Halloween II downloads

The official website for Dimension Films' Halloween II has been updated with downloads for the wallpapers, AIM icons, and few other goodies including trailers and TV spots. Visit the site here.

Gary Ross co-writing Spider-Man 4

A writer has finally been tapped to rewrite the Spider-Man 4 screenplay. With all these rewrites going on, I wonder how much the final draft will differ from that of the first. It's my personal opinion that Venom should probably be left out of this one...but will they try to introduce Carnage into the franchise?

Gary Ross has been brought on board to do a rewrite on Columbia's "Spider-Man 4."

Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are back as director and star, respectively, as are series producers Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad.

Ross now joins James Vanderbilt ("Zodiac") and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire on the list of high-profile writers who have been working on the project.

The move also puts Ross back to work with Maguire, with whom he worked on his directorial vehicles "Pleasantville" and "Seabiscuit." The two were also working on "Tokyo Suckerpunch," a drama set up at Columbia; that project is now on hold as Ross tackles another writing project, Columbia's Lance Armstrong biopic.

Ross is repped by CAA.

Lance Armstrong in Dodgeball 2

Lance Armstrong met with Ben Stiller about appearing in the upcoming Dodgeball 2. Remember, Lance also had a small cameo in the original with Vince Vaughn.

Twenty-four hours after the star of Zoolander was responsible for making Astana check in late at the start of stage four, Stiller was back again with his new best friend Lance Armstrong, warming up on his rollers and reprising his role as Team Lance-Stana mascot.

On the roads, the riders looked as if they were auditioning for a part in one of Stiller's trademark slapstick capers.

Denis Menchov reminded the world of his reliability by surprising no one with a frantic tumble into the barriers. World champion Alessandro Ballan then proved he could stand in as the Russian's double by repeating his exact fall.

Four of the Bbox Bougyues squad showcased the true genius of French humour by falling into the same ditch on the same bend - but in entirely separate incidents.

Milram pair Peter Wrolich and Niki Terpstra got in on the act too before Silence-Lotto's Jurgen Ven den Broeck showed off his stuntman abilities by getting up after a painful high-speed road-rash crash.

To be fair to the riders, the route was pretty ropey. If Stiller was hoping for some Hollywood Blockbuster-style motorways he was to be disappointed. Instead we got tracks equivalent to art house Eastern European cinema, with winding plots full of holes.

But Stiller only had eyes for his new best friend Armstrong as he continued his bid to get the Texan onboard for a proposed sequel to Dodgeball.

Ignoring the cynics who claim There's Something About Lance, Stiller is pushing the seven-times Tour champ to come out of movie retirement after four years on the sidelines.

With Dodgeball II now tipped to be infused with cycling influences, George Hincapie is touted to take on Vince Vaughn's role as the good guy, while Chuck Norris, who played himself in the original, is set to be snubbed for a man much harder, Armstrong's friend Jens Voigt.

(Incidentally, fresh evidence came to light on Tuesday that those nasty crosswinds on Monday were in fact caused when Voigt farted. He's that tough.)

Back to the racing, where Astana tore the field to shreds much like the film Dodgeball (except the fact that the only Underdog amongst the Kazakh-funded team is the sole Kazakh representative, Dmitriy Muravyev, who must feel a bit of twerp lying in second-last position in the GC while his other team-mates razz it up in the top 10).

Unlike a feel-good Stiller movie, however, there was to be no happy ending for Team Lance-Stana after pantomime villain Fabian Cancelthefun rather parsimoniously clung on to the yellow jersey by a fraction of a second thought to be equal to a prodigious chin's worth of time.

Talk about messing up the script. Stiller looked as if he had just been told that the Night at the Museum franchise was to become a trilogy as he climbed the podium and huffily handed over the maillot jaune to some Swiss guy who wasn't Roger Federer.

Quite what he was doing there in the first place is anyone's guess, but one thing's for certain: there was no Blue Steel from Stiller, just a sense of Yellow Stolen.

Blade spin-off trilogy?

This comes from The Sunday Mail:

BLADE star Stephen Dorff is set for the comeback of the year for vampire fans.

He is working on a new trilogy featuring his iconic character from the smash-hit movies.

