* Remember Jack the Giant Killer? Bryan Singer's mature and violent version of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale? After a poorly received trailer, we've heard next to nothing on the project. Well now it's coming back into focus with a friendlier title, Jack the Giant Slayer, and a new release date in March 1st 2013. I expect we'll see a better trailer released in the next few days. The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, Eddie Marsan, and John Kassir. [BoxOfficeMojo]
* Oscar-nominated Jacki Weaver(Animal Kingdom) has joined Haunt, an original horror film from director Mac Carter and writer Andrew Barrer. Starring Liana Liberato (Trust) and Harrison Gilbertson, the story follows a family that moves in to a new home with a dark past. Sound familiar? Of course it does. But it takes a weird turn when the introverted son gets involved with the beautiful girl next door, and their sexual exploration invokes an alternate dimension version of the house. Weaver will play a former resident of the home who has suffered a horrible tragedy. Weaver will be seen next in David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook. [THR]
* Waterman Entertainment has long been a force in the family-friendly movie biz, having been largely behind films such as Casper, Stuart Little, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. Having recently acquired the rights to Mr. Ed and The Brave Little Toaster, they've now set their sights on a CGI/live-action hybrid of Heathcliff, the popular comic strip cat created by George Gately in 1973. Heathcliff is a wisecracking feline who often sought out ways to aggravate his human companions. He's been adapted in pretty much every form imaginable over the years. I used to watch him on the Saturday morning cartoon Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats, and he's been in comic books and a 1986 feature film.
