Random Movie News - 7/27/12

- Ralph Macchio has joined the cast of Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins as the famous director. The film centers around the difficulty Hitchcock had in getting Psycho made.  It co-stars Helen Mirren, Toni Collette, Danny Huston, Michael Stuhlbarg, James D'Arcy (Anthony Perkins), Jessica Biel (Vera Miles) and Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh.

- Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet, Thor) will direct the next Jack Ryan movie.  Based on the character created by Tom Clancy, Ryan will be played by Chris Pine (Star Trek).  Previously Ryan has been played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.  Branagh will also play the villain.

- Jackie Earle Haley (Dark Shadows, Watchmen) has joined the cast of RoboCop, and Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) is also in talks to join.  It stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Hugh Laurie, Abbie Cornish and Samuel L. Jackson.

- Warner Bros has moved Gangster Squad from September 7 to January 11. It'll give them a chance to do reshoots. The movie, and trailer for it, contains a scene where gunmen shoot up a movie theater.  That scene will be removed, and the shootout staged in a different location.  It stars Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Emma Stone and Nick Nolte.

- Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is adapting Jack Finney's 1970 illustrated novel Time & Again, about a man who enlists in a secret government experiment and time-travels to 1882.  Once there, he falls in love and is torn whether to stay in the past or return to the present.


- Brandon Sanderson has sold the movie rights for his upcoming novel Steelheart, in a near future where a handful of people develop super powers.  One of them, Steelheart, seizes control of a city and kills the father of a boy who grows up to join a rebellion against the super-villains.  Sanderson's best known for his Mistborn trilogy, and for helping complete the Wheel of Time series for Robert Jordan.


- Lady Gaga is the latest to join the cast of Robert Rodriguez's Machete Kills, starring Danny Trejo, Mel Gibson, Zoe Saldana, Sofia Vergara, Michelle Rodriguez, Demian Bichir, Amber Heard and Charlie Sheen.

- AMC has cancelled The Killing after two season. The producers said they will try to find the show a home on another channel.  Although it had strong ratings in its first season, the cliffhanger finale upset viewers, and there was a steep decline in ratings for season 2.  The two stars meanwhile have attached themselves to high-profile films.  Mirielle Enos will appear opposite Brad Pitt in the zombie apocalypse action-comedy World War Z, and Joel Kinnaman will play the lead in RoboCop.