written and starred in both Another Earth and Sound of My Voice. Olga Kurylenko is best known for playing Bond girl Camille in Quantum of Solace.

The graphic novel on which the movie is based is set “in a future where the Earth’s surface has been irradiated beyond recognition and the remnants of humanity live above the clouds, safe from the brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when surface drone repairman Jack discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows.”

The two key female characters include Victoria, Jack’s right-hand woman and lover who serves as his eyes and ears while he’s on repair missions, and Julia, his fiancee on Earth before the alien invasion.

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Magnet Releasing has struck a deal with Pathe UK to release Neil Marshall’s Centurion in the US this summer. It will only be a limited release, but at least people will get the chance to see it.

Centurion is set during the war between Roman soldiers and Pict tribesmen during the 2nd century Roman conquest of Britain. Michael Fassbender (300) stars as Quintus Dias, Roman centurion and son of a legendary gladiator who leads a group of soldiers on a raid of a Pict camp to rescue a captured general (Dominic West). The son of the Pict leader is murdered during the raid, and the Romans find themselves hunted by a seemingly unstoppable group of the Pict’s most vicious and skilled warriors, led by a beautiful and deadly tracker (Olga Kurylenko), who are hell bent on revenge.

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Centurion is set in AD 117 and centers on the 9th Legion fighting for their lives behind enemy lines after a devastating guerrilla attack. It’s like 300, only with a winter backdrop and the warriors actually wear armour for protection, not just to look cool in slo-mo shots. The film stars Michael Fassbender (300), Dominic West (300), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) and is directed by Niel Marshall, the man behind The Decent and Doomsday.

Today IGN released the first trailer for the film, and from the opening titles it appears Warner Bros. will be releasing the film; however that may only be in the UK. No US release date has been released as of yet (the cast is full of non-Americans, so if it is released in the US it may only be a limited one).

Centurion will be released in the UK on April 23rd. I’ll post the US release date once (and if) it gets one.

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According to IESB 20th Century Fox have hired Kyle Ward to write Hitman 2. The first film came out in 2007 and starred Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott and a pre-Bond Olga Kurylenko. The critics didn’t like it, but it made $100 million worldwide (not including DVD sales) which was a nice amount considering it was made for around $30 million. No word on whether any of the original cast or director Xavier Gens will return, but the same producers are back.

Here’s a reminder of what the original looked like:

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Two weeks ago we got our first look at Olga Kurylenko in Niel Marshall’s Centurion, and now we have an on-set featurette from Rotten Tomatoes who were invited to the set to see filming take place in Scotland. In the video Niel Marshall talks about the back story behind Centurion and the historical events on which it is based. Nothing major happens but it is still interesting to watch.

[Video from FirstShowing as the Rotten Tomatoes player sucks]

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The last time we saw Olga Kurylenko she was playing a tough cookie Bond girl in Quantum of Solace, and now it appears she will continue that tough cookie streak as she does battle against the Romans in Centurion. The image comes from Empire, who also had a chance to visit the set and talk to director Neil Marshall (Doomsday) and Olga herself.

“Etain is kind of revenge incarnate,” says the writer/director, speaking to Empire exclusively on set. “Her family were butchered by the Romans, she had her tongue cut out by the Romans, she’s had a hell of a time and she’s out for Roman blood.”

“She’s quite furious,” agrees Kurylenko. “Because one sense is not there – she can’t speak – all the others are more developed. She sees very well and hears very well: she is an animal!”

Set in AD 117 Centurion centers on the 9th Legion fighting for their lives behind enemy lines after a devastating guerrilla attack. Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds), Dominic West, and Noel Clarke are among the cast, and the film will be released later this year.

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The reviews are pouring in for Quantum of Solace, and here is a run-down of what most of them are saying:

BBC

It’s a film that feels like the second part of a trilogy, with this being the bleaker second act.

For a lot of the movie Bond is a particularly unsympathetic character, and often it’s only Craig’s performance along with the shifting morality of Bond’s legion of enemies that forces the audience to root for him.

Empire 4/5 Stars

A pacy, visually imaginative follow-up. If it doesn’t even try to be bigger than Casino Royale, that’s perhaps a smart move in that there’s still a sense at the end that Bond’s mission has barely begun and he’ll need a few more movies to work his way up to destroying the apparently undefeatable Quantum organisation. The only real caveat is that while it’s exciting, it’s not exactly anyone’s idea of fun. To keep in the game, perhaps the next movie could let the hero enjoy himself a bit more.

Totalfilm 3/5 stars

The action is loud and proud, but the story feels disjointed and muddled, with some uneven flecks of comedy. Still, Craig’s presence keeps the edges from fraying too far and Forster just about nails the extra levels or artsiness and melancholy.

Times Online 4/5 Stars

The director, Marc Forster, has absorbed the lucrative lessons discovered in Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale. He has also managed to pace his sequel much better. Royale felt slightly wheel-clamped by one too many longeurs. If anything, the crunching chase sequences in Quantum of Solace are even more magnificently dangerous. And the daredevil leaps and tumbles through glass roofs are just as sensational as the splintering high-speed pyrotechnics.

But it’s the amount of heartache and punishment that Craig’s new Bond absorbs that makes him look so right for our times.

Bond is no longer a work in progress. He is now the cruel, finished article.

The Independent 3/5 stars

Quantum Of Solace doesn’t seem like a major entry in the Bond canon. Well under two hours long, it’s shorter and more frenetic than most of its predecessors, and an often-jolting experience to watch. Loose ends about. What it does have, though, above all, is vigour. The franchise hasn’t run out of juice quite yet.

The Guardian 3/5 stars

Quantum of Solace isn’t as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig’s Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action. But the man himself powers this movie; he carries the film: it’s an indefinably difficult task for an actor. Craig measures up.

And while were all ‘Bonded up’ here is an 1 minute long TV spot that is currently being shown on UK TV.

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Below we have a new poster for Quantum of Solace which features Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko who both have a disease that means they have to look in a different direction to the other person at all times.

You can check out a few new images that have appeared online by clicking here!

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Some new images from Quantum of Solace have appeared online, courtesy of DVD-Forum. The images include shots of Daniel Craig surrounded by fire, Gemma Arterton surrounded by bed sheets and Olga Kurylenko surrounded by people carrying her after she died. (She probably isn’t dead, that just me speculating)

You can view more images by clicking here!

Quantum of Solace continues the high octane adventures of James Bond in Casino Royale. Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr White who reveals the organisation which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

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