— Guillermo Del Toro popped in to the forums at LOTR fansite The One Ring to address a couple of rumors that have emerged over Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” press tour. Del Toro tells fans that, as things stand, only three actors from the franchise will be returning, and that the script for the second “Hobbit” movie is still being completed. He also denies reports that there have been difficulties between Jackson/Del Toro and Warner Bros, or that the start of production has been delayed — pre-production appears to be going great guns (we know that casting is taking place right now — virtually every actor friend of ours in London has read for the project in the last few months, and we hear they’re close to casting the lead).
— Disney’s new chief Rich Ross appears to have done one of the rarest things a studio executive can do — canned a terrible-sounding movie. After scrapping McG’s reimagining of “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” last month, he’s also now put the comedy “Wedding Banned” into turnaround. The project was set to star Robin Williams and Diane Keaton as a divorced couple who kidnap their daughter (Anna Faris) on the morning of her wedding, but Ross got cold feet after the underperformance of the Williams vehicle “Old Dogs.” Producers Mandeville Films will attempt to set the project up elsewhere, but fingers crossed there’ll be no room at the inn, as it were.
— Good God, “Dexter” pulled a ballsy move last night — we won’t spoil it, but it was a real jawdropper. Coincidentally, Jennifer Carpenter, who plays the title character’s sister on the show (and is in reality married to its star Michael C Hall), has joined the cast of Roger Donaldson’s vigilante thriller “The Hungry Rabbit Jumps,” which made the Black List over the weekend (having flicked through it, it’s closer to “Strangers on a Train” than to “The Brave One,” which is at least refreshing). Carpenter will play Trudy, the best friend of January Jones’ character. Nicolas Cage stars, and Guy Pearce plays the bad guy.
— Finally, a trailer for the imminent British sequel “St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold,” has hit the net. It features a fairly starry cast, including Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, David Tennant, Toby Jones and Gemma Arterton demeaning themselves for money. The movie opens on Friday in the UK, going head-to-head with “Avatar,” but, considering the very limited release the first movie got in the States, we’d be surprised if it made it over this time — which can only be a good thing.
