Movie News Rundown...

It's been a long and very busy week this week, and I gather it's been the same for the other members of this blog due to the lack of posts, so again I have accumulated a few bits of news and bunched them all up into one post which you can find below. Enjoy!

The Muppets II News

The sequel to 2011's Muppet movie is now confirmed as heading our way in December 2013. Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained star Christoph Waltz has joined the cast as an Interpol agent and the setting for the new caper is Europe.

James Bobin is returning to the directing chair and is co-writing with Nichlas Stoller. Actor Jason Segel who co-wrote and starred in the first movie supposedly isn't returning at all, although a previous news suggested he may cameo. Bret McKenzie who wrote all the tunes the first time round will be back and we may even get a new Muppet (hopefully Walter will be in it as I loved him!).

Is Disney Thinking Of Buying Hasbro???

A big rumour hit the web last week that the new Godzilla of Hollywood - Disney - may be thinking of another massive purchase very soon after having bought Lucasfilm recently. And that purchase is - 'HASBRO'.

As you'll probably know Hasbro is one of the biggest toy manufacturers in the world and has a whole bunch of franchises under it's umbrella including Transformers, My Little Pony, and Magic: The Gathering to name but a few. This is by no means 100% confirmed as only a handful of geek-sites released the rumour online last week and it could just be people trying to make big news based on Disney's last massive company acquisition .

Brett Ratner Directing Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson In 'Hercules' Next Year

Various sources confirmed last week that a Hercules movie is moving ahead with Brett Ratner directing and Dwayne Johnson in the lead role (too much like Scorpion King maybe?). 

The story of Hercules: Fourteen hundred years ago, a tormented soul walked the earth that was neither man nor god. Hercules was the powerful son of the god king Zeus, for this he received nothing but suffering his entire life. After twelve arduous labors and the loss of his family, this dark, world-weary soul turned his back on the gods finding his only solace in bloody battle. Over the years he warmed to the company of six similar souls, their only bond being their love of fighting and presence of death. These men and woman never question where they go to fight or why or whom, just how much they will be paid. Now the King of Thrace has hired these mercenaries to train his men to become the greatest army of all time. It is time for this bunch of lost souls to finally have their eyes opened to how far they have fallen when they must train an army to become as ruthless and blood thirsty as their reputation has become.

Popeye Movie Confirmed For 2014

Sony Pictures and Genndy Tartakovsky (creator of Samurai Jack and director of Hotel Transylvania) are confirmed to bring us the new Popeye film in 3D in September 2014. It has also been revealed that Jay Scherick and David Ronn will write the film. Supposedly the film is going to be purely CG but no other news has been released at this time.

Academy Award Winning Writer Michael Arndt Confirmed As Star Wars Ep VII Screenplay

News broke this week that Little Miss Sunshine writer (and massive Star Wars fan) Michael Arndt has been hired to write the screenplay for the new Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars Ep VII movie. Thankfully Michael is an original trilogy lover and a huge fan of Return of the Jedi and its ending. That's enough for me to be happy at least!

Here's the official press release from Starwars.com: As pre-production of Star Wars: Episode VII begins, Lucasfilm has confirmed that award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay for the new Star Wars film. As revealed in the ongoing video series posted here on StarWars.com, Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas have begun story conferences with Arndt. Arndt won an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay for writing Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing Toy Story 3 (2010).

Amazing Spider-Man 2 To Change Suit For Classic Look?

Minor news but it seems an online rumour states that the sequel to Amazing Spider-Man may give us a more classic Spidey costume rather than the more futuristic 'silver tipped shoe' style in the first film. That is all...

Transformers 4 - Mark Wahlberg Confirmed & New Logo Revealed

So Michael Bay has cast Mark Wahlberg in the upcoming Transformers 4 film? Hmmmm. This could be great or awful, not sure which at this point. No news yet on any other cast members, Wahlberg's character, or position in the franchise (no Sam etc?), but we do have a newly released logo which is above.