Who on Earth keeps greenlighting Vin Diesel movies?

Mr. Potatoe Head will be returning to star and produce the third installment of the Chronicles Of Riddick franchise as will writer/director David Twohy according to reports in Variety.

There are no plot details available just yet but it’s said that the film will be closer to Pitch Black than it’s sequel. Though Chronicles was widely panned it made boatloads of money so we see the appeal of another entry, but will it be worth it?

The film is said to just be called Riddick and will have a carefully planned shooting schedule so as not to overlap with the planned sequels in the Fast and Furious series.

Twohy is also on writing duties for the upcoming but totally un-anticipated Brazillian Job; sequel to the Mark Wahlberg vehicle. So we’ll have to wait and see if this Riddick thing turns out before we get excited about boring heists in Brazil.

Pirates Of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides just keeps getting stranger.

Recent casting news, courtesy of HeatVisionBlog, indicates that Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz is in negotiations to join Johnny Depp on another adventure.

It’s not Cruz’s usual choice of movie but we’ll go with it, providing there are sexy scenes between her and Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow.

Though the juicy details of the plot are yet to be revealed, it’s going to be based around the quest for the Fountain of Youth with the occasional rumour of the infamous pirate Blackbeard being involved.

Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot return for writing duties with Rob Marshall stepping up to direct. The casting of Cruz could be down to Marshall given the fact that he just directed her in the musical Nine which also bagged Cruz an Oscar nom. A winning combination? Only time will tell.

Though better Cruz on board than Keira ‘Skeletor’ Knightley.

Australian actress Emily Browning, star of A Series of Unfortunate Events, has reportedly signed on to play Sleeping Beauty in a dark revamp of the classic tale, according to ThePlaylist.

Actually, I’m re-reading the description of the film and ‘dark’ just doesn’t quite cover it.

The plot is described as, “a haunting erotic fairy tale about a student who drifts into prostitution and finds her niche as a woman who sleeps, drugged, in a ‘Sleeping Beauty chamber’ while men do to her what she can‘t remember the next morning.”

Hey, we’ve all been there.

Browning is going to get a reputation as the replacement go-to girl after she got this part by stepping in for Alice and Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska. Apparently Mia was too busy doing working on Gus Van Sant’s Restless and Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre.

She also took over the role of Baby Doll in Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch after Amanda Seyfried dropped out.

The script is written and will be directed by first-timer Julia Leigh, made it onto the 2008 Black list (the best unproduced movies of the year). Looks like Sleeping Beauty will be in good company in the next year as Sarah Polley’s Black List script is also getting produced.

At Christmas I overindulged in pretty much everything theb sat down to watch every Christmas movie the tellybox had to throw at me. But the only film I’m interested in seeing was The Muppet Christmas Carol, because no one does good old family fun like the Muppets.

So imagine my excitement when I got an update of the latest Muppet movie to come our way. The film is being written by Forgetting Sarah Marshall star and director, Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller respectively, and helmed by Flight of The Conchord’s director, James Bobin.

The film is now going to be called The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time. Hmmm, overestimating our abilities there Jason? Only time will tell and hopefully we’ll get more news as Disney aim for a Summer shooting schedule

A source told ThePlaylist blog about the plot of the film but wouldn’t hand over the actual screenplay. Selfish so-and-so.

“The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time” is about Gary, Mary, and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man’s life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang — now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them from — together to save the TV studio that the original show was shot in.

A villain, Tex Richman (nice name, on par with Doc Hopper), bent on drilling for oil underneath the studio, is due to take over the studio in weeks and the only way to stop him? Putting on a show that draws ten million viewers.

The film will be a musical with some big production numbers but the question on everybody’s lips? Will Piggy and Kermit finally just get it on already? OK, that may cross the line from family fun into naughtiness but I think we’d all pay to see that.

Everyone’s favourite Slytherin, Tom Felton, has signed on to appear in the supernatural thriller The Apparition.

Helmed by Todd Lincoln who’s making his writing and directorial debut, Felton will be in the role of Patrick, the third lead, according to ShockTillYouDrop.com.

Previous cast members that were announced are Twilight’s Ashley Greene and Skins star Luke Pasqualino.

