After making over $350 million worldwide back in 2010 Columbia hired Kung Fu Panda writers Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff to get started on a sequel to The Karate Kid. Little has been heard since, but now according to Variety Zak Penn has been hired for rewrites which suggests the sequel is still moving forward.

Penn is credited as writing Elektra, X-Men: The Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk, and most recently worked on a Dirty Dozen remake.

While Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan aren’t signed for the sequel they are expected to return. Will Smith will return as producer. No word on the involvement of director Harald Zwart, although given the critical and commercial success of The Karate Kid one would expect him to be considered again.

In 2010 Zwart said he would like to see the next film explore an all-new story rather than follow in the footsteps of the two sequels from the 80s. “I personally think it’s now so much on its own two feet, given the success, that it would be interesting to see where we could take it without ever thinking about the old ones.”

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Forget Groundhog Day – call it Russell Crowe Day. Following the announcement that Darren Aronofsky wants Russell Crowe to play Noah in his upcoming Biblical epic, we’ve got a few more tidbits of news regarding the Academy Award-winning actor.

Variety’s Jeff Sneider tweeted the following last night:

Sure, Russell Crowe, MIGHT star in Aronofsky’s NOAH… but do you know what else he MIGHT star in? Three words: Ro. Bo. Cop. #FloatThisBoat

Again, not a huge confirmation, but something to keep in mind as the movie, set to be directed by Jose Padilha (Elite Squad: The Enemy Within), comes together over the next few months before it starts shooting this summer.

Also, Akiva Goldsman – best known as the writer of the godawful Batman & Robin, but who has also produced things like Mr. and Mrs. Smith and I Am Legend - is set to make his directorial debut on a movie called Winter’s Tale. Vulture says (via The Playlist) that Goldsman’s adaptation of the 1983 novel had previously stalled, but has now gained considerable momentum with the addition of (guess who?) Russell Crowe and Will Smith in supporting roles. The story sounds pretty interesting:

New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake–orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.

Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.

Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and beseiged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.

Crowe is in talks to play Pearly Somes, a gangster set on killing the burglar, while Smith would play a judge. So go forth everyone, and Happy Russell Crowe Day.

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Columbia has unveiled the first teaser trailer for Men in Black 3 which reunites Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as Agent J and Agent K, members of a top-secret organization established to monitor and police alien activity on Earth.

The trailer doesn’t show us anything we haven’t seen before, but it introduces us to the time-travelling storyline and we get a brief glimpse at Josh Brolin as the younger Agent K.

Watch below:

In Men in Black 3, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back… in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him — secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

The film is directed by Barry Sonnenfeld who was behind the first two movies, and also stars Emma Thompson as Agent Oh, who is head of MIB in the present day but will be seen as a secretary in 1969 (portrayed by Alice Eve), and Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords who will play the villain.

Men in Black 3 will be released May 25, 2012.

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M. Night Shyamalan’s movies may have decreased in quality over recent years but that hasn’t stopped Will Smith from teaming up with the director for 1000 A.E., a sci-fi/action movie which will also star Will’s son Jaden (The Karate Kid).

With filming set to begin early next year M. Night and Columbia’s are filling out the cast, and according to Heat Vision Zoe Kravitz and Sophie Okonedo are in talks to complete the on-screen family.

In the movie humans no longer live on Earth after it becomes inhospitable. Will Smith is playing a hero, while Jaden plays his son who is considered a failure as a warrior. When the two crash-land on Earth, it is up to the son to save the dad. If deals are struck Zoe Kravitz (last seen as Angel Salvadore in X-Men: First Class) will play Will Smith’s daughter, while Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda, The Secret Life of Bees) will play his wife.

Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana) was recently brought on to re-write the script, and the studio is aiming for a June 2013 release.

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Over recent years Roland Emmerich has been gearing up not one but two sequels to Independence Day, the 1996 movie which made $800m worldwide. Back in 2009 it was a case of money, with 20th Century Fox reluctant to give Will Smith and Emmerich a big piece of the pie (an upfront fee and then a % of the profits).

Now Vulture brings word that Emmerich and screenwriting partner Dean Devlin are putting the finishing touches to the two scripts, and “they’re expected to be delivered to Fox by early to mid-December”. The site has also heard “Fox is willing to make the movies without Smith” if a deal can’t be made.

Last year Emmerich hinted that Smith would have an important role the films, saying:

“It’s an alternate reality kind of movie,” he said. “We pick up the story, what would have happened after this kind of attack? Naturally, the alien technology has changed everything.”

“Did they rebuild the White House? Who will be president? “Or, who will be president?” Emmerich answered. “Who will be president? See?”

Yep, if Will signs he’ll most likely be playing President Stephen Hiller, instead of Captain. Vulture points out that Smith doesn’t have his next movie completely locked as One Thousand A.E., which has M. Night Shyamalan directing and his son Jaden Smith co-starring, is “going extra-slow on preproduction”. This increases the likelihood of Smith returning for the Independence Day sequels, but the key factor will probably be $$$.

Fox could make the movies without him and introduce new leads. The success of Roland’s 2012 and the Transformers franchise is evidence that you don’t need big stars if you’re just causing destruction, but having Smith involved would help getting audiences on-board.

