Ninja Assassin has begun filming in Berlin, Germany.

The movie, which will be directed by James McTeigue, will have a script from Matthew Sand and comicbook favorite J. Michael straczynski. The Wachowski brothers will be producing the movie along with constant partner Joel Silver.

Korean star Rain will topbill this possible eye candy from the Wachowskis. Rain’s last Hollywood movie was Speed Racer, which was also a Wachowski project. Other stars involved in the movie are Naomie Harris, Ben Miles, Sho Kosugi, and Rick Yune.
Ninja Assassin will tell the story of Raizo, a deadly assassin who was trained by the Ozunu Clan. But driven by guilt because of the way the clan executed his friend, Raizo breaks free from the Ozunu and disappears, plotting his revenge on his friends’ killers.

I think I’ve blogged before about ‘past-their-prime’ actors who are trying to rekindle some heat into their careers by revisiting movies that made them famous, with Sylvester Stallone being the most prominent guy to do it. His Rambo and Rocky movies are dead giveaways that he wants to get people to watch him again.

Add Eddie Murphy to that list. Admittedly, Murphy can still generate the hits, but not at the levels he achieved in his prime or when coming out with his Beverly Hills Cop movies. So it was really a no brainer that he will revisit his famous franchise. Paramount will be producing the fourth sequel and this time they are trying to contract the services of Brett Ratner to helm the film. The last sequel was shown in 1994.

One of the best pieces of movie news I encountered today was the release of a new photo for the upcoming Watchmen movie. This new, which I have posted above, is a snapshot of The Minutemen in the 1940s. The photo is quite a strong image of the group during their heyday. It highly contrasts with the earlier pictures on the heroes that were highly modern.

Watchmen is definitely my most anticipated movie for 2009.

Rumors appeared last week that Sony Pictures is finally priming itself to begin production on both Spider-Man 4 and Spider-Man 5. The proposed films will be using a script of James Vanderbilt that will most likely span both movies. There are now new rumors that the role of Peter Parker aka Spider-Man will be recast for these upcoming movies. Rumored to be at the top of the list are both Patrick Fugit (who starred in Almost Famous) and Michael Angarano (Sky High). Interestingly enough, both Fugit and Angarano appeared in Almost Famous and playing the same character! At this point, there has been no word on whether director Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst will also not be returning in the movie.

Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun Li photos are continually being leaked, maybe as part of a campaign to create buzz for the action movie. The photo above may be the most sought after image as it is the picture of Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li herself. Kristin looks so pretty that even the dirt on her face couldn’t make her look disheveled or ugly.

As teen movies go, Superbad would most likely become a classic as it ages. Judd Apatow has been churning out hits with fair regularity and it could be considered a triumph of sorts that he succeeded in having a sex-obsessed, profanity ridden, highly un-PC movie actually made.

According to Variety, The Hobbit is currently in the midst pre-production. A lot of people who were involved in the Lord of The Rings trilogy are back for this movie as well as the planned sequel. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens will be writing the script with the assistance of both Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro.

It was reported that three actors from the Trilogy have also been contacted to reprise their roles, namely, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis.

M Night Shyamalan’s new movie The Happening is getting a lot of buzz. Mainly, the buzz surrounds the possible plot points for the thriller. Already, many people are saying that this is going to have Shyamalan’s trademark plot twist — a device that has divided moviegoers into Night haters and fans. Haters say that it’s already a tired device that the director keeps using, in fact, all of his movies have plot twists.

The Happening is supposed to be Shyamalan’s “green movie”, a film with strong environmental themes. We’ll see what the possible plot twist is going to be — or if there is even one. In the meantime, here’s the very cool poster for the movie.

The fourth Indiana Jones movie hasn’t been shown yet but George Lucas is already talking about a possible fifth or sixth installment to the well loved franchise.

In an interview with Fox News at the Cannes Film Festival, Lucas kind of spilled the beans about sequels to the Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. In fact, he said that “there is more than a strong possibility” for another Indiana Jones movie.

Lucas said that he and Steven Spielberg have made certain plot points that will make it possible to do a sequel to the upcoming movie.

Ben Affleck was at the top of the world a few years ago. He was getting all of the juiciest scripts, he was dating the most desired celebrity, and he was dubbed as one of the sexiest people alive. He could do no wrong. But it all went out of control. Bad career decisions resulted in a string of flops. His very public relationship fizzled. And he found himself the butt of jokes. But the guy did a complete 180. he found a new love, peace of mind by retreating from a high profile lifestyle. And he finally made a movie that is a worthy follow-up to his academy award winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting.