Only yesterday, we heard that Channing Tatum and Ryan Phillippe were being screen tested for the title role, and that Keira Knightley was being considered for his love interest Elizabeth "Betsy" Ross.  It seems however that Knightley will face stiff competition for the part, with Deadline New York reporting that Emily Blunt and Alice Eve are also both in the running (although they are calling the character 'Peggy'). Blunt - who almost nabbed the role of Black Window on Iron Man 2 - appeared in The Wolfman which was directed by Captain America director Joe Johnston. Weirdly, she is also the fiancee of John Krasinski who tested for the title role. The mind boggles. Eve meanwhile doesn't have as many Cappy connections, but is currently on our cinema screens as the lead in She's Out of My League.

If you saw Grindhouse, you'll remember the collection of fake trailers played between the two halves of the feature. One of those was for a film called Machete, which starred Danny Trejo as the ass-kicking Mexican assassin. The story that played out in the trailer suggested that Trejo was double-crossed by a bunch of well-connected white guy, but gets revenge with the help of a heat-packing priest (Cheech Marin). It also only existed in the mind of Robert Rodriguez...until now.  Trejo said in a recent interview that the film would be in theatres by September, and also revealed some details about it.  "It is going to be awesome," Trejo claims. "We duplicate scenes from the trailer in the movie. What that movie has is the three B's, what I like to call the three B's. And what that is is babes, bullets and blood. And then it's got machetes, too. The film takes off from the trailer and then it just gets so over the top. I think the movie really lives up to the trailer. I'm really, really proud of it." He goes on to explain one of the stunts in the film. "I dive out of a window on a guy's guts. It's really just unbelievable."  The cast for the movie is what you might call "star-studded," with Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal and Don Johnson all appearing. Trejo had this to say about that lineup: "What a cast. I asked Robert, 'How did you get that cast?' He said, 'My wishing rock.' You know, like in Shorts. Everybody wanted to work with Robert Rodriguez."  Finally, Trejo spoke about the following the film has just from that short trailer. "Machete has a huge cult following, just from the trailer," he says. "I mean, in London, I was signing this guy's back because he'd gotten that picture of Machete tattooed on his back. I mean this big. I said, 'Boy, I hope you like the movie.' He says, 'We really like the trailer.' But after this comes out, he might have to go get another tattoo."

According to Deadline New York, Sir Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen have joined the cast of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which will be directed by Martin Scorsese. The film will be an adaptation of the Brian Selznick's children's book, which follows a 12-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station in the early '30s. Kingsley will play silent filmmaker George Melies, while Cohen will play the station inspector. Graham King's GK Films is producing, and also working out the distribution plans.

According to Deadline, Robert Downey Jr. is currently in talks to star in Gravity. Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men) is set to direct the film for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. Downey will reportedly play the leader of a team posted at a remote space station. While he and a female colleague are traveling outside the space station, the other team members are decimated by debris from an exploded satellite. At one time, the film was with Universal Studios, and Angelina Jolie was attached to play the female lead. She then passed on the role, and Universal then passed on the film. The film will shoot in London in the summer, and according to reports, the project may finish just as Downey begins work on Sherlock Holmes 2, which will also shoot in London in the fall.

- Writer/Director Patrick Melton recently spoke with DreadCentral.com, here are the highlights…Where Are They On Saw VII?: "We are about half through," Melton told us over the phone on Wednesday of Saw VII's principal photography. "It's going to go into early April. We just starting shooting the traps on Monday. We always shoot those last in order to give the crew more time to build them and put them together."  On Shooting In 3D: "There's a knee-jerk reaction when a movie like Avatar makes so much money, and the studios can charge fourteen dollars a ticket as opposed to ten, so they see it as a way to make more money and to combat piracy without really thinking of if (whether or not) a film is necessarily catered to be in 3D. But people really do seem to like it, and it makes going to the theatre a little bit more of an event. It can work really well, though," Melton continued. "Marcus and I worked on My Bloody Valentine3D, which lent itself to a sort of an over-the-top story, and it was quite conducive to the 3D experience of being fun and wild, like the five-minute naked sequence. With Saw VII, it's more of using 3D for the visceral nature of it."  What Are The Plans For The Film: "In this one we have bigger traps and more traps and more characters – especially characters from the past (films) – than we've had in probably any other Saw movie. It's definitely the most expensive and ambitious Saw movie that we've done. Some of it is in response to last year's Saw VI, which, while being the most critically acclaimed Saw film in a while, didn't do particularly as well (at the box office) as everyone would have hoped, so we are going pretty far with this one in terms of the scale and intensity of the traps and the amount of twists, especially into the third act, which is just a plethora of twists and reveals." Will There Finally Be Some Resolution?: "I can't speak much of what the film is, but once you see it, you'll understand that there is quite a bit of resolution (to the series). There is a place where it can go, but it's been undecided at this point if the series will continue. If we end it with this one, then the entire franchise and story will be wrapped up in a nice pretty package."

-Alice in Wonderland kept the top spot this week, earning $62 million and raising its two week total to $208.6 million. The movie had the highest per theater average of any film in the top 10, earning $16,631 per theater. Alice now has the sixth biggest second weekend ever.
-Green Zone debuted #2 at the box office, earning $14.5 million. The film had a budget of $100 million.
-She's Out of My League debuted #3 at the box office, earning $9.6 million.
-Remember Me debuted #4 at the box office, earning $8.3 million.
-Shutter Island dropped two spots this weekend to #3, earning $8.1 million and raising its four week total to $108 million. The film had a budget of $80 million.
-Our Family Wedding debuted #6 at the box office, earning $7.6 million.
-Avatar dropped two spots this weekend to #7, earning $6.6 million and raising its thirteen week total to $730.3 million. The film has now made a total of $2.6 billion.
-Brooklyn's Finest dropped six spots to #8, earning $4.29 million and raising its two week total to $21.3 million. The film had a budget of $17 million.
-Cop Out dropped five spots to #9 this weekend, earning $4.23 million and raising its three week total to $39.4 million. The film had a budget of $30 million.
-The Crazies drops four spots to round out the top 10, earning $3.6 million and raising its three week total to $33.5 million. The film had a budget of $20 million.

1. Alice in Wonderland - $62 million ($208.6 million)
2. Green Zone - $14.5 million ($14.5 million)
3. She's Out of My League - $9.6 million ($9.6 million)
4. Remember Me - $8.3 million ($8.3 million)
5. Shutter Island - $8.1 million ($108 million)
6. Out Family Wedding - $7.6 million ($7.6 million)
7. Avatar - $6.6 million ($730.3 million)
8. Brooklyn's Finest - $4.29 million ($21.3 million)
9. Cop Out - $4.23 million ($39.4 million)
10. The Crazies - $3.6 million ($33.5 million)

Director Matt Reeves recently discussed the possibility of Cloverfield 2. Here is what he had to say…What Can He Tell Us About The Possible Sequel?: "I can tell you nothing, [but] there are these spikes in activity," he said when asked about a second "Cloverfield" movie. "There are things that we keep talking about and things spike up. It very well may happen." What is JJ Abrams' Status?: "There's a personal project that J.J. is about to do," he said. "J.J. is in the early stages of what he's doing and he's getting consumed by it. The amazing thing about J.J. — when I get into something, I get tunnel vision. He's amazing at focusing but also amazing at multitasking."

Variety (via IGN) is reporting that Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight), Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and Michael Clark Duncan are set to star in the forthcoming independent gangster film Criminal Empire for Dummies. The film, which focuses on a "charismatic young man (Ventimiglia) who relates the rules of running a criminal empire through flashbacks to his own rise from a tragic childhood and the ghetto to multinational kingpin," is written by Cliff Dorfman (Warrior, episodes of Entourage), who will also make his directing debut. Filming will begin this month in New Orleans.

Do you believe in a hooker with a heart of gold? Well if you don't, now is the time to start believing. Jennifer Love Hewitt is set to play a prostitute in a new TV movie. JLH had the following to say on the role…"It's (film) sort of like Erin Brockovich in a brothel."

According to Deadline Hollywood, Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) is now in position to direct the upcoming Planet of the Apes: Caesar for 20th Century Fox. The film will be about how apes became so smart, with human experiments on monkeys leading them to overtake humans on the evolutionary scale. Caeser, the genetically altered leader of a simian rebellion -- will take the apes into war with humanity. Deadline Hollywood also reports that Drew Goddard (Cloverfield) has been hired to write the script for Robopocalypse. Robopocalypse looks at the fate of the human race following a robot uprising. The project is said to be a serious candidate for Steven Spielberg's next directing job.

