Madonna may still be churning out the hits but she has ceased to become a relevant music artist. I think Madonna knows it too that’s why she’s slowly branching out to other fields. She’s designing clothes, writing children’s books and in a few months, will start dabbling in film. No, it’s not going to be a return to her consistently disastrous meddling with acting. This time, Madge is going for the director’s chair.

Her marriage to Guy Ritchie probably made Madonna think that she can direct a movie too. According to Variety, Madonna is going to direct W.E., a biopic that will revolve around the affair between King Edward VIII and the American widow Wallis Simpson.

Up in The Air’s Vera Farmiga is in talks to play Simpson’s role. The actor who will play the part of King Edward is yet to be determined.

King Edward and Wallis Simpson’s affair caused quite a stir in the 1930s, and many consider it a great love story for a king to step down from his throne in order to marry the woman he loves.

Aside from directing, Madonna will also write the script Alex Keshishian.

With Avatar the hottest movie in recent memory and the biggest grossing movie of all time, talk of a sequel is already expected — and since director James Cameron’s previous movie obviously can’t get a sequel unless you turn it into a supernatural movie (you know what I mean), an Avatar sequel becomes all the more important for movie fans and the film studio.

James Cameron has weighed in on possible Avatar sequels. Cameron revealed that he was not thinking about a sequel when he first wrote the script of Avatar more than 15 years ago. He did say ideas for a sequel began to pop up during the course of making Avatar. He said that anything they thought up or designed for Avatar that they didn’t know how to include in the movie was immediately considered as something that can be put in a sequel. This means, according to the director, that they have a huge backlog of things that they can put into future movies.

Cameron further said that he already thought up of a story arc for a second or even third Avatar movie but everything’s still up in the air. He vaguely said that there may not be a third film, or they can go further than three films. The just have to figure out how things will develop in the future.

We’ll see if Cameron does follow through with a sequel, and if it will take less than fifteen years to develop it.

With interest in the proposed new Ghostbusters movie heating up, everyone’s trying to weigh in on the movie. Of course, interest won’t be complete without speculations as to what will be included in the movie.

One of the more crucial plot points in the new movie was more or less confirmed by two of the actors in the first two Ghostbusters movies — Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.

Weaver was actually getting Ghostbusters questions during her press tour for Avatar and she finally revealed the info that Bill Murray was teasing people with. She revealed that in the new sequel, her son is all grown up now and is now also a Ghostbuster. She said she may be involved with the movie even if it’s just a small part but Bill Murray will have a little more in terms of screen time — because he will play a ghost in the new movie!

Bill Murray as a ghost is going to be awesome. I’m already sure he’s going to be a scene stealer. Just look at his cool cameo in Zombieland.

Oftentimes, whenever I hear various Hollywood news stories, I get the feeling that it’s a town that runs in dog years.

Take this news for example.

A mere seven years after the release of the big screen adaptation of Daredevil, 20th Century Fox is already reportedly developing a reboot for the Marvel Comics character.

Fox is compelled to do a reboot if they want to keep the movie rights for the character. The script is reportedly being prepared already.

The original movie was directed by Mark Steven Johnson and starred Ben Affleck as Matt Murdoch / Daredevil and Jennifer Garner as Elektra. If you think reboots only happen to movies that underperform at the box office, then think again. Daredevil actually earned $179.2 million dollars worldwide, which is a decent take.

In a way, the news of the Daredevil reboot shouldn’t be so surprising. Talk about reboots have been circulating ever since Disney bought Marvel a few months ago.

There wasn’t even any doubt that it could.

James Cameron’s CGI movie Avatar has officially surpassed his own movie Titanic as the highest grossing movie of all time.

In the US domestic market Avatar reached a record $601,141,551 47 days after it was released in theaters. The take easily surpassed the $600,788,188 that Titanic earned for its whole run in the theaters.

The money shoveling also continued in the international market. Avatar has already surpassed Titanic’s worldwide take of $1,242,413,080. Avatar has earned an astonishing $1,446,989,293. It even achieved the record in far less time than Titanic, which, anyway you look at it, is just phenomenal. The total worldwide take Avatar is now pegged at $2,048,130,844, which leaves Titanic’s total take of $1,843,201,268 in the dust. Amazing, really.

I guess this means we’ll be treated to more of Cameron’s “I’m the king of the world!” arrogance this year.

Luc Besson was, at one time, one of my favorite directors. I was blown away by La Femme Nikita and Leon and fell in love with the cheesy sci-fi stylings of The Fifth Element. I even liked Subway. But lately I have not been very impressed with his ouevre as a director (his writing credits stand up a bit better in the Oughts though).

