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Way back in 2007 in the same exact story announcing that Tim Burton would be bringing us Alice in Wonderland in 3D, was news that Burton would also be turning early his short film Frankenweenie into a feature stop-motion animation project in 3D as well. For a while we didn’t hear much about Frankenweenie, mainly because the focus was on all things Alice, but not anymore. We reported just last week that Burton may potentially direct an Addams Family movie in 3D, but his very next animated project may actually be Frankenweenie instead, or so says AICN, who also spoke with Disney producer Don Hahn about the project.

Although there aren’t any quotes, Harry says that Hahn told him “that the puppets are ready, the script is done and now that Tim Burton is clear of Alice in Wonderland, he’s set to helm Frankenweenie in 3D.” As a refresher, Frankenweenie was originally one of Burton’s first short films from 1984 that tells the story of a pet dog brought back to life by his loyal owner. It’s the perfect story to adapt into a full-length stop-motion feature and I’m glad it’s moving along swiftly, not only because it will take a few years to complete the work on it anyway, but also because there can never be enough stop-motion movies. Stay tuned for more updates!

Not that this is casting confirmation, but Heat Vision is now reporting that Chris Evans has been “offered” the big role. So what does this mean? Well, pretty much nothing, because Evans has to first accept it and deals have to be made, but it sounds like Channing Tatum may have passed on the role if Evans has been offered it instead. Earlier today it was reported that the new “shortlist” for Cap had been trimmed down to three actors: Evans, Tatum, and Gossip Girl’s Sebastian Stan.

Heat Vision that Evans’ offer includes starring in up to three Captain America movies, plus The Avengers movies, and appearances in other Marvel movies. Sounds similar to how Samuel Jackson got contracted for nine upcoming Marvel movies as S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury. We’ll obviously let you know if Evans gets the role or not, because this still isn’t finalized and we don’t know when it will be. I’m actually much happier with Evans than Tatum. He’s not perfect, but he could do a great job as Steve Rogers. Although I wasn’t fond of him in the Fantastic Four films, I think he really showed his potential in Danny Boyle’s Sunshine.

Joe Johnston is directing The First Avenger: Captain America, which will shoot in England sometime later this year. Paramount has set the big Marvel movie for release on July 22nd, 2011 next summer, that will eventually lead up to The Avengers in 2012. Would you be satisfied with Chris Evans playing Cap?

Dreamworks, from the studio that brought you “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda” comes “How To Train Your Dragon” – an adventure comedy set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, based on the book by Cressida Cowell. The story centers around a Viking teenager, who lives on the island of Berk, where fighting dragons is a way of life. Initiation is coming, and this is his one chance to prove his worthiness to his tribe and father. But when he encounters, and ultimately befriends, an injured dragon, his world is turned upside down. This latest Animation from Dreamworks will be released on this March 26, 2010.

Trailer:

The 4th film in the series follows the exploits of Captain Jack Sparrow, who travels to the new world after the death of his puppeteer father to confront his uncle, who apparently has made off with the family inheritance. During the voyage, he gets to know a woman named Beth Hurwood and her father, an Oxford professor. Before they arrive, their ship is waylaid by pirates and, with the help of the professor and his assistant, the captain is killed and Sparrow is forced to join the pirate crew. There is, however, a sinister plot being concocted by the professor involving his dead wife, his living daughter and Blackbeard. Blackbeard and vodun magicians whisk everyone away to dreamlike lands where the Fountain of Youth itself awaits. Jack Sparrow must put a stop to these plans and save Beth Hurwood.

The new film is rumored to be loosely based on the Tim Powers book, ‘On Stranger Tides.’

Satire is one of the most favorite forms of comedy so everybody excited about this potential casting news from Vulture that Jim Carrey and Kate Hudson may be joining the already cast Jennifer Garner for Butter, a comedy who’s script appeared at #3 on the 2008 Black List. Described as Election meets Best in Show, it follows a young orphan who, after being adopted by a Midwestern family, discovers that she has an uncanny talent for butter-carving. She eventually finds herself up against the ambitious wife (Garner) of the retired reigning champion in a town’s annual butter-sculpting contest. However, there’s some contrasting details out there.