Stephen played evil bloodsucker Deacon Frost in the 1998 movie which starred Wesley Snipes in the title role.

Stephen is thrilled to revive the Frost character with Blade director Stephen Norrington.

The actor told us: "It will be a prequel to the Blade movies, Deacon's story. It's a new trilogy the director has created. It will cool.

"We hope to shoot the first film next year. Frost is a character I have never been able to shake."

Stephen's new movie Felon has gone straight to DVD in the UK this week but is winning rave reviews.

He said: "It is probably the best-received movie I have ever made.

"I would rather be in a good, small film than a hit which wasn't any good."

Not quite sure how reliable this is yet...could be total B.S. -- which I hope it is.

Major League 4 news

According to Moviehole, a Major League 4 may be in the works. Read on for what they had to say.

Ah, "Major League" - David S.Ward's timeless sporting comedy about a group of slacker underdog baseball players, the Cleveland Indians, who go on to win the World Series - much to the surprise of anyone and everyone, including their most stringent fans, but mainly, their new manager (Margaret Whitton) who is not-so-secretly ‘hoping' they'll lose for her own personal gain.

Still remember going to see "Major League" at the cinema. It was 1989 - or going on 1990 - and it was one of three films screening in a Sunday night Triple Feature (I remember it being a Triple because I was annoyed that I was late for the first film); the other two films being ‘'The Abyss'' (the film I missed half-of) and Skin Deep (The John Ritter thing). Much to my surprise - I assumed it to be no more than your middle-of-the-road baseball comedy; at that time, only Kevin Costner could do successful baseball movies - "Major League" was the highlight of the night (Do I need remind you I missed the first half of Jim Cameron's "The Abyss"?). It was such a good time movie. I don't remember laughing, clapping, and yahooing so much through a movie since.

And for anyone that also saw the movie theater - you know exactly what I mean, don't you!? I mean, remember the thunderous applause and synchronized singing that happened throughout the auditorium when Charlie Sheen's character walked out to the sound of ‘Wild Things' near the end of the film? Truly one of the best moments... ever... on film.

It's funny, I was watching "Major League" on Blu-Ray last week and the thought did cross my mind : I wonder whether they'll do another? or... god forbid... reboot it?

Seems I was caught in the middle of a mindmeld with a green-eyed exec.

Various readers - all assumingly attendees of the event - tell us that baseball legend, and the lungs behind "Major League" commentator Harry Doyle, Bob Uecker, sang the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley stadium last week, and later retired to the box where he proceeded to chat up the game, but also his involvement in the "Major League" films. Uecker confirmed that a "Major League 4" is in the works. He's apparently had contact from the creative team behind the first three films. And apparently it's not the first time Uecker has mentioned it in recent weeks.

And that's about all we've got to go on at the moment. If it's happening, which it sounds like it is, I can only assume - based on the stock involved - that it'll be a direct-to-DVD project.. which is just fine because most of the original cast, like Tom Berenger and Corbin Bernsen, spend most of their time on the bottom shelf at Blockbuster anyway. Can only imagine both those guys would've already been contacted. The only cast member I'd say the producers might have a hard time convincing is Charlie Sheen. Maybe Dennis Haysbert too. Be a pisser if they got Wesley Snipes back - whose no longer the big star he was in the early 90s; you'll recall he passed on reprising his role in "Major League II" because of his then megastardom (Omar Epps replaced him).

The last "Major League" flick was the 1998's "Major League : Back to the Minors" starring Scott Bakula and Corbin Bernsen. The poorly-received sequel, about an ageing minor league pitcher recruited by Roger Dorn to be the manager of the South Carolina buzz, pocketed only a few million dollars in its initial box-office run. By comparison, the original 1989 film walked away with near $50 million. Quite a sum for the 90s.

T.J. Hooker: the movie?

This comes from Variety.

"T.J. Hooker" is headed for the bigscreen as an action comedy with David Foster, Ryan Heppe and series creator Rick Husky producing.

Chuck Russell ("The Scorpion King," "The Mask") is in talks to direct. The writing team of Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson will script the story, which focuses on the relationship between the title character and his father.

No actors have been cast yet for the feature.

