Not long ago, Dreamworks bought a script by John Hlavin (Donkey Punch), who’s set to write Underworld 4 (if it ever happens). Now scribe Steven Zaillian is on to produce the “action thriller.” It’s only description is that it’s an “international heist movie.” [THR]

Zaillian is producing for Dreamworks but under his Film Rites company, which has the Kristen Stewart-starrer Welcome To the Rileys.

Despite his A-list screenwriter stature, Zaillian hasn’t produced much (A Civil Action, All The King’s Men, American Gangster) and two of them are films he wrote and directed. The other, American Gangster, he wrote. Rileys and this heist script are void of Zaillian touches in either writing or directing.

What do you think of Zaillian? As a writer? Director?

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Is Worthington the next Sean Connery? As long as he’s not in the next League of Extraordinary Gentleman, I can get behind this. [Heat Vision via First Showing]

Dreamworks has the former Na’vi leading their re-imagining of the adventurer’s H. Rider Haggard’s 1885 novel King Solomon’s Mines. Instead of exploring Africa in search of a missing person (as was the plot of Haggard’s novel) Worthington’s Quatermain will be exploring planets. Maybe he’ll clash with titans while exploring Pandora?

The Quatermain character was first played by Hal Lawrence in 1919 and most recently by the late Patrick Swayze and Sean Cameron Mitchel in television and straight-to-video fare.

He’s a literary hero deserving of a good film, or, at least, a successful one. Worthington has led both.

The young actor is currently shooting The Fields, directed by Michael Mann’s daughter, Ami Canaan Mann.

Do you like Worthington as an actor? Is he a movie star or just the star of big movies?

In case those reading this aren’t tired of the slew of graphic novel/comic book adaptations happening in Hollywood (one would assume that if you’re reading you are, in fact, not tired of it) then get excited. Sarcasm aside, actually get excited, because Cowboys and Aliens looks to be one of the more promising studio comic book adaptations getting made right now. Don’t believe me? Keep reading.
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At the 2009 SAG awards, lead actress winner Meryl Streep urged movie executives to give her Doubt co-star Viola Davis a leading film role pronto!

It turns out that Streep’s campaign worked and Davis has been tapped to star in the adaptation of the best selling novel The Help for Dreamworks. [Cinema Blend]

Tate Taylor (Pretty Ugly People) has adapted the book and will also serve as director on the project. The story revolves around a 1960′s Southern maid whose inside knowledge of a local family becomes the subject of a journalist’s article and the fallout this piece has on the community.

Are you excited to see Viola Davis in a leading role?

I may be the only person in the world who thought Jon Favreau‘s Iron Man was boring and fairly mediocre. I appreciated what it went for, but it all felt fairly standard compared to the likes of other, better comic book films (and ok, maybe I was a tad too hyped on The Dark Knight at the time.) That said, with my excitement level at a ‘meh’ for Iron Man 2, I’m fairly interested in his adaptation of Platinum Studios Cowboys & Aliens. Daniel Craig alone would have been worth going for, but then Olivia Wilde was announced for the picture. Read the full story

Dreamworks has, slowly but surely, made it’s way into the limelight of animation, producing worthwhile products (here and there) in their post-Shrek world (or at least post-original Shrek), a la Kung Fu Panda and the upcoming How To Train Your Dragon.

Now we have a small teaser for Megamind, a reflexive superhero film in the vein of The Incredibles. Will Ferrell is the voice of the title character.

Here’s the extremely promising synopsis:

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The much anticipated Martin Luther King Jr. biopic is to be scribed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood. [Variety] 

Dreamworks, which has tied Steven Spielberg to the project, is receiving unprecedented access to the King estate and is clearly not taking the honor lightly.

Harwood, who won an Oscar for The Pianist, is a native of South Africa and has written a number of screenplays about another civil rights leader Nelson Mandela. “I will do my utmost to be true to the truth,” Harwood said on the assignment, which might be the most important socially relevant film since Milk. Harwood has a number of screenplays to his name, including the critically-acclaimed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Spielberg was linked to the project as a producer in May, after Dreamworks received access to the King estate and his intellectual property, the first film to do so. Since, they have been relatively slow to move. I think they are responsibly avoiding haste while piecing together such an important film. This is one movie that could be worth the wait.

Where will the Martin Luther King Jr. biopic rank among socially important films? Who should play the lead?

According to THR’s Heat Vision blog D.J. Caruso will be taking on the film adaptation of the upcoming science fiction novels I Am Number Four by James Frey and Joby Hughes for Dreamworks. This project was previously reported to have Michael Bay attached to it and was going to be filmed in between Transformers 2 and 3. According to THR the plot of the novels is as follows: Read the full story

According to Latino Review the American remake to Park Chan-wook’s South Korean hit Oldboy that was set to star Will Smith and be directed by Steven Spielberg is dead. Apparently Spielberg’s production company Dreamworks couldn’t come to terms with the producers of the original manga series authored by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi and distributed by Mandate who also own the rights. It is unknown if Mandate just didn’t want the project taken over by Hollywood or if Dreamwroks simply wanted too big a piece of the money train the film was sure to make. Read the full story

In honor of the Dreamworks Animation Monsters Vs. Aliens hitting theaters this weekend here is a list of my 15 favorite animated films of the last 10 years:

15. Coraline 3-D (Selick, 2009)

Henry Selick uses 3-D technology to perfection in order to create a massively immersive fantasy. With a story based on a Neil Gaman book, we are led into a variety of environments with a world of intriguing characters.

Check out the rest of the list >>