Hedlund had his debut in 2004’s Troy and has acted in large ensemble pieces since then. His other films include Friday Night Lights, Four Brothers, Eragon and Georgia Rule. He has long been considered on the very of breaking big and starring in this $150 million film could be the launching point he’s been looking for.

Other people interested in the role included Ryan Gosling and Chris Pine as well as Cloverfield’s Michael Stahl-David.

Hedlund will play the lead, a man who finds himself pulled into the computer world of Tron, retracing the steps of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges, who will be reprising the role) from the original film.

Source: hollywoodreporter.com

This would not be Rourke’s first foray into comic book films, as he played Marv, the tough guy with a heart of gold, in Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City.

Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Frost/Nixon) is slated to play a British villain named Justin Hammer, a multibillionaire businessman and a rival of industrialist of Tony Stark.

Wow, first it was Downey, Jr. as the actor that is as in-demand as ever. Now Rourke with his Oscar buzz is part of two big casting announcements in less than the day - the other being in The Expendables.

Sources: Variety and The Hollywood Reporter

Mickey Rourke is the newest actor to be added to Sylvester Stallone’s next directorial effort. Already my pick for comeback of the year, Rourke will join Sly, and the call sheet of actors we’ve mentioned over the last few days and weeks. You have Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Forest Whitaker. Rourke will play an arms dealer who becomes the go-to guy for a group of mercenaries planning to topple a South American dictator.

The Expendables begins filming in March.

Source: Variety

The 3-D performance-capture films, based on Georges Remi’s comic books, which are being co-financed by Song Pictures Entertainment and Paramount Pictures, will center on Tintin’s globe trotting adventures as a fearless reporter. In the books, the Thompson Twins are a pair of incompetent, clumsy detectives who can only be told apart by the shape of their mustaches. Thompson, with a “p,” has a flat mustache, while Thomson, without the distinguishing letter, has a flared out version.

The casting was confirmed by Dawn Sedwick, Pegg’s agent in London, who was unable to confirm if the Twins would appear in both pics.

As previously reported, Andy Serkis will play Tintin’s sidekick Captain Haddock. The titular hero has yet to be cast. Thomas Sangster had been set for the role, but left the project when ti was delayed due to funding difficulties caused by the DreamWorks/Paramount split.

But whoever plays the reporter, with the names they’ve already lined up on this project, in front of and behind the camera these are sure to be two fantastic films.

Source: Variety

Nu Image/Millennium Films is producing the film. Avi Lerner, John Thompson and Kevin King Templeton are producing along with exec producers Boaz Davidson, Trevor Short and Danny Dimbort.

Stallone, who expressed his intention to woo Whitaker at the AFM in November, has been scouting locations for a February shoot. Reports about Stallone’s pursuit of “Demolition Man” co-star Sandra Bullock amount to, according to a Nu Image/Millennium spokesperson, merely wishful thinking for fans.

“Expendables” is the first project in Stallone’s two-picture deal with Nu Image/Millennium. He last wrote and directed “Rambo,” which mowed down $155 million in worldwide grosses.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Not only has Sylvester Stallone attracted Jason Statham and Jet Li to his project, but he’s been in talks with Forest Whitaker, Dolph Lundgren, and Gandhi. Well, Ben Kingsley, but close enough.

Now there’s no telling if Sly wants Kingsley to play the villainous dictator. If so, he could flashback to his Oscar-nominated performance in Sexy Beast. But even if he’s assisting Sly’s team of mercenaries, that’ll be fun too.

The Expendables is slated to be released in 2010. Man, and we’re just starting 2009. The anticipation’s killing me.

Source: JoBlo.com

The actors are back reprising their roles from the first film that of Pasquale Acosta “S.A. Gerald Diego” and Laszlo Soot, respectively.

Acosta is a maniacal torture expert and mercenary, whilst Soot is a deadly master of disguise.

The new film, a prequel to Joe Carnahan’s popular 2007 actioner, centers on the ‘Tremor’ Family but we’re told not to expect the return of next-big-thing Chris Pine as oldest brother Darwin.