The TV series, produced by Aaron Spelling, debuted in 1982 on ABC and ran for five seasons, the last on CBS. William Shatner starred as a no-nonsense patrol sergeant, with Adrian Zmed, Heather Locklear, Richard Herd and James Darren as co-stars.

Husky has long retained the feature rights to the project, according to Heppe.

"The series was the poster child for cop TV shows in the 1980s with great stunts, so we think there's a fun movie to be made from it," Heppe said.

Foster and Heppe are producing a remake of "Short Circuit" with Maddock and Wilson having written the first version of the script. The scribes have also teamed on "Wild Wild West" and several "Tremors" pics.

The Descent 2 teaser poster

Most of you have probably already seen this, but it somehow managed to avoid my eyes until today (go figure). I believe it's the teaser poster and not the theatrical poster, though, I could be wrong. It is what it is...so have a gander at the poster for The Descent 2.

Heathers 2 not happening

According to Moviehole, it seems that the supposed Heathers 2 isn't happening after all.

Seems Winona Ryder is as trustworthy a retail customer as she is a source when it comes to a "Heathers" sequel.

Remember a few weeks back when Ms Ryder told Movieline that there's bubbles boiling in the "Heathers 2" saucepan? According to the actress, whose got a long line of credits, but none that are valid at clothes stores, the long-awaited follow-up to the 80s classic was finally coming to fruition. She'd be back. Christian Slater would be back. You'd be back (ideally).

Thing is, "Heathers" director Michael Lehmann knows nothing about it. As far as he's concerned, it's merely wishful thinking on Ryder's part.

"Winona’s been talking about this for years — she brings it up every once in a while and Dan Waters and I will joke about it, but as far as I know there’s no script and no plans to do the sequel", the filmmaker tells Movieline. ''A couple weeks ago everyone started talking about it and I guess Winona said the movie was gonna get made, and I thought, “I don’t know, maybe they did this without me?” But I got in touch with Dan Waters and he said he didn’t know anything about it. So I don’t think there’s any truth to it."

Routh talks Superman franchise

Moviehole has an interesting article about Brandon Routh and the future of the Superman franchise...

Cinema's most recent Clark Kent says he thinks Warner Bros should give his (or rather Bryan Singer's) ''Superman'' series a second chance - despite the first film underperforming at the box office - just as they did Christopher Nolan's Batman films (and we all know how that turned out!).

Brandon Routh tells Omelete (via ThinkMcFlyThink) that if fellow superhero pic ''The Dark Knight'' proved anything, it's that a sequel can be bigger, better and more successful than the film it follows. Though Bryan Singer's ''Superman Returns'' (2006) was only a moderate hit, and Warner Bros would've liked it to have done better, the actor - and why wouldn't he? - believes there's both room for improvement and a chance at even greater success next time around. And I can't help but agree - if the action can be ramped up, a good villain can be introduced, and the film's less interested in emulating the Dick Donner movies and instead being it's own beast, it could be great. And I love Routh as Superman - he's brilliant.

Unfortunately, says Routh, his contract has expired - so legally, he's no longer wearing the 'Man of Steel' badge. He'd have to be re-approached. But if that day comes, he wouldn't "think twice" about donning the tights again.

So in short, Routh says :

- He knows nothing about the status of the "Superman" film franchise

- He is no longer under contract to play the role

- "Superman Returns" didn't work as well as it could've because it lacked action

- Would definitely return to the role if he's asked back.

Recent rumours suggested Warner Bros might be looking at 'rebooting' the "Superman" series - again. If that ends up happening, I think it's safe to say Routh will be out - which'll be a damn shame.

Predators treatment details

Various news resources have been reporting the details of the upcoming reboot Predators. This particular text comes from Bloody-Disgusting.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed both Latino Review and AICN's reports that Nimrod Antal, the director of the horror film Vacancy, has been hired to direct Predators for Fox and producer Robert Rodriguez. They add that in this version, a group of humans will find themselves stranded on a planet home to Predators and must survive the horrors they encounter. James Cameron pulled a similar move with his advancement of the Alien franchise in his Aliens. I guess they mean it's similar because they take on more Predators? Alex Litvak & Michael Finch (Medieval) have written the script. The new iteration, which Rodriguez has been hoping to make since 1994, when he was hired to write a screenplay for a second sequel, is scheduled for a July 7, 2010 release.