Though Vulture says Carrey is only in discussions, and Hudson is already negotiating her deal, Movieline has sources who say Carrey has already passed on the role and Hudson is still “sitting on the script.” Either way, the story has interesting parallels to the political arena – specifically the 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucus. Think of the young orphan in the story (an African American girl) as Barack Obama, the ambitious wife as Hilary Clinton, the retired reigning champion (Carrey’s potential character) as Bill Clinton and Hudson’s character (the retired champion’s mistress) as Monica Lewinsky. Now that sounds absolutely hilarious.

Up-and-coming director Jim Field Smith, who just had some decent success this past weekend with the release of his rather enjoyable comedy She’s Out of My League, will direct the film. Writer Jason Micallef said, “I wanted to do a political satire, and I was looking for some venue that people take very seriously but is also ridiculous — like politics — but at the same time is really visual.” Honestly I can’t wait to see how this pans out. If it truly invokes Election and Best in Show (two of my all-time fave comedies) then it will be amazing. Plus, lets see Carrey take on a role like this and make a stellar return to comedy.

Pajiba is reporting that Sam Worthington (Avatar, upcoming Clash of the Titans) has signed to star in the comic book adaptation Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, which is now at Warner Bros. Pictures.

Dare — described as Britain’s version of Buck Rogers — launched as a comic strip character in the Eagle magazine in the 1950s. The stories were set in the late 1990s but the dialogue and manner of the characters is reminiscent of British war films of the 1950s.

The character was created by illustrator Frank Hampson.

The site says that, while it is a priority project at the studio, neither a writer nor director is on board yet.

A few years ago, actors Edward Norton and Tim Blake Nelson appeared together in Louis Letterier’s The Incredible Hulk. Not many people realized that Norton was partially responsible for bringing Nelson on board for the role of Samuel Sterns, as the two had already been working together on a couple of movies, the one that came to fruition being Nelson’s original comedy Leaves of Grass in which Norton plays a dual role of two very different identical twins.

Earlier today, ComingSoon.net/SuperHeroHype had a chance to talk with the duo about the movie, and since we hadn’t really spoken with Norton for some time–well before he was cast in the Marvel Studios movie–we wanted to ask him about the current status of his relationship with the studio, especially since all their individual movies seem to be building to The Avengers, in which the Hulk is rumored to be one of the villains. For those unaware, Norton had some issues with the final cut of Louis Letterier’s movie, which he had co-written, but when asked in the years since then, he has been somewhat dismissive of the idea of returning.

When asked today whether he has had any communication with Marvel since then, Norton’s response was cheerfully optimistic about things working themselves out. “Yeah, to some degree, through my agents,” he told us, “But there’s always been an agenda I think to unspool a lot of the Marvel Universe and then come back… I think they’ve got a lot of new stuff that they’re rolling out and then I think at some point they’re going to figure out how they want to get around to ‘Avengers.’”

“The main guy I had a beef with there left anyways, as always happens,” he admitted. “As David Mamet said, ‘Just wait ‘em out cause they’ll be gone, and you’ll still be there.’”

Wise man, that David Mamet.

Look for our full interview with the duo sometime later this month over on ComingSoon.net before Leaves of Grass opens in select cities on April 2.

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star in this music-fueled story of the ground-breaking, all girl, teenage rock band of the 1970s: The Runaways. The film follows two friends, Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, as they rise from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary group that paved the way for future generations of girl bands. Joan and Cherie fall under the Svengali-like influence of rock impresario Kim Fowley, played by Michael Shannon, who turns the group into an outrageous success and a family of misfits. With its tough-chick image and raw talent, the band quickly earns a name for itself—and so do its two leads: Joan is the band’s pure rock ‘n’ roll heart, while Cherie, with her Bowie-Bardot looks, is the sex kitten. Written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, the film chronicles Joan and Cherie’s tumultuous relationship on and off stage, as the band starts to break out.

