I’m not usually the one to praise a prequel but the forthcoming one for the Alien series has me pleased as punch. OK, The Thing prequel also has me pretty excited too but that’s it.

The Alien movie has won me over because it’s telling the story of the mysterious Space Jockey, also known as the dead guy who had his chest blown out from the inside. Granted, The Thing prequel has a similar premise but that just goes to show how good 70s sci-fi was – always leaving us wanting more.

Anyhow, today’s news is that Damon Lindelof, writer of Lost, Cowboys and Aliens and the next Star Trek movie, has been hired to rewrite the script. Deadline Hollywood are reporting that Lindelof has signed a deal that would see him working with Ridley Scott to firm up the script, something that may tempt Scott into directing the film.

Fans are champing at the bit to see Scott back in the driving seat and bringing the series back to it’s roots and apparently the meeting between him and Lindelof has sparked some interesting ideas. Lindelof has certainly proved that his writing is up to snuff and his geek credibility is on the up but writing an Alien movie is no walk in the park, right Joss Whedon?

After the recent boneheaded decision to abolish the UK Film Council, the chairman, Tim Bevan, issued a statement on the Council’s official website.

Naturally, Bevan is angered by the decision but he also indicates that this will effect the film industry for years to come.

“Abolishing the most successful film support organisation the UK has ever had is a bad decision, imposed without any consultation or evaluation. People will rightly look back on today’s announcement and say it was a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency. British film, which is one of the UK’s more successful growth industries, deserves better.

“Our immediate priority now is to press the Government to confirm that the funding levels and core functions that are needed to underpin British film are locked-in, especially at a time when filmmakers and film companies need more support than ever as they make the challenging transition into the digital age. To that end, we will work with the DCMS over the summer to identify how they can guarantee both continuity and safe harbour for British film.”

Well said, Sir. He’s not the only one that’s feeling disheartened by the Government’s decision. Many filmmakers and journalists are confused as to how the industry will cope with a structured financing body. Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen International had this to say,

“It is a stunning blind side and a shocking blow. It feels like a terrible betrayal of the industry. The UK Film Council has done a good job of slimming itself down so it is a disturbing day.

The UK Film Council has spent the last 10 years establishing the value of film to the economy and this feels like a dismantling of that by the government.”

If you’re wondering what on Earth the UK Film Council does exactly, well, for a start it’s invested over £160 million of Lottery funding into over 900 UK films since it’s creation in 2000. That’s a much needed helping hand to our industry that we’re now without, thanks a bunch ConDems.

It’s helped to fund films like Bend it like Beckham, The Constant Gardener, Fish Tank, Gosford Park, Happy-Go-Lucky, In the Loop, The Last King of Scotland, Nowhere Boy, St Trinian’s, This is England, and Streetdance 3D, the UK’s first 3D film.

While Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan takes flight at the Venice Film Festival this year, his proposed remake of RoboCop gets cancelled according to Moviehole.

According to their source at MGM, the cancellation is down to the studios financial troubles. The insider said of the project, “Gone. Kaput. Cancelled. It was one of the first casualties.” Ouch. So times are really tough at MGM and perhaps this film and others could have been saved by the merger that might have been between MGM and Lionsgate, now I guess we’ll never know.

By the sounds of it, MGM aren’t the only ones who had given up on the idea of another RoboCop.

“[Darren] has lost interest anyway, I believe. Think we’re all just going to have to be happy with the three RoboCop movies that are out there.”

The source also told Moviehole that there had been plans to put another Amityville Horror and Rocky movie into production but ‘not necessarily with Sylvester Stallone’. We’re not really sure that would work out financially for the studio and if people were happy with three RoboCop movies then I think we’re good with six Rocky movies.

Disney are gearing up to relaunch their beloved Tinkerbell in a live-action movie based around the famous fairy and Elizabeth Banks has landed the titular role.

Variety are reporting that Banks will also serve as producer on Tink along with McG, Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot who are all pitching in with their own production companies. Elizabeth Wright Shapiro will pen the script after being behind the project since the beginning.

The Tinkerbell character continues to have success in Disney’s straight-to-DVD series and it does beg the question, is Disney overworking the character just a bit?

