He will be joining the already cast Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendes, reuniting after their roles on Ghost Rider, in the remake of the 1992 movie.

He has also joined the cast list of indie movie Silver Chord as has former ER regular and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen star Shane West.

Directed by James Ordonez the film follows a young man who, after being separated from the one he loves, has an put of body experience.

But the silver chord that connects his body and his soul is broken and he is pronounced dead. It’s up to his friends to work against the clock to save his soul.

Already on board the project is Arielle Kebbel and Eric Balfour.

- Funnymen Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen have been signed up to star in a comedy version of Sherlock Holmes.

Cohen, who was last seen in Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp, will play the famous literary detective Holmes while Farrell with play his faithful sidekick Watson.

The film will be produced by the king of Geek Chic Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller and writer of the soon to be released Tropic Thunder Etan Cohen has penned the script.

However the film may clash with British director Guy Richie’s Sherlock Holmes project.

- Charmed actress Rose McGowan has been unveiled as the new Red Sonja, the mythical flame-haired comic-book vixen, in the latest comic character to be adapted for the big screen.

The film which will follow Sonja as she goes from victim to a feared female warrior and will be produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski.

Filming is expected to get underway in October.

- The Visitor actor Thomas McCarthy has landed a role in 2012, a disaster movie by Roland Emmerich.

Already aboard the project is John Cusack, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover.

- Lost actor Josh Holloway has joined the cast of comedy Stay Cool, which will be directed by the Polish brothers.

Already aboard the project is Winona Ryder, Mark Polish, Sean Astin, Chevy Chase, Hilary Duff and Jon Cryer.

The film, which is directed by Richard Loncraine, is based on the childhood adventure of actor George Hamilton.

The Hollow Man star is set to play a band leader that character Anne Deveraux (Zellweger) attempts to leave.

Filming is already underway.

- The Edge of Love actor Matthew Rhys has joined the case of new film Patagonia.

Directed by Marc Evans Rhys’ character travels to Argentina with Nia Roberts in a bid to save their relationship.

The script was penned by Laurence Coriat who wrote Angelina Jolie’s A Mighty Heart.

- According to The Times Hollywood hardmen Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are to appear in a Bollywood film together.

The film Incredible Love follows the life of an Indian stuntman who finds fame in Hollywood.

With an £11 million budget, the largest in the industry’s history, the film will be the first Bollywood production to shoot at Universal Studios.

- Lizzie McGuire actress Hilary Duff has signed on to the cast of film Stay Cool.

The new film is the latest project from Michael and Mark Polish and also stars Winona Ryder and Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin.

Mark Polish stars as a successful writer who is forced to face an unrequited love.

Shooting is expected to get under way next month.

- No Country for Old Men star Josh Brolin is rumoured to be the favourite to star in the remake of Escape from New York.

The actor is ear-marked to play one-eyed fugitive Snake Plissken, a role made famous by Kurt Russell in the 1981 film directed by John Carpenter.

Following in the footsteps of Robert Downey Jr, Edward Norton and Christian Bale, who have all enjoyed success with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Batman, DiCaprio is the favourite for the role of Captain America.

This would be the latest marvel Comic character to appear on the screen fuelling further speculation of The Avengers movie being on the cards, which brings many of the Marvel characters together.

However Brad Pitt’s name has been suggested for the role of Captain America but it’s thought that he is favourite for the role of Thor.

DiCaprio is currently filming his fourth collaboration with director Martin Scorsese on Shutter Island.

-After the success of Iron Man in May actor Robert Downey Jr is in high demand and is currently negotiating a role in Cowboys Vs Aliens.

Penned by Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, who wrote Iron Man, it centres on an alien landing in Arizona which interrupts the battle between the Apaches and the Western settlers.

Downey Jr is also linked with the Hugh Hefner project and has two further movies comedy Tropic Thunder and The Soloist, which is already surrounded in Oscar whispers, released later this year.

-Sienna Miller is to take a little trip into Sherwood Forest for her latest role as Maid Marian.

A Retelling of the Robin Hood legend the film will be directed by Ridley Scott and will re-unite him with Gladiator leading man Russell Crowe in the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Scripted by Oscar winner Brian Helegeland it’s Robin Hood with a twist as Hood is portrayed as a not so heroic character and Nottingham a more sympathetic figure than in previous incarnation.

-Oscar winner Kevin Spacey has signed on to head the ensemble cast of Shrink.