If you kept your eyes on the box office the week before Alice in Wonderland hit theaters in IMAX 3-D, you saw Avatar take back the #1 box office spot the entire week leading up to Alice’s release, not to mention that despite Disney’s box office reign that weekend, nearby digital 3-D screens showing Avatar saw a decent increase in numbers, showing that there is still demand. So to counteract the money Fox might be losing, THR’s Heat Vision reports that an extended cut of Avatar might head back to IMAX in late summer. In related news, Cameron says they’re aiming for a 3-D theatrical re-release of Titanic sometime in 2012.

First, on Avatar’s re-release, the main driving force seems to be money (obviously) as James Cameron told USA Today: “The word we’re getting back from exhibitors is we probably left a couple hundred million dollars on the table as a result.” And Fox isn’t going to let that much money go to waste, not when they have the highest grossing and most lucrative IMAX release ever at their fingertips with $127.1 million of its $712.5 million domestic haul coming from IMAX showings. Additionally, Avatar has done more than 80% of its domestic business in 3D theaters, which represented fewer than half of its runs. That’s just crazy!

However, there is some artistic merit to the re-release considering the theatrical cut of Avatar was missing about 40 minutes of additional material that didn’t make the original cut, and Cameron said about 10-12 minutes of that footage could be quickly put through post-production and be ready to add to a director’s cut for a theatrical reissue or as an extra on the DVD release. Of course, around 10 minutes is all Cameron could add for an IMAX re-release considering the maximum length a movie that can be released in IMAX is 170 minutes and the current cut of Avatar comes in around 160 minutes. The summer re-release would follow the DVD premiere of Avatar in 2-D, which will happen as soon as next month and no later than May.

On the Titanic 3-D front, the hopeful re-release was brought up in the aforementioned interview with USA Today, where Cameron said the hope was to have the 3-D re-release of Titanic hit in the spring of 2012 in order to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ship’s doomed voyage. Cameron continues to criticize the mishandling of 3-D and how it’s ruining the potential 3D has of making the moviegoing experience all the more magical. For example, he rags on all the studios converting nearly every last movie into 3-D:

“You know, everybody is an overnight expert. They think, ‘what was the takeaway lessons from Avatar? Oh you should make more money with 3D.’ They ignore the fact that we natively authored the film in 3-D, and decide that what we accomplished in several years of production could be done in an eight week (post-production 3-D) conversion with ‘Clash of the Titans.’ It’s never going to be as good as if you shot it in 3-D, but think of it as sort of 2.8-D.”

“If people put bad 3-D in the marketplace they’re going to hold back or even threaten the emerging of 3-D. People will be confused by differences in quality. Because the audience doesn’t know the difference — when they put on the glasses on, they don’t know if the problem is in the glasses, the TV or the actual way in which the stereo space is managed by the producers of the film.”

Despite the fact that I agree with the mishandling of 3-D by studios, I’m not so sure audiences can actually tell the difference between a film shot natively in 3-D and a film that’s converted in post-production. Still, I wholeheartedly agree with Cameron that converting older films to 3-D — a la Titanic or the talks of the potential Star Wars 3-D conversions — should be left to the original filmmakers when possible. “I think it should be driven by the artist. If Star Wars gets converted into 3-D I think George (Lucas) should do it. If Terminator gets converted into 3-D, I should do it.” So what are you waiting for, James? Get on it! Check out the rest of the lengthy interview with Cameron about Avatar, 3-D technology and more at USA Today.

ShowBiz411 is reporting that the sequel to last year’s blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine will begin filming soon, with the script already completed. Screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (X-Men, Valkyrie) has prepared a first draft of the script.

The site’s source revealed a few details pertaining to the film’s direction:
“The script is a little different than originally thought. [It's] based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont. Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told.
‘It’s a beautiful story,’ says a source, ‘and will be very different than the first film.’”

They went on to say that the production is slated to begin filming in January, 2011. Though Hugh Jackman is the only actor presently attached to the film, Liev Schreiber, who portrayed Logan’s brother and nemesis Victor/Sabertooth in the first X-Men spin-off, has recently expressed interest in returning. Whether his character is written into the script has yet to be revealed.
No director is currently attached to the project.