Comingsoon.net is reporting that Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings) is reportedly in talks for Captain America. He is negotiating to play the role of the main villain, Red Skull. Marvel is currently looking to cast Steve Rogers/Captain America, with the film expected to hit the big screen on July 22nd, 2011.

John Cho recently spoke with collider.com about A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas and Star Trek 2. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas may film in June, with a possible release this year, and Neil Patrick Harris is expected to return. The film would take place a few years after the events of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. On Star Trek 2, he states that they are still working on the script.

The Wachowskis are working on a new film, and it's...different, to say the least. A few months ago, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington tweeted that she was shooting a role in a Wachowskis film "about the Iraq war, from the perspective of the future." The story took another turn when Jesse Ventura, on The Howard Stern Show, said this: "Wait til you hear what they did. They brought me, and they brought Arianna Huffington in after me. Arianna was there, and they had her looking like Cleopatra. What they did… Do you remember what John Travolta looked like in that horrible film Battlefield Earth? They put multicolored dreadlocks on me all the way to here. They gave me this crazy beard that was hanging down pointed, looked like Travolta, right? And they put a third eye in the middle of my forehead. Because what this is, is this is a hundred years in the future, and they wanted me to talk about the current war in Iraq and how I felt about it. And so I got to vent, looking like this maniac in this whole outfit."

Variety (via IGN) is reporting that Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is being pushed back from April 23 to September 24. The report also states that 20th Century Fox is aiming to get the film into the Cannes Film Festical, which runs from May 12-23.

Summit Entertainment is trying to get the multi-Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker back into cinemas. Problem is, the cinemas are not interested. As an example, Regal Theatres turned the movie down outright not because of the film itself, but because it is already available on DVD.

Warner Bros. is considering remaking The Wizard of Oz. Two treatments are being discussed. The first, called Oz, is being produced by Temple Hill, one of the companies behind Twilight, and is being written by Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After). The second is said to be a dark version of the story by Josh Olson (writer of A History of Violence) and focus on Dorothy's granddaughter returning to Oz to fight evil.

During a recent interview, Jude Law was asked about a possible sequel to Sherlock Holmes. "I think Robert [Downey Jr.] put it brilliantly when he said, 'If enough people want us to make another one, we'll make another one,'" Law said. "I've not been told we're definitely making another one yet, but if we do it will be in the second half of this year."

Law was also asked what he'd like to see from his character, Dr. Watson, in the second film. "More of the same," he said. "I really enjoyed the relationship that he and Holmes… well, the point they got to in their relationship. I don't know if it would involve Moriarty or not, or if they'd go with another sort of phantom threat. We're not short of source material -- we've got 16 more books to go!"

A new voice actor has been added to Smurfs, as Brainy Smurf has been cast. Alan Cumming (X2), who will also voice one of the characters, revealed in an interview that Quentin Tarantino will lend his vocal talents to the role. When asked about the role of the film's chief villain, Cumming said, "Gargamel, I'm not sure [if I can say]. They're still negotiating with someone that would be fabulous."

Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello revealed today that he was working on the score for Iron Man 2. Morello, who appeared in Iron Man and also helped with the score, tweeted the following: "Is that really me in Iron Man? Of course. Iron Man kicks my ass. I'm working on score for Iron Man 2. Rockin'. Movie is awesome."

We have all heard people comparing the film Avatar to Dances With Wolves and other movies, but now there is someone claiming that James Cameron STOLE his story for Avatar. Chinese author Zhou Shaomou has stated that Avatar is based off of a novel that he wrote back in 1997. Here is what he had to say…"80% of the plot and key elements of Avatar are similar to my 1997 science fiction novel Tale Of The Blue Crows. It tells the story of an epic journey taken by six astronauts to a distant planet, which is home to a race of blue-skinned beings. I wrote in my novel that their space journey took them six years but in Cameron's movie the journey takes them five years, nine months and 22 days. I was shocked when I first saw that. It is too close." Zhou is looking for over $145 million dollars due to a breach of copyright.

In a recent story, Jason Momoa revealed he is looking to pack on an extra 10 pounds to play the title role in Conan. He is working with stuntman David Leitch (The Bourne Ultimatum) and stunt coordinator Chad Stahelski (who worked on The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions) to prepare for his part.