Directed by Jonas Pate Spacey will play a psychologist who treats troubled celebrities while dealing with his own problems, including a pot addiction.

It’s an all star cast as Spacey is joined by funnyman Robin Williams, Saffron Burrows, Jack Huston and Griffin Dunne.

-Eva Mendes and Nicholas Cage are to re-unite in Werner Herzog’s new movie Bad Lieutenant.

The pair worked together on 2007’s disappointing adaptation of Marvel Comic character Ghost Rider.

The film is a re-telling of Harvey Kietel’s cop movie released in 1992, but Herzog has claimed that the film is not a simple remake.

And Nicholas Cage is to lend his voice to new animation movie Astro Boy alongside Donald Sutherland and Freddie Highmore.

The film is based on Osamu Tezuka’s Manga animations of the 1950s.

A prequel to The Da Vinvi Code, Angels and Demons follows Robert Langdon, once again being played by Tom Hanks, as he tries to stop a plot by the Illuminati to destroy the Vatican.

McGregor’s role would be the Catholic Church insider who help Langdon holt the Illuminate’s plot.

This news comes just days after Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer landed the role of Vittoria Vetra, who helps Langdon after her father is murdered.

Zurer beat of competition from Academy Award nominee Naomi Actress for the role.

- Nick Stoller and Judd Apatow have reunited, after working together on new comedy forgetting Sarah Marshall, for Get Him to the Greek.

The film follows a college graduate insurance adjuster who accompanies a rock star from London to the greek in LA.

Stoller will write and direct the project that will star Apatow favourite Jonah Hill and comedian turned actor Russell Brand.

- American actress Moon Bloodgood is currently in talks to star in the lead female role in the latest installment of the terminator frnachise – Terminator Salvation.

Bloodgood will star as a long serving member of John Connor’s, played by Christian Bale, resistance team.

Principle photography is expected to get under way on 5th May and will be released next year.

- It has been reported that Virginia Madsen has signed to appear in Mira Nair’s Amelia alongside Hilary Swank and Richard Gere.

The film is the biopic of Amelia Earhart an American aviation pioneer, author and women’s rights advocate.

The film will revolve around Amelia’s (swank) relationship with George Putnam (Gere), her publisher, promoter and eventual husband.

Madsen will play Putnam’s first wife Dorothy Binney.

Shooting is expected to get underway later this month.

- Matrix star  Carrie Anne Moss has joined the cast of romantic comedy Hanging Out Hooking Up Falling In Love.

The movie follows a man who, with the help of his eighteen year old son, tries to woo back his wife, played by Moss, who has left him.

Already cast for this project is Richard E Grant, Janeane Garofalo and Jenna Elfman.

Directed by The Illusionist’s Neil Burger the film is based on Alan Glynn’s 2002 novel and is being labelled as a techno thriller.

The script which has been adapted by Hairspray’s Leslie Dixon will star LaBeouf as a man who finds a pill that boosts his intelligence.

This summer Labeouf will star in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

- Hollywood badboy Colin Farrell has signed on to star in Triage, directed by Danis Tanovic.

Farrell will be joining Christopher Lee and Paz Vega and will revolve around a photojournalist after he returns home from a dangerous job.

Filming is expected to get underway later this month running into June in location including Spain and Ireland.

- American actress Natalie Portman is to star in a new big screen adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

Directed by John Maybury Portman will play Catherine Earnshaw who embarks on an ill-fated love affair with Heathcliff.

Portman beat off the likes of Lindsay Lohan and English actress Keira Knightley for the role, it’s rumoured that Maybury initially wanted an English actress for the role.

The role of Heathcliff is yet to be cast but it’s believed that Irish actor Colin Farrell is favourite for the part.

-The casting of Disney’s Prince of Persia:Sands of Time rumbles on as Jake Gyllenhaal is now believed to be in the frame for the lead role.

This comes just a week after news broke that Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom had beaten off Zac Efrom for the role in the trilogy, a deal reportedly worth $40 million.

The games is an adaptation of the popular video game franchise and filming on the project is expected to get underway later this summer.

There has been no confirmation from the studio as to who has been cast the lead role.

-Demi Moore has landed roles in both Bunraka and Happy Tears.

In Happy Tears, which is to be directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein, she will star alongside Parker Posey as a woman who is sick of caring for her dementia suffering father.

Bunraku will team her with Josh Hartnett and Woody Harrelson as a woman who is forced to marry a warlord.