After not doing much in between the Harry Potter movies, Felton might finally pursue some more worthwhile projects now that the films are drawing to a close.

Can you remember seeing him play anyone other than Malfoy? Exactly – time for the blonde bad boy to take a leaf out of his Potter co-stars’ book and break out of the mold before it’s too late.

Shawshank Redemption star Tim Robbins has signed on to play Senator Hammond in the new Green Lantern movie based on the DC comic book of the same name.

According to HeatVisionBlog, Robbins will join Martin Campbell’s production which will see Ryan Reynolds as The Green Lantern, a test pilot that receives a powerful rings that makes him part of an intergalactic peace keeping force.

The role of Senator Hammond is a key part in the making of the Green Lantern’s enemy, Dr. Hector Hammond, into the baddie that he is by way of being a disapproving father and cold-hearted meanie.

But things take a nasty turn when Hector gains psychic powers from a meteor rock. Kind of like every other villain in Smallville.

Previous reports indicated that Mark Strong would play the villain of the piece Sinestro, but will Campbell be going the double villain route like The Dark Knight or is Dr. Hector stealing the show?

Looking forward to a start date in March, the shooting will take place in New Orleans with a 2011 release.

It’s not even released yet but the star-studded Valentine’s Day has already has a spin-off greenlit, according to reports in Variety.

capitalizing on holidays where people are desperate to hook up with someone, New Line have given the go-ahead for New Year’s Eve with a release date of late 2011.

Director Gary Marshall may return for the project but will the big name stars? Valentine’s Day will see Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Twilight’s Taylor Lautner and McDreamy Patrick Dempsey and more, all falling in and out of love.

But I wouldn’t hold your breath on them returning. It’s always a possibility that they’ll come back and usher in the New Year with a kiss, but it’s simply finding the time around big Hollywood schedules.

Hathaway, Cooper and Roberts seem to have a full calendar to be getting on with but Jessica Alba, who also stars, hasn’t got much slated so there’s a chance we’ll see her stellar acting talents again. Though the actors only work a for a few days on a multi-narrrative project like this, it can be a real pain to work around so many high-profile timetables.

Here’s hoping anyway.

Mary-Elizabeth Winstead, star of the upcoming Scott Pilgrim VS. the World has been hit up to appear in the prequel to 80’s sci-fi horror, John Carpenter’s The Thing.

According to HeatVisionBlog, Winstead is signing on along with Australian star Joel Edgerton to start shooting in Toronto on 15th March.

From the sounds of it, Winstead could well be playing the hero in the movie but unfortunately if you’ve seen The Thing, you know how it ends for the characters of the prequel. It’s said that she will be playing the part of a Ph.D candidate assisting a Norwegian research group in the Antarctic when they uncover a spaceship filled with a bad-tempered parasite.

HeatVisionBlog describe the action as, ’she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Edgerton) to stop the rampage.’

This sounds like the prequel will be giving Winstead the big budget leading role she’s worked so hard for, but being used to pretty girl roles, how will she perform as a Ph.D student and the action hero?

Not content with being one of the world’s sexiest men and an Oscar nominated actor, Johnny Depp is soon to direct a documentary about legendary rocker, Keith Richards, reports Variety.

Richards was famously Depp’s inspiration for the now iconic Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of The Caribbean series and even starred as Sparrow’s father in the third instalment.

Depp’s last outing as director was back in 1997 with The Brave which he also starred in with Marlon Brando. It wasn’t exactly a hit with American critics which may account for why Depp hasn’t directed since. That and he’s been ridiculously busy acting his little heart out.

With work on the project to begin next week, how will Depp fit it around press work for the upcoming Alice In Wonderland?

Star of the upcoming Percy Jackson And The Lighting Thief Logan Lerman is apparently in talks with Sony about taking over the role of Spiderman in the new rebooted movies.

The fresh faced 18-year old is in tentative discussions to take over the role of Peter Parker from Tobey Maguire with the studios actively contacting Lerman on the part.

Talking to Access Hollywood, “It’s a role that any actor would die to play and I’m just hoping to be considered for it.”

“I’m the biggest fan, I’d love to focus on the human element a little bit more, it’d be such a fun experience.”

Could Lerman pull off the teenage superhero? Stay tuned for my review of Percy Jackson to find out if he has the chops.