Casting & Development, Adaptation | featured news

Back in August, it looked like Disney’s big plan to make a film version of The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer and director Gore Verbinski might never happen, since the studio had balked at the project’s hefty cost. Now, after a few weeks of talks and money bargaining, Deadline reports that the Ranger is back in the saddle with a reduced budget.

Once Ben Stiller landed one of the most sought after yet beguiling roles in Hollywood, why not direct himself, too? Twitchfilm.com reports that Stiller will not only star in the big screen adaptation of the classic 1939 James Thurber short story, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," -- he signed on in April -- he'll helm it from behind the camera, too.

Steven Spielberg is set to direct Robopocalypse , it was announced today by Mark Sourian and Holly Bario, Co-Presidents of Production for DreamWorks Studios. Based on the novel of the same name by Daniel H. Wilson, Spielberg will begin principal photography on the futuristic tale in January 2012. Disney's Touchstone will distribute the film in 2013.

Battlestar Galactica is getting the big-screen treatment. Universal Pictures has confirmed blog speculation that Bryan Singer, director of Valkyrie, will take on directing and producing duties for a BSG movie.

Peter Farrelly tells the Boston Globe the actor, now starring in ''Cold Souls,'' will step in as Larry, replacing Sean Penn

Legendary Pictures and Blizzard Entertainment have announced that Sam Raimi, director of Spiderman trilogy, will be taking the reigns of the upcoming Warcraft movie.

Charles Roven, who previously worked on The Dark Knight, is set to produce the film alongside Raimi.

After years of lounging in development, a live-action feature based on the classic 80's cartoon series "Voltron" is in the works at Atlas Entertainment says The Risky Biz Blog.

The series featured a band of five robot-lions who combined to form one super lion. A group of five pilots control the lions, which are charged with defending the planet Arus from villain King Zarkon, who dispatches evil creatures called Robobeats to fight the Voltron robots.

First he was going to direct and co-star as Kato in Columbia Pictures' Green Hornet , then he was only set to play Kato, and now Stephen Chow has exited the film completely due to scheduling conflicts.

Natalie Portman has been cast as the female lead in "Thor," Marvel Studios' adaptation of its comic book featuring the Norse god of thunder.

Warner Bros. has settled on Ryan Reynolds as its choice to play “Green Lantern,” the studio’s live-action tentpole based on the DC Comics hero.