Filming on Happy Tears gets underway later this month.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

While the plot is being kept under wraps the film will be set in a futuristic world where humanity’s privacy has been traded for safety.

The actor, who is best known for his role in the X-Men movies, will also co-write the script with marc Guggenheim.

 -Jon Header and Dax Shepard have signed up to appear in Disney’s When in Rome , which will star Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell.

Production is expected to get under way in the next few weeks filming in New York and Rome. David Diamond and David Weissman have written the script and will direct the project.

The film revolves around Beth (Bell) who, despite being successful in her job as a real estate agent, she is unlucky in love.

When in Rome for her sister’s wedding she becomes inundated with suitors after picking up coins from the legendary ‘fountain of love.’

-Sopranos actor James Gandolfini has reportedly singed to star in Tony Scott’s remake of The Taking of Pelham 123.

The film will also star Academy Award winner Denzel Washinton and John Travolta.

Gandolfini is expected to play the mayor of New York who is pressurised into trying to end a crisis that has left a crowed subway carriage being held at ransom.

-British actress Jemma McKenzie-Brown has secured a role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

The relatively unknown actress, whose work includes The Amazing Mrs Pritchard for the BBC, beat off 1,000 other actor for the role as a sophomore ‘Wildcat’ in the movie.

Original cast members Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens return to their roles for the final and big screen instalment of the surprise hit musical franchise.

Filming is expected to get underway this month for a release later this year.

-Sideways and Shoot ‘Em Up actor Paul Giamatti has signed up to star in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity.

The corporate thriller also stars Tom Wilinson and Julia Roberts as well as reuniting Giamatti with his Shoot ‘Em Up co-star Clive Owen.

The film centres on ex lovers Roberts and Owen who are forced to join forces while working as spies for rival firms.

Director Tony Gilroy was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at this year’s Oscars for his wok on Michael Clayton which starred George Clooney.

This adds to the already announced Escape From New York, Akira and Last House on the Left which are all expected to reach cinemas by 2009, Michael bay is also rumoured to be in talks to revamp Rosemary’s Baby.

Just what has happened to all the original scripts?

It seems that Hollywood is not only content to let the big screen become littered with seventies and eighties knock offs it doesn’t seem to mind the poor quality of these movies, that are supposed to be bringing these classic movies to a new generation, either.

2007 was just the same when the paying cinema going public were treated to The Fog, Halloween and The Omen, all of which did poorly critically and commercially selling out the original concept and ripping off the money paying movie fans.

They should spent their hard earned cash on renting the original instead!

It seems, as with the sequels issue, Hollywood studios are desperately trying to make quick and easy money and it is the public that are losing out.

Over the last couple of years it has often been remarked upon how cinema attendances have been dwindling, and when they only have the opportunity to watch a poor man’s version of a classic is it really any wonder that they save their money and stay away?

It’s surprising then that movies such as There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men have done so little business at the box office.

The Oscar’s Best Picture category, which also included Atonement, Michael Clayton and Juno, as well as non nominated picture like Eastern Promises and Into the Wild were some of the best movies of last year all of them fresh and new.

However the low gross of the Oscar nominated movies did lead to some saying that the Oscars has become distanced from what has been successful at the box office and that nominations should follow, to a certain degree, public popularity.

But do we really want to see these remakes mixing it will top quality movies that deserve to be recognised?

However not all remakes have been a complete disaster as Ocean’s Eleven was arguably better than the original and 2007’s 3.10 to Yuma, starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, was one of the best movies of last year.

But it appears that this trend is not going to disappear with more and more films being given the modern day movie making seal.

It is believed that Kunis, who starred in That 70s Show, will play an assassin who works with Payne (Wahlberg) to avenge the death of her sister.

The story will revolve around Payne, who is a cop who is haunted by the death of his family, uncovers a conspiracy when trying to solve a series of murders.

Max Payne is just the most recent in a long line of videogames including Hitman, Tomb Raider, Doom and resident Evil, to get a movie adaptation.

-Die hard 4 star Justin Long has signed on to co-star in Sam Raimi’s new movie Drag Me to Hell.

The film is Raimi’s long awaited return to the movie genre of horror.

But the project has already experienced castin problems as Ellen Page dropped out of the project due to a scheduling conflict.

She was replace by Alison Lohman who will play Long’s girlfriend in a morality tale about a character who becomes the victim of a supernatural curse.

-Funnyman Jim Carrey has signed up to star in Oscar nominated director Jason Reitman’s Pierre Pierre.

