Another Step Closer to Tronness

From Slashfilm.com:

I just returned home from the Tron Legacy event in Los Angeles, held at The Bridge IMAX Theatre. The event was actually to premiere the first Tron Legacy movie trailer, which will be attached to Alice in Wonderland next week.
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For those of you not following along, this event is the result of the recent /ZeroHour viral event/game. A page was unlocked which allowed those participants to register for a free ticket to “an exclusive limited event” at IMAX Theatres in five cities around the world: New York, Los Angeles, London, Toronto and Sydney.
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I’ll give you my thoughts on the trailer. I thought it was awesome.

How many FX companies does it take to make an Avatar?

From CNet.com:

SAN FRANCISCO--About a year ago, with James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" well under way, it became clear that Weta Digital, the visual effects studio doing much of the computer generated imagery, or CGI, on the project, was a bit in over its head.

At that point, the movie, which opened Friday, was about 40 minutes longer than it ended up being, and what was needed to finish the project was another company that could come in and lend a helping hand--and do so at the same, very high level, that Weta was working at.

And that's where Industrial Light & Magic came in, recalled John Knoll, the Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor tasked with parachuting in to help finish what was, more than on most films, the crucial job of crafting the "Avatar" CGI work.

Predators keeps getting better

From JoBlo.com:

Got a little casting news from the PREDATORS set in Austin today. We didn't get to see him, but the awesome Laurence Fishburne will be playing the role of Noland. Can't tell you a damn thing about the character, but I think it's safe to say that he's going to kick some serious ass. We'll tell you more the second they lift the embargo. And believe me, I can't wait to spill! In case you're living under a rock, PREDATORS is being produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimrod Antal. The cast includes Adrian Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo , Derek Mears, Walton Goggins. The script is a reworking of the one Rodriguez wrote in the mid-nineties.

Portman to Star in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

From Comingsoon.net:

Natalie Portman will star in and produce Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a film that is based on the best-selling book written by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen. Variety says that Lionsgate will finance and distribute.

Described as an expanded version of the Austen classic, the book tells the timeless story of a woman's quest for love and independence amid the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious
killers.

Portman will play feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet, who is distracted from her quest to eradicate the zombie menace by the arrival of the arrogant Mr. Darcy.

Predators!

Found on a Hollywood Reporter blog:

Adrien Brody to star in 'Predators'; Topher Grace in negotiations to join him

By Borys Kit and Jay A. Fernandez

 Hollywood’s lining up to be hunted!

Adrien Brody is boarding to star in "Robert Rodriguez's Predators," Fox’s reboot of the sci-fi franchise being directed by Nimrod Antal. Rodriguez is producing with Elizabeth Avellan.

Topher Grace is in negotiations to join the action-adventure movie, to which Alice Braga ("I Am Legend"), Mahershalalhashbaz Ali ("The 4400"), Walt Goggins ("The Shield"), Rodriguez mainstay Danny Trejo and UFC fighter Oleg Taktarov have also been cast.

Written by Rodriguez, Alex Litvak and Michael Finch, the script follows a group of elite warrior-types who are being hunted by members of a race of merciless alien trackers called Predators.

Brody is a man who ends up inheriting the mantle of leader and is known as a hunter of men. Grace would play an accountant-type whose unassuming facade masks a dangerous serial killer.

Braga is the tough female killer. Ali is a man not afraid to die, Goggins is the loose canon of the group and Taktarov is a former Russian special ops agent.

Trejo, already cast, is Cuchillo, a hardened warrior with twin uzis strapped to his back.

Shooting begins next month in Hawaii then moves to moves to Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios in Austin. The movie is slated for a July 9, 2010, release. 

Brody was last seen in Dario Argento’s “Giallo” and next voices the character of Rickity in Wes Anderson’s “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Grace will next be seen in New Line's ensemble romantic comedy "Valentine's Day."

Sweet!