Michael Shannon will take on the 'Man of Steel' as General Zod

Warner Bros. has announced Michael Shannon is joining director Zack Synder's upcoming Superman movie, "Man of Steel," portraying the villainous General Zod.

Shannon was nominated for Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 2009 for his work in "Revolutionary Road." He is also Agent Nelson Van Alden in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire."

"Zod is not only one of Superman's most formidable enemies, but one of the most significant because he has insights into Superman that others don't," Synder said in a statement. Michael is a powerful actor who can project both the intelligence and the malice of the character, making him perfect for the role."

Zod appeared in "Superman" in 1978 and "Superman II" in 1980. Terence Stamp played the character in both those films. Like Superman, Zod is from the planet Krypton, and shares his powers.

Shannon joins Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Diane Lane as Martha Kent and Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent.

Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") is among the producers of the new film and helped develop the story with David S. Goyer, who is writing the script.

It is interesting that General Zod will be making an appearance in "Man of Steel," especially since he, along with Lex Luther, have had their share of film portrayals. Bringing Luther back as the primary villain in 2006's "Superman Returns" was one of that movie's biggest weaknesses even with a solid performance from Kevin Spacey.

Although few would argue that Superman has a villains gallery like that of Batman, there are other possibilities who have yet to be explored in the films such as Brainiac and Darkseid.

"Deadpool" gets a director

Ryan Reynolds (far left) as Deadpool in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"

Multiple reports are stating special effects artist Tim Miller ("X-Men," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World") will be making his directorial debut with "Deadpool."

Spinning off from 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the "Deadpool" film will also star Ryan Reynolds in the role. The actor will also reportedly produce.

The Marvel Comics character was created by Rob Leifeld and is known as the "merc with a mouth" and for his habit of breaking the fourth wall in his comics.

"Deadpool" is another one of those comic book films that generated buzz when it was first announced but has remained mostly silent until now.

It seems like an increasing trend for special effects artists to jump into the director's chair. A recent example is the Strause brothers (Colin and Greg) who directed "Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem" and "Skyline." But they had quite a few more supervisory positions before making the leap than Miller, who can only boast the creative supervisor title on "Scott Pilgrim."

Reynold's Deadpool was one of the few positive notes about "Wolverine," so here's hoping they found the right director to continue the character's story. It will also be interesting to see if they stick with the "Wolverine" continuity, which took place in the 1970s or early 80s, or move the story to present day.

Josh Pence joining 'The Dark Knight Rises' as a young Ra's

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Josh Pence ("The Social Network") has joined the cast of Christopher Nolans' "The Dark Knight Rises."

Pence, who played Tyler Winklevoss in "The Social Network" (and had Armie Hammer's face digitally painted over his for the final movie), will be a young Ra's Al Ghul.

Ra's Al Ghul was played by Liam Neeson in "Batman Begins" and The Hollywood Reporter quotes sources saying Pence will play the character some 30 years in the past.

Little is known about the plot for "The Dark Knight Rises" only that Anne Hathaway ("Love and Other Drugs") is joining the cast as Selina Kyle and her criminal alter-ego, Catwoman, and Tom Hardy ("Inception") will be the dangerous Bane.

Along with Hardy, his "Inception" co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard are also new additions to the Batman franchise

Nolan has said in the past he considers his run to be complete at the conclusion of the third film and Pence's casting as a young Ra's seems to confirm that "The Dark Knight Rises" will come full circle to tie everything together.

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will direct 'The Crow' reboot

Hollywood keeps remaking and rebooting films so often it would take a blog devoted entirely to the subject to have a chance of staying abreast of it all.

Still, sometimes you just have to take a moment and say...really?

Such is the case of Relativity Media's announcement yesterday that they have signed director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (“28 Weeks Later”) to “re-imagine” the 1994 cult hit, “The Crow.”

According to Relativity, Fresnadillo will collaboratively develop the script once a writer is attached to adapt the screenplay. Casting has not yet been announced.

The Crow adaptation will be a reboot of the iconic cult character Eric Draven, who’s resurrected as The Crow to avenge his wife’s murder so he can reunite with her in the hereafter, as first envisioned by graphic novelist James O’Barr, the studio said.

“Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is an incredibly talented and imaginative filmmaker,” Relativity Media’s president of worldwide production Tucker Tooley said. “We are thrilled to have him at the helm and are excited to work with both Pressman and Apaches on what we all believe will be a compelling and innovative reimagining of 'The Crow.'”

“The original 'Crow' was groundbreaking cinema; its gothic visual and musical ideas influenced a generation and cinema itself,” said Producer Edward R. Pressman, who has worked on the entire franchise. “With Juan Carlos, we have every confidence that his new 'Crow' will have a similar impact on the contemporary audience.”