Production begins next month in Vancouver with P.J Pesce (Lost Boys: The Tribe) calling the shots.

Credit: Moviehole

The scribe is now working on three post-Valkyrie projects designed as potential star vehicles for the actor.

New Regency has set McQuarrie and Mason Alley to write Flying Tigers, based on the volunteer fighter squadron formed to help the Chinese fight the Japanese before the U.S. entered World War II.

Cruise isn’t formally attached. The Top Gun star has long wanted to return to the skies, and several years ago was attached to The Few, a Paramount project about the first American pilots to battle Germans in WWII, with director Michael Mann and scribe John Logan.

McQuarrie also is writing and producing with Guillermo del Toro the previously announced United Artists project The Champions, penning the script with an eye toward hammering it into a Cruise vehicle. The British TV series transfer concerns a team of government agents rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization and given superhuman abilities.

MGM brass has long felt that the project was UA’s strongest chance for a big-ticket franchise vehicle that could star UA co-owner Cruise.

But the Cruise-McQuarrie collaboration with the most urgency is Spyglass espionage drama The Tourist. McQuarrie is rewriting for Cruise to star with Charlize Theron in the Bharat Nalluri-directed remake of the 2005 French thriller Anthony Zimmer. Julian Fellowes originally scripted the redo.

Credit: Variety

The studio and producer Neal Moritz are in the process of setting a new director to keep the picture on track to begin production by spring.

The character began on radio in the 1930s and is best known from the ’60s TV version. But a bigscreen translation is having a long gestation, going through many incarnations, including as a proposed George Clooney vehicle.

Chow, who directed and starred in Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, signed in September to direct the film and play the role originated in the TV series by Bruce Lee. He stepped out as director over creative differences.

The film was scripted by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and Rogen is starring as the masked crime fighter. The script will likely be polished, and a director could be in place by year’s end.

Credit: Variety

Rob Zombie is packing up and heading back to Haddonfield for H2, the sequel to his remake of John Carpenter’s classic film from 1978. While other horror websites patronized us for reporting the story broke by Shock, it appears the egg is in their face as Zombie will return to both write and direct the sequel to Halloween for Dimension Films. Read on for the official news and full details on the deal. What do you guys think? Where should Zombie take the sequel?

Dimension Films and Rob Zombie are teaming for another chapter of Halloween, and he’s racing to scare up the pic for release in October.

Zombie will write and direct H2, the sequel to his 2007 reinvention of the John Carpenter horror classic. Production will begin in March.

The new film picks up right as the first remake ended, following the aftermath of Michael Myers’ murderous rampage through the eyes of the sister he hunted.

Zombie said it won’t resemble the original second installment, as the House of 1000 Corpses helmer continues to take the franchise in different directions.

Zombie took Carpenter’s original and stamped it with an original storyline that treated Myers as a clinical psychopath. The film grossed $60 million domestically in 2007.

Zombie had told Dimension chief and TWC co-chairman Bob Weinstein he wanted nothing to do with a sequel. But just like the franchise’s villain, Zombie was compelled to come back.

“I was so burned out. (But) I took a long break, made a record and I got excited again,” Zombie said. “Now, we’ll be hauling ass, and that’s the problem making a movie called Halloween: If you come out Nov. 1 or after, nobody cares. If it was called anything else, I’d be fine.”

Malek Akkad of Trancas Intl. Films will produce with Spectacle Entertainment’s Andy Gould.

Bloody-Disgusting actually been hearing about Zombie’s return to Haddonfield for a few weeks now, and something that has become quite clear to them is that Zombie intends on bringing back a few names from his 2007 remake of Halloween. From their sources close to the project, expect to see the return of Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode, Tyler Mane as Michael Myers, Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Sam Loomis, Daeg Faerch as young Michael Myers and of course Sheri Moon Zombie as Deborah Meyers. Nothing is set in stone as the script is currently being written, but we’ll have the official news when anything is officially announced. Rob Zombie’s H2 picks up right as the first remake ended, following the aftermath of Michael Myers’ murderous rampage through the eyes of the sister he hunted.

And now for some early poster art from H2:

Credit: Variety/Bloody-Disgusting