Del Toro, Henson Team for Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro and The Jim Henson Company have joined forces with Pathe to develop and produce a 3D stop motion animated version of Pinocchio based on the edition of Carlo Collodi's classic tale illustrated by Gris Grimly. Grimly will co-direct with Mark Gustafson (Animation Director on The Fantastic Mr. Fox. The team plans to move forward with production of the film later in 2011.

In this new version of one of the world's best-loved tales, the puppet Pinocchio embarks on a series of extraordinary and thrilling adventures, proving himself to be as indestructible as his love for his father.

Del Toro and his frequent collaborator Matthew Robbins have been developing the screen story over the past year, and Robbins wrote the screenplay. Del Toro will produce with Lisa Henson and Jason Lust of The Jim Henson Company and Allison Abbate (The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie). Gary Ungar will serve as executive producer, as will Francois Ivernel and Cameron McCracken for Pathe. Veteran rock musician and film composer Nick Cave will serve as music consultant for the production.

The team will develop the puppets and other 3D elements with UK-based MacKinnon and Saunders, which has performed the same duties on The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie.

"I believe that our tale of Pinocchio recaptures the darker, more daunting aspects of the book that have been missing from previous film incarnations and takes advantage of all the allegorical aspects of the tale. Gris and Mark have a clear vision of this world. Matthew, the directors and I have constructed an adaptation that I feel enormously proud of," said Guillermo Del Toro.

"Stop motion animation will be a new style of telling this well-known tale, a hand-crafted style with which we were eager to work since it requires a high level of artistry and craftsmanship that is similar to the work of The Jim Henson Company," said Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company.

"There is a perfect match between the visionary world of Guillermo, the story of Pinocchio and Gris' wonderful illustrations. The talent and experience of the Henson team will ensure that Gris, Mark and Guillermo's vision comes to life in the most thrilling way," said Francois Ivernel, Executive Vice-President, Pathe.

The Exorcism of Ghost Rider

Nicolas Cage has been talking up his role in the forthcoming Ghost Rider reboot, and it sounds like exorcism will play a part in the film.

Speaking to FearNet while promoting his latest film, Drive Angry 3D, Cage revealed that he will play dual roles in one particular Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance sequence.

"There's an exorcism scene I just did where Johnny Blaze is being exorcised" he explained. "And then I also play Ghost Rider, who's the spirit if Zarathos, who's a corrupted angel. So it's like completely different entities."

He continued "The movie is not like anything I've done before. It's completely original. I think it's a really high adrenaline ride. And I think you'll see things in it that are mysterious as well."

Sounds intriguing, though we'll have to wait until next February to find out if Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is an improvement on the original.

Possible Major League Return?

Charlie Sheen could be set to return to the big-screen as Ricky 'Wild Thing' Vaughn in a proposed Major League sequel.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, David S. Ward - writer-director of the original - has turned in a script that would reunite cast members Wesley Snipes, Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert and Sheen. Snipes and Haysbert would play coaches to a new batch of players who could potentially reboot the franchise.

Explains Ward "It's 20 years later and Charlie's character has been out of baseball since he gave up the walk-off homerun in the seventh game of the World Series. But the team wants him back to mentor this young fire-balling relief pitcher."

The project still has several hurdles ahead, with Snipes currently serving time in prison for tax evasion as well as Sheen's well-documented recent run-ins with the law.

However Ward says he is confident of snagging the latter, claiming "Charlie is interested in doing it. We're taking the first steps on it. Now it's just a matter of putting the movie together in the timeframe we have. Charlie has a window coming up."

He added "There is no movie without Wild Thing."

Donnie Darko Director's Next

Corpus Christi, the new thriller from Darko Entertainment to be produced by respected industry veterans Eli Roth, Sean McKittrick and Richard Kelly, has finally come into its own with the announcement that the project has a director: none other than Kelly, one of the partners at Darko Entertainment itself, who also penned the script for the modern era thriller. Oh, and he's also the guy who made Donnie Darko.

