Effie, a film based on the relationship between Victorian poet and artist, John Ruskin and his unfortunate wife Effie Gray will go into production next month. The film is written by Emma Thompson who will also play Lady Eastlake, and the Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan will be in the starring role of Gray. Read the full story

Twilight fans rejoice! A first look at the third film installment to Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular Twilight series has just appeared online. Check out the teaser trailer for Eclipse below or over at Yahoo in HD. Read the full story

Liam Hemsworth, who is playing Miley Cyrus’ love interest in Disney’s The Last Song, is currently in negotiations to take the lead role in Inferno Entertainment’s 3D adventure film, Arabian Nights.

Guy Ritchie’s comedic action film Sherlock Holmes may have divided critics but its worldwide box office success of $470 million has Warner Brothers scrambling for a sequel. It seemed inevitable that it would happen but in an interview with ComingSoon, Jude Law has all but confirmed the green light on Sherlock Holmes 2:

“I think we are probably going to make another one. I haven’t been given the absolute… it’s not like next week but I think it’s sometime this year is what I get.”

Sherlock Holmes was adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 19th Century detective novels. He wrote fifteen in the Holmes series, giving Warner Brothers ample sources for more than just one sequel should Sherlock Holmes 2 repeat its predecessors success. Law played the part of Sherlock Holmes’ (Robert Downey Jr.) sidekick Dr. Watson for which he is excited to reprise:

“Because of our enthusiasm for the project, once we knew it was doing well financially, we all started throwing in our ideas of where it could go and what should happen next. Mine of course involved Sherlock Holmes being locked in a box and Dr. Watson…”

Law’s name has also been mentioned recently as part of the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s virus outbreak thriller Contagion.  Starring alongside him are Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard. In the same interview he describes the premise of the film and his role as an online blogger:

“‘Contagion’ is not until the end of the year and I’m one of a large number of people in a big ensemble, so I’m doing like 10 days on that, in San Francisco, I think. Well, the subject matter is really interesting, it’s very current. It’s about a contagious disease spreading across the world and how it affects different elements. Be it the public, the medical services, the emergency services, politicians. I play someone online, a blogger, who is kind of a fearmonger. And I just like the part, I really like the part, and I just love Steven Soderbergh films. I think he’s a great talent.” (ComingSoon)

Law put in a likable, decent performance in Sherlock Holmes and if  Downey Jr. reprises his role the film will benefit again from their great onscreen chemistry. Hopefully, however, something is done to create a better screenplay as the first seemed to suffer from messy exposition that particularly ruins the ending of the film.

Would you go to see Sherlock Holmes 2 or Contagion?

Lead of the French indie-pop group Phoenix, Thomas Mars has revealed to The New York Times that his partner Sofia Coppola, director of Marie Antoinette, is currently adapting his song Love Like A Sunset for film. Read the full story

NBC Universal has released a high-res photo of the Hogwarts Express from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park at the Universal Studios Island of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. Read the full story

Yahoo! Movies has debuted this new poster for Toy Story 3 which is set to open in 3D theaters and Imax 3D on June 18th. The poster looks bright, colorful and fantastically attractive for children and adults alike. Although the previous two films already have a great fanbase, the poster alone looks like it could attract the handful of audiences that have yet to see the Pixar films. The sequel will include the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Michael Keaton and many, many others.

The trailer which was released last year revealed the storyline which begins with Andy leaving for college and his toys getting dumped in a daycare.

What do you think of the poster?

Rachel McAdams is in negotiations to star opposite Owen Wilson and the recently added Marion Cotillard in the yet to be titled Woody Allen film scheduled to shoot in the summer. Read the full story

After The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian bombed at the box office with a meager $141 million dollars, short $81 million of its production budget, it was thought that nobody could resurrect this beloved franchise. Soon after Caspian’s loss, Disney had dropped out of co-producing and distributing the third in C.S Lewis’ series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In a recent interview producer of the Narnia films, Mark Johnson expressed his own disappointment:

“We made some mistakes with Prince Caspian, and I don’t want to make them again. [Caspian] was a little bit too rough for families, and too much of a boys action movie.” ChristianityToday

But in recent times the fate of the Narnia films has been looking positive. Previous co-producer Walden Media has joined with 20th Century Fox to bring The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to life. A new director, Michael Apted replaces Andrew Adamson who brought the first two Narnia films the screen.

Now in post production, attention has turned to the film’s promotional trail, with the latest involving a special screening of the film for 100 Christian leaders with an “encyclopedic knowledge of C. S Lewis and the Narnia books”. The response was overwhelmingly positive:

“There seems to be a high level of respect for the material. My sense was that they really want to go to the authenticity of C. S. Lewis, maybe more so than ever.” (Steve Bell, Willow Creek Association)

Whether Dawn Treader does well in the box office may determine the fate of the rest of Narnia books yet to be adapted into films. But as the filmmakers are well aware Dawn Treader needs to appeal to the fans, Christian or otherwise, if it has any hope of succeeding and to do so they must stay true to the essence of the original story.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader opens in cinemas this year on December 10.

Do you think the Dawn Treader will be succeed in the box office?

The Oscar winning writer for Milk, Dustin Lance Black is set to write a a biopic based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI. Pajiba has reported that the biopic is being developed by Universal Pictures and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. No director has been attached as yet but with Black on board it should not take long for this film to begin production.

Black’s appointment as writer for this Hoover biopic is not unsurprising. As /Film has noted, Black is very interested in a positive representation of gay culture through which young gay men and women can exist in an environment that allows them to come out safely. Hoover was reportedly a cross-dresser and according to some also a homosexual. With such material at hand, Black’s representation of this within the biopic could possibly another remarkably enlightening film.

Hoover has already been portrayed by Billy Crudup in Public Enemies. Although the film was not a financial success, this biopic may prove otherwise with its story covering a greater extent of the FBI Director’s career, beginning from the founding of his organization in 1935. He made the FBI an efficient crime-fighting organization through the now famous method of harassing dissenters and building secret files on politicians. He is most often associated with his role in fighting the gangster wars in the 1930’s and, later, the Mafia.

At the moment Black is currently in post-production on What’s Wrong with Virginia, a drama he wrote and directed starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.

Do you think Dustin Lance Black is the best choice to write a Hoover Biopic?