But his recent project has caught my attention once again. Les Aventures Extraordinaires D’Adele Blanc-Sec is a movie that is as strange as they come. The movie, which will star Louise Bourgoin, is set in 1912 and tells the story of a young reporter, Adele Blanc-Sec, who is like an Indiana Jones archetype who battles with corrupt politicians, crooks, scientists and devil worshippers. In this movie, she battles what may probably be her biggest nemesis, a pterodactyl that sows terror on Paris. Yes, you read it right, a pterodactyl.

I am so watching this movie.

John Sayles has begun shooting his latest movie without a lot of fanfare. The US media has been unusually quiet about this new Sayles project. Even though Sayles is known for being an independent filmmaker, the lack of media coverage far from the ordinary.

The cast and crew for the new movie, Baryo, has already arrived in the Philippines and word has it that filming will officially begin this week. Baryo will be a fictionalized account of the Philippine – American War. There is speculation though if this is going to be told from the point of view of the Americans or the Filipinos.

There are some who think that Baryo may be an offshoot of Sayles’ 1000 page historical fiction novel entitled Some Time in The Sun. Sayles had problems finding a publisher for the book.

If you’re interested in finding out the progress of the new Sayles film, a production blog is now online at http://johnsaylesbaryo.blogspot.com/.

Sgt. Rock, the iconic World War 2 war (super)hero from DC Comics, was one of the more talked about comic book movie adaptations during the height of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s popularity. The Sgt. Rock movie was supposed to be one of Arnie’s next projects and there was a general consensus that he would be perfect for the role. Unfortunately, the project failed to materialize.

Now, more than a decade later, the Sgt. Rock movie has been revived. According to producer Joel Silver, the project has been given new life at Warner Bros. Pictures. Silver revealed that for this planned adaptation, the setting won’t be during World War II. The new plan is for Sgt. Rock to perform his call of duty in a war in the “not too distant future.” Silver further revealed that they want it to be a movie where the direction for the character is “where it’s going” and not “where it’s been.” The whole vision for the movie is for a futuristic war where Sgt. Rock will figure prominently. The scrtip is already finished and director Francis Lawrence is helping in the development of the movie. There is still no go signal from Warner that would officially mean the project is officially in production but hopefully 2010 is the magic year when we will finally see Sgt. Rock being made into a movie.

Takashi Miike’s Zebraman is highly regarded as one of the best cult movies to come out from Asia. It’s one of those movies that polarize people but also a great showcase for the wonderful directorial chops of Miike.

With Zebraman’s popularity, it’s not surprising to know that a sequel is already made, after all, there’s a big clamor from fans of the movie for a continuation of the story presented in the first Zebraman.

What’s unusual is having a spin-off that will serve to “complement” the upcoming sequel. But it’s there and it’s real. The straight to DVD spinoff is directed by Miike’s assistant director Nishiumi Kenichiro. The sequel, with the title “Revenge of teh Zebra Miniskirt Police” will feature three pretty women who will be the members of the police squad. Their role in the sequel are bodyguards to the main character . They will all be wearing Zebra miniskirts, which just brings the weirdness factor up a notch.

Conan is one of the most iconic characters in the world of fantasy. the Cimmerian barbarian turned king is the acknowledged fantasy alpha male and one of the toughest fictional protagonists. Of course, Conan is more familiar to film fans as the character that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star.

The star turning power of Conan is the reason why it is such a coveted role. With talks that a Conan remake is already being developed, actors left and right are being touted as the perfect Conan. You would, of course, expect to see familiar names and established stars vying for the role of Conan. But th announcement of Lionsgate and Millennium Films about the new Conan has caught quite a few people by surprise. The role was announced to have been given to Jason Momoa. Yes, I don’t know who he is either.

The 30 year old Momoa is a virtual unknown. His most prominent work before Conan was in the sci-fi TV show Stargate Atlantis. He’s also set to appear in the new HBO mini series, Game of Thrones. I’m not familiar with Momoa’s work but from his pictures, he does look like he could be perfect for the role. I’ll hold off judgement on the guy’s acting skills because a) I haven’t seen his work and b) Conan is not really going to win anyone an Oscar — if you can grunt and look good doing it then you’ll perfect for the role.

Oh, and speaking of grunts and Oscars, Mickey Rourke has been offered the role of Corin, Conan’s father.

Conan will begin filming this March 15.