Here's a thought. When a film's “visual and musical ideas influenced a generation and cinema itself,” doesn't it deserve to stand on its own and be remade 17 years later? Of course there have been sequels, but fans have had the luxury to simply ignore them, and as far as I can tell, most have.

(This doesn't get into the fact that Brandon Lee was killed on set while filming the original “Crow” by a gun mishap. Good luck to the guy who has to step into those shoes.)

Ignoring the inherit absurdity of remaking “The Crow,” is there really a market for a reboot? The original film made around $50 million at the box office. The first sequel, “City of Angels” (1996) made far less--$17.9 million. The next two--“Salvation” (2000) and “Wicked Prayer” (2005)--didn't even make it to theaters and instead went direct to video. Each of the sequels was met with progressively worse receptions.

The original comic was published in 1989 and no new material has come out since 1999. The only seemingly existing fan-base is those of the first film, who will most likely greet this latest news on the same level as blasphemy.

I guess we've just reached a point where Hollywood thinks a “groundbreaking” film is simply one that needs to be done again.

Hailee Steinfeld in talks to join 'Romeo and Juliet'

Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit"

It's been a busy week for Academy Award-nominee Hailee Steinfeld.

Multiple sources reported today the "True Grit" actress is in talks to star in the latest adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the crew will include Italian director Carlo Carlie ("Flight of the Innocent"), screenwriter Julian Fellowes ("Gosford Park") and producer Garbiele Muccino (director of "The Pursuit of Happyness").

The news comes just over a week after reports had Steinfeld in talks to star Lindsay Devlin's unsold "Sleeping Beauty" project.

A debut role like Maddie Ross, not to mention an Academy Award nomination, will get you offers, and obviously this has been the case for Steinfeld. Of course one has to ask whether or not we really need another "Romeo and Juliet" adaptation, but it's hard to argue with the pedigrees behind it.

More interesting is the "Sleeping Beauty" project, which would reportedly follow Princess Aurora into a kind of dreamland during her long sleep.

Here's to whatever she does next.

'The Dark Knight Rises' to film in Pittsburgh

Batman is moving to Pittsburgh.

As first broken by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Christopher Nolan will be filming "The Dark Knight Rises," the third and reportedly final film in his Batman series, in the Steel City.

Chicago provided much of the exterior cityscapes for "Batman Begins" and crews spent 13 weeks in the city for "The Dark Knight," but the bat has flown the coop this time.

"Pittsburgh is a beautiful city," the Post-Gazette quoted Nolan. "We have been able to find everything we were looking for here, and I am excited to spend the summer in Pittsburgh with our final installment of Batman."

"We are thrilled to be welcoming the Batman film to Pittsburgh, and eager for the economic impact that our city will experience," Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said in a statement. "This is another example of the growing film industry in our community, and we will be rolling out the red carpet for them."

Nolan has done a wonderful job over the course of the two films so far in making Batman's Gotham City a character in its own right. Despite its name, "The Dark Knight" showcased much more of the city than its predecessor in the daylight.

So little is known about the story of "The Dark Knight Rises" it's hard to judge now just how the city will be portrayed and used by Nolan. The film is scheduled for release on July 20, 2012.

'Hunger Games' author, director defend latest casting decisions

Same song, different verse.

When Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone") was cast as Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming "The Hunger Games" adaptation, fans took the net to express their outrage, prompting author Suzanne Collins to publicly defend the decision.

Well, with Monday's announcement that Josh Hutcherson ("Bridge to Terabithia") and Liam Hemsworth ("The Last Song") would be playing Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne respectively, the online outrage began anew.

Cue the defense.

This time Collins was joined by director Gary Ross and producer Nina Jacobs. According to Entertainment Weekly, Collins released a statement regarding Hutcherson, saying, “I was fortunate enough to be in the room with Gary Ross when Josh came in to audition. Three lines into the read I knew he’d be fantastic. Josh totally captured Peeta’s temperament, his sense of humor and his facility for language. I’m thrilled to have him aboard.”

Ross added that he feels Hutcherson can embody "every aspect" of Peeta's character.

Menwhile, Jacobs said, “Gale is a young man who uses words very sparingly, so the onus was on the actor we cast to capture him by showing, not telling. This was accomplished so beautifully in Suzanne’s writing, and Liam was able to translate it so naturally to the screen. At the same time, Gale’s journey across the three books transforms him, and Liam’s performance left no doubt that he would take us there.”

Of course, these statements shouldn't come as a huge surprise. If Ross and Jacobs didn't feel the actors were right for the roles, they wouldn't have cast them. Neither sport big enough names or resumes to speculate they were cast for any other reason.

Collins' opinion obviously holds a bit more weight in this regard, and it's interesting we don't have a direct quote from her about Hemsworth.