Movie news round-up: the Olympics has ruined everything edition

Remember when everyone was talking about Batman and James Bond? That was cool. Now it's Usain Bolt this and Mo Farah that and Andy fucking Murray everywhere. Subsequently, nothing of interest has happened in the last seven days. I MISS YOU, FILMS.

Topical news! Less than 24 hours after her historic Olympic win, there are already plans to make a movie based on the life of Jessica Ennis. The biopic, which will be financed by... no, sorry, I can't do this. I made it all up. I was just trying to grab your attention with something Olympic-related. I have brought shame on my website. Still, keep reading, the rest of today's news is real - by the time you've finished, it'll probably be true anyway.
More pictures from Cloud Atlas are surfacing online, including this quartet showing the four characters played by Hugo Weaving. I thought that bottom right picture looked familiar, so I looked up the book on Wikipedia and I was right: there IS a chapter based on Madonna.

There's more over at Collider, including the first picture of Hugh Grant's cannibal, but here's a sneak peek at the Hanksology to get you wet.

I haven't read The Dark Tower (it's a book, right?) but lots of people who have are very excited about the prospect of a movie version. Universal decided it was too expensive earlier this year and cut the project loose, but now Warner Bros, Ron Howard and - if reports are to be believed - Russell Crowe could be bringing it back to life. I'm not Crowe's biggest fan, so I'm kind of hoping the tower falls on him. Does that happen?
If you're the kind of person who gets a perverse little thrill out of seeing cartoon characters showing more boob than their animators intended, you'll love this gallery from Mexican artist Rodolfo Loaiza, depicting various Disney icons in 'adult situations'.


Larry David (TV's Larry David) is making a movie for HBO, to be directed by Superbad's Greg Mottola. The movie, as yet unnamed, will see David play the co-inventor of an electric car, who falls out with his asshole partner (over a trifling matter, natch) only to see him become filthy rich. Years later, penniless and bald, he begins to exact his revenge. No word yet on who'll play David's former partner, but let's face it, it'll be Ricky fucking Gervais.

The latest entry in the Ghostbusters III saga, based entirely around a movie that doesn't exist and probably never will, is that Bill Murray is officially out (of a movie that doesn't exist and probably never will). More on this thrilling story as it doesn't develop.
This first picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger in police thriller The Last Stand is too odd-shaped for me to write all over. Where's the fun in that?


Hurry, go and watch this new trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey before I even have a chance to tell you it's almost exactly the same as the first trailer apart from a few seconds!


Bryan Singer has confirmed that the sequel to X-Men: First Class will be called X-Men: Days Of Future Past. Based on a popular storyline from the comic-books, it'll likely see the younger characters from First Class meet their older iterations from the Bryan Singer era, hopefully leading to plenty of exchanges like this.


Chat show host Jimmy Fallon is in talks to host the 2012 Academy Awards. To save you some time before you Google him, I screen-captured his highest Google predictive hits below. Says a lot about a man, I find.



So he's basically the American Chris Evans, then.

If you liked Sideways and thought it in desperate need of a sequel, you might like to know that the book has already been written, is called Vertical and has been stuck in development hell for years. If you have an iPad, you can sit back and read the entire script from iTunes with a nice glass of whatever kind of wine goes with iPads.
Oh, to be a casting director. Kenneth Branagh has his hands full fleshing out the cast for his Jack Ryan reboot, particularly the female lead. Up for the part are Keira Knightley, Felicity Jones and Evangeline Lilly, three talented actresses who are so gorgeous they're the perfect distracting end to this, the worst movie news round-up ever.



Sorry. Back to normal next week. Wait... THE OLYMPICS ARE ON FOR ANOTHER WEEK?