The film revolves around the contemporary story of Paciencia "Patience" De La Rosa, a mentally unstable individual who served time in the Iraq war, as he adjusts to coming back to the world he knows by befriending his boss, the owner of a large grocery store chain who's looking to become a politician.

More information on Corpus Christi will be divulged within the next month, as the complete cast of both leads and supporting ensemble will be unveiled sometime in March. The film certainly has promise, so it should be interesting to see exactly who is picked out of the crowd to tackle the thriller.

Kevin Costner rumoured for role in new Superman movie

Oscar-winning actor-filmmaker Kevin Costner is reportedly being courted for a role in the next Superman film.

Deadline claims "there is heightened interest in Kevin Costner for a key role in the Superman reboot that is being directed by Zack Snyder for Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures."

The site doesn't know which role Costner might be up for, so let's engage in some pure fanboy speculation. Could the Dances With Wolves and JFK star play Pa Kent? Perhaps Jor-El? Daily Planet editor Perry White? Or maybe a villain? The President of the United States?

Halo Director to Helm Die Hard 5

Shoot the glass and give Ellis a can of Coke, Die Hard 5 has found a director.

Noam Murro will helm the film for 20th Century Fox, based on a script by (gulp) Skip Woods, the writer of Hitman and (double gulp) X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Murro's claims to fame are Smart People, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and a series of recent ads for the video game Halo: Reach. Those ads are what "really impressed" the studio brass, according to Deadline.com.

The New York Times' Vulture blog reported that Daniel Espinosa, the director of the upcoming Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds CIA thriller Safe House, was this close to getting the gig, but apparently not so much.

Fox still has to get Bruce Willis to sign a deal, but the actor has publicly expressed excitement to reprise his role as John McClane. That last Die Hard film, Live Free or Die Hard, directed by Len Wiseman, was released in 2007 and grossed $384 million worldwide.

The project getting seemingly fast-tracked is somewhat surprising, as the rumor mill said the studio was less than impressed with Woods' script. Not sure what the next steps are there, but IGN will keep you updated, just as soon as we radio Al Powell and take out terrorists with feet smaller than our sister's. (Reference!) 

Chris Nolan's Post-Dark Knight Film

He didn't wear a cape and cowl or prowl the streets of Gotham City at night, but Howard Hughes was just as... eccentric, shall we say, as his fellow loco-in-the-coco billionaire, Bruce Wayne. And now Christopher Nolan, who is about to make his third Batman film, is reportedly planning on tackling a Hughes biopic after that.

Vulture has the report, which says that the filmmaker wants to revisit the Hughes film which he had to abandon back in 2004 when Martin Scorsese's own bio film about the famed aviator got to theaters first.

"While Scorsese's film is understood to have been heavily based on Charles Higham's biography Howard Hughes: The Secret Life and centered largely on the early years of Hughes' life up to 1947," says the site, "we hear Nolan's movie is based on Michael Drosnin's Citizen Hughes: The Power, the Money and the Madness … and would focus on the freakier decades of Hughes remarkably secretive and OCD-addled life."

You know, the "wears tissue boxes for shoes" and "pees in glass jars" decades. 

When writing Citizen Hughes, Drosnin had access to over 3,000 pages of Hughes' own handwritten notes. That means we could see any of the following (apparently true) nuggets from his life story:

-- The time Hughes spent (most of 1948) "sitting naked in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel with only a pink dinner napkin covering his genitals as he screened movies from his studio, RKO Pictures."

-- "Obsessed with food safety -- [he] once bought every franchise restaurant chain in his home state of Texas." (He also installed an aircraft filtration system in his Chrysler because of his concerns about air quality.)

-- The period when he had his hair cut and nails trimmed only once a year. Also, the time when he was addicted to Baskin Robbins Banana Ripple ice cream and codeine injections.

-- The later years for Hughes when he "considered only Mormons trustworthy enough to be let into his inner circle."

And so on. Vulture's inside sources indicate that the plan is to shoot this film in 2012 for a 2014 release.