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Christoph Waltz is in, Leonardo DiCaprio might be, and nobody knows yet whether Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Idris Elba or another actor will take the role of Django, but what’s more certain is the release date.

According to Box Office Mojo Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained has been given a release date of December 25, 2012. Filming is scheduled to begin later this year, so all Tarantino needs to do is get the cast in place.

Here’s the synopsis for the movie (potential spoilers):

Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (played by Christopher Waltz the evil Nazi officer in Inglorious Basterds) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner.

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Last week there was speculation this was the case, and now Deadline has word that Leonardo DiCaprio is indeed in early talks for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

Apparently DiCaprio is being courted to play a charming but ruthless proprietor of Candyland, a despicable club in Mississippi where female slaves are exploited as sex objects and males are pitted against each other in “mandingo” style death matches. Candie is a slave’s worst nightmare and the freed slave Django must cross him in order to reclaim his wife.

Will Smith was previously reported to be in talks to play Django, a slave who is liberated and taught the tricks of the trade by a German dentist-turned-bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz), however it doesn’t look like Smith will be appearing in the film at this point. Deadline says other names such as Idris Elba, Jamie Foxx and Chris Tucker are also being looked at. Tucker hasn’t appeared in a film since Rush Hour 3 in 2007, but he previously worked with Tarantino on Jackie Brown (1997), so he must still be on the director’s mind. Getting Leonardo DiCaprio would mean the actor playing Django wouldn’t need to be a big box office draw like Smith, so getting someone like Idris Elba would be a good move.

Filming is expected to begin later this year, so these talks may conclude shortly and we should get some official casting announcements.

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You may have read elsewhere about Idris Elba’s mid-flight tweets on the way to a meeting about an upcoming part for a controversial director. The internet mulled it over and decided that he may have been talking about Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. While it has been reported that Will Smith is a strong favourite for the part, he may never finish filming on Men In Black 3, so old Quentin may be looking elsewhere.

Now we have a further casting rumour to add to the Django Unchained pile. This time the Twitterer is Q&A podcast’s Jeff Goldsmith, who has been on the right track in the past, and says that Leonardo DiCaprio may be taking the part of Calvin Candie, the slave trader and villain of the piece.

Of course Tarantino has been wanting to work with DiCaprio for a while now, previously tapping him up to take the part of the Jew Hunter in Inglorious Basterds, of course in the end memorably played by Christophe Waltz.

Here’s the synopsis for Django Unchained (potential spoilers):

Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (played by Christopher Waltz the evil Nazi officer in Inglorious Basterds) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner.

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Late last week we heard Quentin Tarantino wanted Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz to appear in his next film Django Unchained, which follows a former slave who tries to save his wife from an evil plantation owner. Now Deadline reports that following meetings with most studios Tarantino wants Sony to co-finance and distribute overseas (The Weinstein Company already have US rights).

This could be a sign Will Smith is close to officially signing on, although apparently Smith is still deciding whether to play the lead, so it could be a tactic from Tarantino to get the actor whose production company is based as Sony.

Further casting is currently under-way, and the aim is to begin filming later this year for a 2012 release. Here’s the synopsis for Django Unchained (potential spoilers):

Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (played by Christopher Waltz the evil Nazi officer in Inglorious Basterds) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner.

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Earlier this week we heard that Quentin Tarantino had handed in the script for his next movie, Django Unchained, to The Weinstein Company. No start or release dates have been set, but casting is now under-way as Tarantino apparently wants Will ‘aw hell naw’ Smith to play the lead role in the film.

From THR:

Will Smith has emerged as the frontrunner to star in Quentin Tarantino’s next film, a spaghetti Western about a slave in the Old South who teams with a German bounty hunter to search for his wife. Tarantino stalwarts Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz also are circling key parts.

Sources say Tarantino would like Smith to star in the film, the script for which has been making the rounds in recent days to wide acclaim. No official offer has been made to Smith, and any deal would of course be subject to working out finacials, which might be difficult given Smith’s status as one of Hollywood’s few sure-thing stars.

Meanwhile Variety says “Smith would be willing to give up his usual $20 million salary for the chance to tackle different, more controversial material”, so it’s certainly a possibility. The trade also mentions Quentin originally wrote the role of Dr. Schultz for Leonardo DiCaprio, but the actor passed, so he decided to re-team with Waltz instead. Brad Pitt was also said to have been offered “one of the numerous juicy supporting roles”, but Pitt obviously wasn’t interested (not when he can be leading other films).

Quentin Tarantino + Will Smith + Samuel L. Jackson + Christoph Waltz is certainly a winning combination. Hopefully we get confirmation of their involvement soon, and details on the other cast members.

Here’s the synopsis for Django Unchained (potential spoilers):

Django is a freed slave, who, under the tutelage of a German bounty hunter (played by Christopher Waltz the evil Nazi officer in Inglorious Basterds) becomes a bad-ass bounty hunter himself, and after assisting Waltz in taking down some bad guys for profit, is helped by Waltz in tracking down his slave wife and liberating her from an evil plantation owner.

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