A double Academy Award winner is going back to the future. Denzel Washington will star in the post-apocalyptic drama Book of Eli, to be directed by Albert and Allen Hughes, according to Variety. He will play "a lone hero in a not-too-distant apocalyptic future who must fight across America to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption." Sounds like the best of all possible worlds, doesn't it? Denzel as an intellectual action hero of the future.

Denzel has been resolutely dealing with modern-day problems for the last decade, so maybe he felt like a change of pace. As far as I can tell, the only time that Denzel's tipped his toe into future waters was back in 1995 with Brett Leonard's Virtuosity. In that movie, set just four years into the future, he faced off against a virtual reality Russell Crowe. How far into the future will Book of Eli be set? Who gets the blame for the apocalypse? Will this be a tale of weary, wary survivors or vengeful warriors? And what's in that book, anyway?

Amazingly, this will be the first feature from The Hughes Brothers since 2001's graphic novel adapatation From Hell. They'll be working from a script originally written by Gary Whitta (the two new Akira films) and re-written by Anthony Peckham (Clint Eastwood's upcoming The Human Factor and Sherlock Holmes for Warner Bros). Joel Silver is on board as one of the producers. Filming begins in January.

We all know that David Fincher is an uncompromising director (and why shouldn't he be? The guy is one of the best working today). But, even if you don't like the man, you have to admire someone who is truly willing to put his money where his mouth is. In an interview unearthed by The Playlist, Heavy Metal publisher (and Fincher's collaborator on the Metal reboot), Kevin Eastman, confirmed that the reason for the project's move from Paramount to Sony was not because of problems with the sex and violence (as earlier reported), but because of another film altogether. When Metal first jumped studios, there was speculation that Fincher was having trouble getting the green light because of Metal's risqué subject matter. But, it wasn't Metal they were fighting about, it was Fincher's upcoming fantasy tale, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

According to Eastman, "We developed it [Heavy Metal] for Paramount in January... And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time... and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to green light any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, f**k you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there." You can't help but wonder what Paramount was thinking? Maybe the likely answer is that they were not prepared for Fincher to call their bluff.

After the jump ... guess who's directing Heavy Metal???

Readers of this blog are well aware that Mr. Guillermo Del Toro (aka Mr. Awesome Genre Film) is about to spend the next several years helming a pair of Hobbit movies for producer Peter Jackson ... who is certainly no slouch in the action / horror / fantasy department. And we all know that Del Toro has long yearned to do an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness -- which he probably will be doing at Universal some time in the future.

Ah, but there are two words you'll hear a lot regarding Guillermo Del Toro: "Universal" and "future." More specifically, the filmmaker and the studio look to be teaming up for the next two decades! According to one doozy of a Variety article, Uni and Guille will be teaming up for (get this) new versions of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Slaughterhouse-Five*, as well as an adaptation of Dan Simmons' upcoming "alternate reality Charles Dickens" novel Drood! Oh, and he'll also be producing Hater with Mark Steven Johnson and Crimson Peak with Matthew Robbins!

This guy's like the Derek Jeter of genre directors! And frankly, it couldn't happen to a cooler moviemaker. I'll include a few choice quotes after the jump, but you should probably just peruse the whole article for yourself. It actually makes you want to look PAST The Hobbit so you can get a peek at (dear lord) Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.

(* Gotta feel bad for Frank Darabont. He really wants to make this movie.)

Back in June we reported on a pair of upcoming films that deal with Greek Mythology in one way or another. One is the remake of Clash of the Titans, and the other is something very cool-sounding called Lords of War. And now it looks like we might have a third entry in the chariot sweepstakes. (Or four if you include the new Argonauts project!)

Details are sketchy at this point, but Variety indicates that writer-director Sheldon Lettich has been tapped by producer Alexander Nevsky to get to work on Hercules: The Beginning. I assume the "snake in the crib" story will be included, considering that we're starting at "The Beginning." (I further assume that a subtitle like "The Beginning" indicates a plan for sequels...)

Mr. Lettich is no stranger to the action section: He recently penned Rambo 4 and he's responsible for no less than FIVE Jean-Claude Van Damme movies! Five! Including the one where there's TWO Van Dammes!

Somehwere, Kevin Sorbo is waiting for his phone to ring.

I might have been raised on the old maxim: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all -- but even I can't keep my mouth shut on this one. A new poster and some stills from the live-action Dragonball have hit the net (along with some official pics from Fox), and it is not looking any better for the anime update. If you are one of the few Dragonball fans left out there with hope for this movie, I'm afraid once you get a look at James Marsters as Lord Piccolo, the dream of a decent flick goes right out the window. Although to be fair, I have to give them credit for trying out a slightly more 'modern' look on the new poster art.

Dragonball stars Justin Chatwin as the mighty Goku (a casting decision that has yet to ever really make sense), a legendary warrior who is responsible for protecting the awesome powers of the mystical 'Dragonballs'. Jamie Chung also stars as Chi Chi (Goku's love interest), along with Marsters as the evil Lord Piccolo (oh Spike, where did it all go wrong?), Chow Yun Fat as Master Roshi, and Emmy Rossum as Bulma.

