Jack Black and Angelina Jolie will be back for “Kung-Fu Panda 2” which is scheduled to hit June 3, 2011. Pencil it in your calendar now! Surely by then we’ll have rented the original, a film we hear was delightful and charming and we have no reason to really doubt that assessment, but there’s not always time for everything. [THR]
The leaden and wooden Hayden Christensen has signed a three picture deal with Screen Gems to star in what we can only assume are leaden and wooden films. [Variety]
Is Melissa Leo’s breakthrough performance in “Frozen River“ paying off? She just got cast in an indie-drama called, “Welcome to the Rileys” alongside James Gandofini and Kristen Stewart. In past years, we woulda been skeptical that a small film like ‘River’ could garner her a nomination, but it looks like it’s going to happen this year and good for her, she deserves it. [Variety]
Should Bruce Greenwood, a fine Canadian actor, consider his career over? Well he’s starring with Tiffani Amber Thiesen in a movie called, “Cyborg Soldier,” so yeah, maybe. [Trailer Addict]
Kevin James stars as an overenthusiastic mall security employee in, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.” Someone relegate this guy to TV where he belongs already, sheesh. [Trailer Addict]
The Rome Film Festival has been announced. The only American film is “Pride And Glory” with Ed Norton And Colin Farrell. We’re not sure what happened to that film after the Toronto Film Festival, but any buzz it might have had seems to have completely evaporated. We might see it this weekend at the Woodstock Film Festival if it happens to be playing, but we’ll be in and out like a flash. Anywhoo, notable films playing Rome include, controversial German film, “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” Hong Kong helmer romantic actioner “Missing,” Viggo Mortensen starrer “Good,”(which also seemed to deflate after TIFF) and lastly, an interesting project called, “8” a U.N.-backed movie on poverty made of eight segments by directors including, Gus Van Sant, Jane Campion, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jan Kounen, Mira Nair, Gaspar Noe, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Wim Wenders. [Variety]
The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival has added Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,” Rian Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom,” Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck’s “Sugar,” the “Tokyo!” triptych with films by Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax, & Michel Gondry, and James Gray’s “Two Lovers” to its slate. [Indiewire]