Prequels, Sequels & Remakes

Guillermo del Toro has finally signed on for The Hobbit movie and a sequel, with Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis, red tape pending, reprising their Rings roles. The sequel will cover the 60 year gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He’ll shoot them back to back, moving to New Zealand for four to work with Peter Jackson, Wingnut, and Weta. del Toro will finish his current projects, and there’s no scripts or production dates yet. New Line will oversee development, with Warner Brothers distributing domestically and MGM internationally. TheOneRing.net has an interview with the director.

Moon Bloodgood will play the female lead, a hardened member of the resistance, in Terminator 4. Also, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on appearing: "I've never had a dialogue with anyone about it. But if they shoot the movie in California, I would (be a part of it), yes."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I has a November 19, 2010 release date.

Michael Bay says he will have a misinformation campaign in full swing for Transformers 2.

Complete official synopsis from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Ayelet Zurer will play the female lead in Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code prequel Angels & Demons. Ewan McGregor is also in talks.

Neil Brown Jr. and Mirtha Michelle have been cast in Fast and the Furious 4, working title Fast and Furious.

Another remake of a horror film. *sigh* This time Fox is going back to Brian De Palma’s 1978 adaptation of John Farris’ novel The Fury. Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman will write the “contemporary reimagining” about a young man taken by the government so they can exploit his kinetic abilities. The Amy Irving role in the original will be changed to that of a young man.

Nana Visitor will play Mrs. Voorhees in the Friday the 13th, Ryan Hansen has also been cast in the remake.

A couple of years ago Quentin Tarantino talked about two companion anime films to Kill Bill, one for The Bride and one for Bill. According to Uma Thurman, "Right now [Tarantino]'s putting the two films together with an intermission with an added anime sequence he had already written. So additional stories are in there, in animation.”

Doug Jones says that any Silver Surfer movie is still a rumor right now. "As it stands with a franchise-type character like that, I did sign a three-picture deal, so I have two more pictures where they have the option to use me, and I hope they do. I've heard the same rumors about J. Michael Straczynski writing a script, and I hope that's true. Let's hope we see the Silver Surfer in his own movie real soon."

Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures Thomas Tull "hopes to invoke more of the image of 'an angry god'" with the next Superman movie.

Guillermo del Toro says, that depending on how the second one does, he’d like to make a third Hellboy movie, but he, “would really make sure that we at least sign a contract that there is no more. No prequels and no sequels: nothing. If that happens, then there is a third one we have planned, and the seeds are planted in this film."