Just last week, the rumors were silenced that Fox would be scrapping the one hundred million dollar film. The current spin from Fox is that they are 100% behind the project -- but honestly, what else could they say? So whatever you may think about Dragonball, plenty of fans will probably be there on opening day. Who knows? Maybe I'll be one of them. I have been known to enjoy watching a train wreck on screen -- how about you?

[Thanks Coming Soon]

Despite being seemingly obligated by demographic alone to enjoy it, I didn't particularly care for Michael Bay's Transformers, even after a recent second look on the small screen. Regardless, the people have spoken with their wallets, and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Ka-Ching is well underway for its release next summer.

Embedded above is the first of several behind-the-scenes videos that Wal-Mart will be providing in the coming months, and right from the get-go, the visionary Bay talks about not only making a sequel that'll make kids' dreams, but also sticking his custom-made Nikes up the collective ass of his crew. Watch as "Bay-os" and "Bay-hem" ensue in Bethlehem, PA, with fast bikes, nice cars, and big booms...

Heck, just about the only thing missing from this two-minute taste is some sweet hand-injury action.

It's so creepy when something you just found yourself chatting about with a fellow geek pops up in your newsfeed -- proof that Magdalena does answer to a higher power! If you were praying for an update, MTV has not one, but an entire week they're devoting to the spear-wielding superheroine.

MTV has a video interview up with the lovely Jenna Dewan, who's playing Patience, the most recent inheritor of the Magdalena powers. According to her, they're following the comic book pretty closely except for one touchy area -- while honoring Magdalena's heritage and bloodline, they're sidestepping the religious element of the book. "When I started this I said I didn't want it to be a religious movie - the Catholic Church versus everyone else. I wanted it to be somebody who knows she has something inside bigger [than herself], this spiritual want to help people," Dewan said. "That's really what we're focusing on - fighting the darkness for the light, rather than the Catholic Church and religion. There is that element of it but it's more about fighting people who are evil in this world."

Now, I always thought of the Magdalena as the girl version of Stephen Sommers' Gabriel Van Helsing and not particularly controversial, but we do live in touchier, Golden Compass censoring times. As Dewan points out, Patience is one of the only Magdalenas who questions the authority of the Church and decided she would work independent of its control. Wouldn't it have been cool to see that religious conflict onscreen? Ah well. My previous jokes about chastity and skimpy costumes aside, I'm happy to see Gale Anne Hurd bringing another tough chick (and one from the comics, no less) to the screen -- with or without the sacrilege.

Remember that ginormous project called 39 Clues that was announced awhile back -- a worldwide mystery to span books, interactive games, trading cards and a movie deal, courtesy of Steven Spielberg? The first book in the series, The Maze of Bones, hits shelves all over the world next Tuesday, the same day as its interactive online game. Will it spark an obsession along the lines of Twilight or Harry Potter? Time will tell.

Steven Spielberg has confidence in it, though. Acccording to Variety, he's hired his old pal Jeff Nathanson to pen the script, marking their fourth collaboration together. They paired up previously on The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Spielberg is still eying Clues' director's chair, and it will be interesting to see where this can fit into his busy schedule, where Tintin and Lincoln were taking precedence. Does he want this worldwide money hunt (the prize for solving the project's mystery is $10,000) to be over before the movie, or will the bloom be off the rose by then? What if the whole multiplatform concept fails spectacularly? Are the books still filmable? The ambition of 39 Clues leaves me doubting whether it can deliver -- but I can hardly pretend to have better judgment than Spielberg. At any rate, I'll be watching the book pages with interest to see what audiences make of The Maze of Bones -- if anyone out there buys it, give us the scoop!

The date has been set for Warner Bros and Fox to go head to head -- and it should soothe the fearful. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studios will be going before the judge on January 6th. There's plenty of time, even at a snail's pace, for the issue to be resolved before the March 6th opening. (It's like the court is going along with the movie marketing -- we'll get a video journal the same day. There really is no such thing as bad publicity in Tinseltown!)

Furthermore, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allan Feess says that Fox shouldn't attempt to file a preliminary injunction against Warners to stop the release of the film because the issues surrounding the case were too complex to be solved in an interim basis. Instead, both studios are being ordered to put their cases together, and start expedited discovery and depositions. This thing could get quite big -- as the New York Times pointed out, Paramount, Legendary Pictures, and even Universal could get hauled into it, alongside Lawrence Gordon, who's really the man in question in all this.

And remember, this is if it actually makes it to court. This could easily be settled before Christmas, with Warners handing over a nice chunk of The Dark Knight change just to be done with it. (How appropriate that Bruce Wayne help out other costumed vigilantes.) It depends how fierce the studio is feeling, and how certain they are of their case -- but all signs point to you keeping your March 6th moviegoing plans.

You really have to feel bad for the cast and crew on this one, though. All that happy buzz of ComicCon panels and promo posters squashed under a heap of legalese. Oh well, at least Fox can't take away what we've already been given. Check out our Watchmen gallery below.