Dire news about The Hobbit, which was about to start shooting early next year, as Sir Ian McKellen claimed lately. Doesn't sound like it now:
We have labor strife, as the New Zealand and Australian actors' unions are negotiating with Peter Jackson's production company for certain benefit, and negotiations have so far gone nowhere. Long story short, the US's Screen Actors Guild has declared The Hobbit a non-union production and told actors to stay away from it, and Peter Jackson says he may have to relocate the shoot to Eastern Europe... or not make the films after all.
Not that Eastern Europe doesn't have gorgeous locations to shoot at, but let's face it...New Zealand turned out to be the perfect Middle Earth. Bummer.

Joss Whedon, director of the Avengers film really wants to show characters, not only action. He even has to be careful to have the action going at this point:
"What I will struggle with, in the outline and throughout, is that I would like to put these actors in a room and just make Glengarry Glen Ross. We're talking about really exciting people and at the same time I have to keep the momentum of the thing going. I can't let it turn into a lull fest. Knowing that I have enough time to do both of those things – that by the end of the movie you will feel 'in' with these guys – is the trick. It's not an easy one but one that Marvel absolutely honours. They don't hire Mark Ruffalo [the new Hulk] to say one iconic line and strike a pose. They hire him because he has so much humanity in him. He's the antithesis of the iconic actor. He's so human. He was my first choice to play the part, and the fact he is playing the part is nuts! They went to great lengths to make that happen and they understood exactly why he was right for the part."

Said Mark Ruffalo says the Hulk won't be purely CGI, and instead the monster will partially be rendered using motion capture. Crucially, he says this means he'll be the first person to play Bruce Banner and the Hulk, as it will be him doing the motion capture.
That's great news in my book, because the last two CGI Hulks did simply not look real enough.

The list of directors for the Superman Reboot, produced by Christopher Nolan is long at this point, containing names from names such as Duncan Jones (Moon) or Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) to Tony Scott (Top Gun). Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is one of the names that keep showing up as possible candidate for the role. I'd love that, actually.

Christopher Nolan also says his first draft for Batman 3 is done. The studio may not leave him, one of the few major holdouts from the recent 3D craze a choice about shooting the next Batman movie in 3D. One report claims Warner Bros. sources are eager to convert Inception to 3D in time for the debut of HBO's new 3D movie channel in 2011, and it also claims that Warner might not give Nolan the option of shooting in 2D.