Movie News:

General News:

“Anime and manga distributor Central Park Media (CPM) filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and has closed its doors as of Monday. According to Crain’s, the company owes US$1.2 million to creditors. The company has not been active in releasing new titles in the past 12 months.”

Alpha and Omega has been moved to October 1, 2010 (from April 16, 2010).

The Tooth Fairy has moved to January 22, 2010 (from November 13).

Aardman Animations will use CGI to animate Arthur Christmas, about “how Santa delivers all his presents in one night.” It’ll be directed by Sarah Smith and Barry Cook, and written by Petey Baynham.

Jamie Chung and Jena Malone have been cast in Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine have joined Christopher Nolan’s science fiction actioner Inception.

Prequels; Sequels & Remakes:

The Mirage Group is moving forward with a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles origin story movie. Scott Mednick and Galen Walker are producing, and Peter Laird, Gary Richardson, Frederick Fierst, Eric Crown and Napoleon Smith III are exec producing. It has a targeted release of 2011.

Summit Entertainment has hired David Slade to direct The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The third film in the franchise will release June 30, 2010.

Kate Mara and Clark Gregg have joined Iron Man 2. Mara’s role is unknown, while Gregg will be Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Producer David Heyman says Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows will be split “at a very tense cliffhanger.” “We’ve played around with a couple of places. And ultimately settled on a place that we think is very exciting, and I think quite bold, in that it’s not necessarily where one might expect. You want to give a sense of completion, on one hand, but a sense that there’s another piece, more to come. We tried one, and then Steve [Kloves, the screenwriter,] came up with the idea to try it another way, and when we tried that, it felt just right.” Also that “Benjamin Button-like technology” will be used to age the characters for the end.

Columbia Pictures already has plans for Dan Brown’s third Da Vinci Code book. The Lost Symbol comes out September 15, in North America through Doubleday.

Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore has moved to July 30, 2010 (from November 20).

Jim Piddock will be in Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off Get Him to the Greek.

Universal Pictures will remake David Cronenberg 1983 thriller Videodrome. Ehren Kruger will write and co-produce with Daniel Bobker. Including nanotechnology it’ll update the original about “the head of Civic TV Channel 83, who makes his station relevant by programming Videodrome, a series that depicts torture and murder that transfixes viewers.”

Kellan Lutz has joined, and Rooney Mara will play Nancy in, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.

Robert Rodriguez: “I’m going to be able to shoot my upcoming Machete here, a sci-fi action film called Nervewrackers, a reboot of the Predator series called Predators and a couple of smaller movies called Sin City 2 and The Jetsons.” Predators’ pitch: “In the reboot, a team of commandoes face down a mysterious race of vicious monsters.”

Adaptations:

The Fantastic Mr. Fox has moved to November 13 (from November 6).

Gulliver’s Travels will come out June 4, 2010. Also Amanda Peet has joined the cast.

Guardians of Ga’Hoole has been delayed to an undetermined holiday date in 2010 from July 30, 2010.

Dark Castle has the rights to Whitley Strieber and Devil’s Due’s The Nye Incidents. “Inspired by real events, the comic book revolves around a medical examiner on the hunt for a killer of alien abductees.” Todd Lincoln will direct.

Tezuka Productions has plans for anime features based on Osamu Tezuka’s mangas Buddha and Princess Knight. “In Buddha, Tezuka recounted the life of the young prince Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, over the course of eight volumes between 1972 and 1983.” “The original Princess Knight manga centered on Sapphire, a princess who has been disguised as a boy since birth to protect the throne. She goes on various adventures to fight evildoers under yet another different guise, the ‘Ribbon Knight.’ She falls in love with Prince Franz, who unfortunately see her as three different people: as ‘Prince’ Sapphire, and as the ‘Ribbon Knight’, as ‘Prince’ Sapphire’s mysterious ‘sister.’”

Vanessa Hudgens will be in Daniel Barnz’s adaptation of Alex Flinn’s Beastly.

Stephen Fry tweeted that he’s doing voice work in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. “Playing Cheshire Cat. Smug, complacent, cheese-eating grin – moi? Walking off to studio in next ten minutes.”

Kevin Macdonald will direct New Regency’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity. “Futuristic tale concerns a ruling class called Eternity whose members can manipulate time and alter history.”

Fox 2000 is acquiring rights to Patricia Cornwell’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta series. The suspense thriller, which won’t be tied specifically to any of the 16 books about the opera-loving coroner, will be developed as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie.

Gideon Defoe’s The Pirates! (in an Adventure with Scientists) will be adapted by Aardman Animations with hand-crafted stop-motion animation. Peter Lord will be in charge of animating the story about “a group of pirates who journey to London and meet Charles Darwin, a talking chimp named Mister Bobo and an enemy looking to wipe them out.”

Marlon Wayans will produce and star in Paramount’s adaptation of A.J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically. Julian Farino will direct from Jay Reiss’ script.

Universal Pictures has put the Bioshock movie on hold due to the rising budget.