Category: Films

Tom Hanks is ready for a different kind of toy story, having signed on to star in a live-action feature based on Mattel's 1960s astronaut action figure MAJOR MATT MASON, via VARIETY. SPEED scribe Graham Yost is penning the screenplay.

Hanks will also serve as producer with Playtone partner Gary Goetzman.

Hanks would play Mason, the leader of an astronaut team that conducts operations on the moon via a space station nearby. Mattel discontinued the toy line in the 1970s.

Mattel execs Tim Kilpin and Barry Waldo will exec produce.

Warner Bros. will produce the action adventure METHUSELAH from writer/director James Watkins (EDEN LAKE), reports VARIETY. David Heyman will serve as producer via his Heyday production house.

Inspired by the biblical figure who lived nearly 1,000 years, the contemporary tale features a man who ages slowly and the survival skills he has developed over that time.

Watkins and Heyman previously worked together when Watkins was a development exec for the HARRY POTTER producer. WB exec Ollie Madden brought the project to Warner.

Summit Ent. has rounded up its wolf pack for THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON. Chaske Spencer, Bronson Pelletier, Alex Meraz, Kiowa Gordon and Tyson Houseman have been hired to join Taylor Lautner as the film's Native American werewolves.

In the sequel, when Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is heartbroken over the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), she strikes up a new relationship with Jacob Black (Lautner). As she is drawn into the centuries old feud between the vampires and werewolves, she finds her loyalties torn.

Amanda Seyfried is dropping out of Zack Snyder's SUCKER PUNCH due to scheduling conflicts with her commitment to HBO's BIG LOVE, reports ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. Snyder's follow-up to WATCHMEN will begin filming during the middle of the cable series' fourth season.

Seyfried had been cast as Babydoll, an institutionalized woman who dreams of running away from the asylum with the other inmates.

The remaining cast includes Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Evan Rachel Wood, and Emma Stone.

Walt Disney Pictures has announced the U.S. release date of Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, PONYO, a story inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale THE LITTLE MERMAID. Fans of the animation master will only have to wait until Aug. 14th to see what is already a hit in Japan.

The story of a young and overeager goldfish named Ponyo (voiced by Noah Cyrus) and her quest to become human. The voice cast includes Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White and Frankie Jonas as Sosuke, a young boy who befriends Ponyo.

Mark Bomback, the co-writer of box office champ RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN, has been tapped by New Line and Playtone to pen the WWII spy drama AGENT ZIGZAG, reports VARIETY. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman of Playtone will produce.

Based on Ben Macintyre's novel, the tale follows real-life career criminal Edward Arnold Chapman, who was trained by the Nazis as a spy, who upon a sabotage mission in England contacted the British and became a double agent.

Disney has set a date for uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer's live-action version of THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE, reports VARIETY. The family adventure will hit screens July 16, 2010.

Based on the classic Mickey Mouse segment from FANTASIA, the modern day live-action film will star Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel. Jon Turteltaub is the director of the film, which begins filming this month.

For 2010, Disney has two other big tentpole films -- PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME on May 28 and TOY STORY 3 on July 18.