Pierre Pierre is the follow up to Reitman’s critical and commercial success Juno and centres on a self indulgent French nihilist who transports a stolen painting from paris to London.

- Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan and Leslie Mann will all star in director and producer of the moment Judd Apatow’s new comedy.

The film, which is expected to begin filming later this summer, is a co-production between Sony Pictures and Universal.

Although the plot is being kept under wraps Apatow is expected to write the script, direct and produce the movie.

Both Rogan and Mann worked together and with Apatow on last summer’s hit Knocked Up and Adam Sandler co-wrote the soon to be released Don’t Mess With the Zohan.

-Troubled star, and multiple Rassie winner, Lindsay Lohan has finally landed some work alongside her heroine Ann- Margret in a new Jack Black comedy.

The twenty year old star was to play the lead role in the film, which had been expected to start filming on March 17, but has had to withdraw due to conflicting schedules.

A delay on the start of shooting has led to a clash with forthcoming role in psychological thriller Peacock as well as Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut.

Beowulf actress Alison Lohman has reportedly taken up the role and they will begin shooting on the new date of March 31.

- Irish actor Ciaran Hinds has been cast as the villain in Race to Witch Mountain which stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

The film centres around two young children, brother and sister, who have paranormal abilities. With the help from taxi driver (Johnson) the pair go on the run to escape an evil group, led by Hinds, who want to exploit their powers.

The film is a remake of the 1975 adventure movie Escape to Witch Mountain and is expected to begin shooting in LA next month with The Game Plan’s Andy Fickman directing.

- Sunshine and Troy actress Rose Byrne has been cast alongside Nicholas Cage in his new film sci-fi thriller Knowing.

Bryne will play the daughter of a woman who buried 1962 time capsule bearing the dates of the assassinations of historical figures, the hotel fire death of the wife of a professor (Cage) and an imminent world apocalypse.

I, Robot’s Alex Proyas will direct from Ryan Douglas Pearson’s script production begins in Melbourne, Australia on March 25.

- British actor Jason Isaacs has joined the as yet untitled Iraq war thriller directed by fellow Brit Paul Greengrass.

The film, which is based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s non-fiction book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, unites Greengrass with his Bourne leading man Matt Damon, who is already on board.

Greg Kinnear and Amy Ryan are also on board the film which is expected, like the book, to blundered attempt by the U.S. government to re-build Iraq after the toppling of the Saddam Hussain regime.

Jason Issacs most recently starred in State of Play, a BBC drama.

Filming is currently underway in Spain.

- Ryan Reynolds and British actor, and former Lord of the Rings/Lost star, Dominic Monaghan have joined the cast of X-Men spin off Wolverine.

Yes Wolverine aka Hugh Jackman is going it alone in a picture expected to released next summer. It’s been hinted that the film is a prequel, after a fashion, that allows us to look back at the origins of Wolverine and the shadowy Mutant X program.

Reynolds has landed the role of Deadpool and Monaghan as Beak, who has many bird like qualities.

The film follows the criminal life of John Dillinger (Depp) and the FBI agent Melvin Purvis’ pursuit and capture of him.

Cottillard has been cast as Billie Frenchette, Dillinger’s torch singer girlfriend. Filming is expected to get underway in March.

300 actor gerard Butler and Knocked Up actress Katherine Heigl are to join forces for The Ugly Truth.

Heigl will star as a romantically challenged morning show producer who becomes involved in a series of tests set by chauventistic correspondent (Butler) to prove his theories about relationships  and help her find love.

British actress Anna Friel joins Land of the Lost alongside funnyman Will Ferrell.

Based on the seventies television show Friel will play the love interest of Ferrell, a disgraced paleontologist who finds himself in a prehistoric world.

  

Romeo and Juliet actress Clare Danes is to star alongside High School Musical leading man Zac Efron in Me & Orsen Wells.

The film will follow a teenage Efron who lands and minor role in a production of Julius Ceasar at the Murcury Theatre directed by Orsen Wells.

Michael Douglas has joined the cast of Girlfriends Past alongside Matthew McConaughey.

In a modern day telling of A Christmas Carol McConaughey, a womaniser, is haunted by his former lovers.

Douglas will play the role of Jacob Marley.

 Robert Englund will not be reprising his role as Freddy Kruger in the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie.

It was revealed last week that New Line Cinema were in talks with director Michael bay to re-vamp the Wes Craven classic.