Ian McKellen Confirms Return as Gandalf, Says Bilbo Cast

SlashFilm.com reports that Sir Ian McKellen caused some waves this weekend when he appeared in London to introduce a marathon screening of all three extended editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  While speaking to the audience, McKellen announced that he will indeed be reprising his role as Gandalf for The Hobbit films.  Even more surprisingly, McKellen said that the pivotal role of Bilbo Baggins has been cast, that he knows who has been chosen and "he's sure that the fans will be very, very pleased." 

Considering that exactly one month ago at Comic-Con Peter Jackson himself was saying that they weren't yet far along enough in the process to offer roles to anyone, it will be interesting to see if this news will soon be confirmed with a formal announcement.

Click here to watch a video clip of Peter Jackson's Hobbit update at Comic-Con in July. [/film]

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New Feature on Peter Jackson and District 9

The Wall Street Journal has published a really interesting feature story on Peter Jackson, his burgeoning "movie making empire" based in New Zealand and the upcoming sci-fi action movie District 9, which Jackson produced and financed.

I didn't have enough time to do a complete write-up on the District 9 footage that was screened at Comic-Con last month and the panel, but I'm finding a surprising disconnect between the trailers and what was shown at the con.  If I was trying to decide to see the film strictly off of the trailers, I'd pass because it looks like a pretty standard alien invasion action flick with a lot of explosions.  While I love movies in which lots of things blow up, District 9 didn't look like anything I hadn't seen before.

After seeing the footage at Comic-Con though, I was surprised to find out that the driving storyline is really that of a human (Sharlto Copley) who's a petty government bureaucrat/spokesman who's infected with a mysterious substance while rooting through an alien's home in District 9.  As he begins to turn into one of the aliens and the government realizes that he's the key to them being able to use and eventually replicate the aliens' advanced weapons, the mutating human has to run for his life.  Now that, combined with the idea of aliens who are refugees on our planet, is a movie I want to go see.  The political and social parallels alone make the movie, which opens in theaters tomorrow, seem intriguing.

Check out one of our high-definition video clips from the District 9 panel at San Diego Comic-Con below.  Visit our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/popwenches to view more two additional clips from the panel—one of them is more than 7.5 minutes long!

[Wall Street Journal]

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First Trailer for Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones Released Today

The first trailer for The Lovely Bones, the newest film from the team of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, can now be viewed online.

The big screen adaptation of the best-selling novel by Alice Sebold tells the story of a young teenage girl, Susie Salmon, who is brutally attacked and murdered. Salmon then watches from heaven as her family struggles to cope in the aftermath of her death and her killer continues to evade justice.

The Lovely Bones boasts an award-winning, star-studded cast including Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) as Susie Salmon, along with Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci. The film opens in the US on December 11, 2009.  A complete list of international release dates is available here.

Click here to view the new trailer for The Lovely Bones with a brief introduction from Peter Jackson.

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Comic-Con 2009 Update - Peter Jackson on The Hobbit

Enjoy this video clip with an update from the man himself in his first-ever Comic-Con appearance!

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Film News: Green Hornet casting news, Harry Potter sets Imax record

- Nicolas Cage is participating in early talks with Columbia Pictures — Cage could be playing the villain in the upcoming The Green Hornet. Meanwhile, Cameron Diaz is in negotiations to play a reporter and love interest. The movie, which will star Seth Rogen, is supposed to come out next summer. [Variety]

- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set an international opening Imax results. An estimated $3.6 million came in from 62 theaters from Wednesday through Sunday. The film opened in three US locations (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) where it made $429,000 in gross box office. The film will open in 161 additional domestic locations on July 29. It will eventually play in 231 Imax theaters throughout the globe. [Hollywood Reporter]

- Diablo Cody's latest, the horror-comedy Jennifer's Body, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The festival opens Sept. 10. [Movieline]

- Russell Crowe could reprise the role of Jack Aubrey in another Master & Commander flick. The actor confirmed that a script has been written, but talks are at a very early stage. [Journal Gazette]

- Could David Tennant, aka the 10th Doctor from the UK's Doctor Who, be playing Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit? That's the rumor for now. We'll probably get our answer once Comic-Con is under way — Tennant will be attending, and it's also expected that producer Peter Jackson will announce his choice for the role when he attends as well. [Telegraph]

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Film News: Bruno Crashes Into MTV Movie Awards, Another Alien in the Pipeline

- The MTV Movie Awards were held Sunday night, with sparkly vampire flick Twilight raking in a slew of awards including Best Movie, Best Female Performance (for actress Kristen Stewart), Breakthrough Performance - Male (for actor Robert Pattinson), Best Kiss and Best Fight. High School Musical actors took home two awards: Breakthrough Performance - Female (Ashley Tisdale) and Best Male Performance (Zac Efron). The biggest moment of the night however, was Sacha Baron Cohen (in character as gay fashionista Bruno) dive bombing straight into Eminem's lap while wearing chaps . . . and nothing underneath them. Needless to say, the following clip is NSFW. [MTV.com]

- Tony Scott, brother of Alien director Ridley Scott, has confirmed that 20th Century Fox is making a prequel to the 1979 sci-fi horror classic. In an interview with Collider website after the junket for his new film The Taking of Pelham 123, Tony Scott named Carl Rinsch as the new director and said that he hopes shooting on the film will begin by the end of the year. And that sound you hear? I'm pretty sure it's Pop Wench Joia railing at the heavens against this news . . . [Collider.com]

- Angelina Jolie was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure on Friday after suffering a slight injury while filming an action sequence. The brief hospital examination Jolie received after suffering a bump to the head did not hold up production on the upcoming action thriller Salt for long. Columbia Pictures' spokesman said that the actress was back on the set on Friday and filming resumed later that day. [Associated Press via Yahoo! News]

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- Steven Spielberg's 3-D motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has been slated for a December 23, 2011 US release by Paramount and Sony studios. The 2011 Tintin movie is intended to be the first of a series produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) will star as the young, world-traveling reporter Tintin. Daniel Craig (playing nemesis Red Rackham), Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg costar. [Hollywood Reporter]

- A few days after Paul Verhoeven signed on to direct The Surrogate, it's been announced that Oscar-winner Halle Berry is in talks to topline the thriller. Berry would be one-half of a couple "who hire a surrogate to carry their child and fnd out mid-term that the surrogate is insane." [Variety]

- Natalie Portman has joined the cast of Your Highness alongside Danny McBride and James Franco. Portman plays a warrior princess and McBride's romantic interest in the film, which "centers on an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) who must complete a quest to save his father's kingdom. Franco plays the prince's "more heroic" brother. [Hollywood Reporter]

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