In Disney’s original Peter Pan , Tinkerbell was glamorous but mischievous and her classic image has since become a symbol of Disney magic. She was reimagined as a tomboy who yearned to be a lady in Steven Spielberg’s Hook with Julia Roberts and as an impish trickster in 2003 with PJ Hogan’s Peter Pan.

Banks plays usually plays comedy with a sweeter edge than most so we may get just the right amount of sass and style to suit our fairy friend.

Although it wasn’t Pixar’s biggest money-spinner, Cars is getting a sequel of it’s very own. And not just that, it’s getting it’s own bloody spin-off!

Honestly, Cars isn’t the movie we’d base a franchise around but we trust the judgement of Pixar, after all, they did just give us a big present in the shape of Toy Story 3.

The spin-off will be based on more anthropomorphised vehicles called Planes and, according to Movie Line, will be a direct-to-DVD release. Looks like Pixar are taking a leaf out of Disney’s book with a DVD sequel but is this really the best use of Pixar’s talents? It takes a ruddy long time to make an animated film and instead of focusing on projects Monster’s Inc 2, they’re working on pointless side projects?

After the cancellation of Newt, a project that had been in pre-production for two years, we were more than a little disappointed and now we hear that they’re focusing on money-making DVDs? Not impressed. But according to the Playlist, Pixar have recently opened up a campus in Canada where they will be specializing in projects like these.

OK, so maybe split duties between the two branches might accommodate both features and DVD fodder but we just have to wait and see.

It seems that the third instalment of the Men In Black series is making some headway as a rough plot outline has been released. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will return for more alien adventures but this time they’re doing a little time-travelling.

JoBlo have the scoop on the project, stating that

“The general idea is that Yaz travels back in time to kill Kay, which sets off a chain of events that ends in the destruction of the world… The film has Agent Jay sent back in time to 1969 where he teams up with a young Kay to stop Yaz from destroying the world in the future.”

Hmmm. Sounds a bit Back To The Futurish but we’ll reserve judgement for now. As we previously reported, Jermaine Clement will play Yaz who is described as “a nightmare biker who looks like Dennis Hopper and Satan” and who is written as a serious part. This begs the question – why on Earth would you cast Jermaine Clement for that role?

Josh Brolin has been cast as the younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’ Kay but they’re really stretching the meaning of young here – Brolin is 42. This oversight might be played for laughs considering that Tommy Lee Jones has never looked young in his life.

There’ll also be some alien surprises as it is revealed that Yoko Ono, Jimi Hendrix, Castro, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Andy Warhol were all of the extra-terrestrial persuasion. It sounds like fun but will it just be more predictable time-travel gags like Hot Tub Time Machine? That movie used stupidity as its backbone which made it work, but will the alien influence keep MIB 3 alive? Perhaps the 3D will help but probably not.

Harry Potter’s Ginny Weasley AKA Bonnie Wright has described what it was like to effectively grow up on the set of Potter.

Wright was just nine years old when she starred in the first Potter movie and we remember well her cute little face wishing Harry good luck on Platform 9 3/4. Now she’s all grown up and at the ripe old age of 19 she’s bidding the franchise a fond fairwell as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II closed production recently.

Talking to MTV, Wright described her experiences.

“Being the person who sort of ends up with the hero of this franchise is never something I ever would have imagined. It’s just been so exciting, so lovely to have something that develops further, and you can make [Ginny] my own and take things from your own life growing up and put those things into it.”

Filming the epilogue scenes of the Deathly Hallows were apparently quite emotional and bizarre for Wright. “It wasn’t my last scene, but it was one of my last scenes.

That’s where I started the journey of ‘Harry Potter,’ on the platform, and then to see the girl who’s playing our daughter was just psychologically, it was very weird, because she’s the same age as me. It was literally having a whole cycle of the journey.”

Wright also spoke about what it was like to film the famous epilogue of which we’ve already seen some sneaky photos. Though not everyone loved the final scenes of the book, the production staff apparently spent a great deal of time making the scene perfect. For those who didn’t read the book, SPOILER ALERT, the epilogue sees the main characters many years in the future and sending their own children off to Hogwarts, leaving many wondering how the ageing effect would be achieved.

“I hope it’s well-received. In terms of the prosthetics and creativity of it, they took months and months — I must have done 100 tests and costume fittings. A lot of energy went into making that moment perfect.”

You can catch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I in cinemas this November, but for now you can watch the most awesome trailer we’ve seen this year.