We’ve got a few release dates to share today.  Briefly:

• Labor Day – Writer/director Jason Reitman’s drama starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin will hit theaters in limited release on December 25th of this year (just in time for awards season, natch), before expanding wide on January 31st.
• Exodus – Director Ridley Scott’s Biblical epic about the life of Moses has been dated for a prime holiday release of December 12, 2014, confirming that this will indeed be Scott’s next project.  Christian Bale may star.
• Assassin’s Creed – The feature film adaptation of the popular video game series has been dated for Memorial Day weekend of 2015, with a firm May 22, 2015 release date.  Michael Fassbender is producing the film and will also star.

Hit the jump for much more on all of the aforementioned projects.

No surprise here, but J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness looks to take the top box office spot before heading into the weekend.  Once expected to bring in a $100 million opening weekend, estimates are now hovering around the $70 million mark.  Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 was a distant second with almost $10 million.  Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby dropped off 61% from its opening weekend to grab $7.7 million this Friday.  Jackie Robinson biopic 42 and the Tom Cruise-starring sci-fi flick Oblivion rounded out the top five.

We’ll have full details and the weekend’s top ten when you check back tomorrow!

Check out today’s casting news:

• Andy Garcia (The Untouchables) and Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street) have joined Luke Greenfield’s action-comedy Let’s Be Cops.
• Marton Csokas (The Bourne Supremacy) will star opposite Denzel Washington in Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer, also starring Chloe Grace Moretz.
• Jonny Weston (Chasing Mavericks) and Sofia Black-D’Elia (Skins) are in negotiations to join Michael Bay’s found-footage film, Almanac.

Hit the jump for more on each casting announcement.

Red 2 isn’t due out for another month, but Summit has already tapped the screenwriting duo of Jon and Erich Hoeber to pen the threequel.  The siblings certainly know their spy stuff as they’ve written both the original film and the sequel, which is testing high and giving the studio confidence of another go-round.  News of Red 3 may take a bit of the tension out of the plot of Red 2, which sees retired CIA operatives going back into the field in order to track down a portable nuclear device.  Heat Vision reports that production on Red 3 could start as early as January 2014, pending script approval; no deals with the cast have been made as of yet.

The Dean Parisot-directed sequel stars Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary-Louise Parker and Byung-hun Lee.  Red 2 opens July 19th.

The good news is that a number of Marvel comics properties are back in the hands of Marvel Studios and may once again be seen on screen.  The bad news is that the feature treatment ain’t happening for all of them.  Marvel’s Kevin Feige talked about a number of planned and possible superhero films coming up in the next few years, including an adaptation of the lesser-known property Inhumans.  More recognizable names – like Blade, Punisher, Ghost Rider and Daredevil – are also under Marvel’s control once again, but will have to find the right time, place and treatment to fit into the studio’s current plans.  Hit the jump for updates on the above-mentioned properties and more, including the chances of a Marvel Zombies one-off.

There have been lots of rumors flying around about two potential films on Marvel’s upcoming Phase Three slate: a standalone Hulk film and a Doctor Strange origin story.  Marvel’s Kevin Feige recently talked about plans for a number of upcoming films, including these two standalone projects.  In short, Feige said that there are no current plans for a solo Hulk movie, but they are talking about it and he isn’t opposed to keeping Mark Ruffalo in the role.  For Doctor Strange, the property is expected to be a top priority for the studio and will feature the first film fully devoted to “a world of pure magic.”  Hit the jump for much, much more from Feige. 

Though Iron Man 3 only just hit theaters a couple of weeks ago (and crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office today), many of the conversations surrounding the film have revolved around the prospect of Iron Man 4.  A fourth film in Marvel’s most prominent—and successful—franchise seems like a no-brainer, but there’s the tiny matter of star Robert Downey Jr.’s contract.  His agreement with Marvel is currently up for renegotiation, meaning there is no guarantee that he’ll don the Iron Man suit again.  The actor is said to be in negotiations to return for The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3, but an agreement has yet to be made regarding another standalone Iron Man film.

Downey and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently talked a bit about the prospect of seeing Iron Man 4 pop up in Marvel’s Phase Three slate of films, and while Feige is confident that the character will live on no matter what happens, Downey seems keen on taking a break from Tony Stark for a bit.  Hit the jump for more.

With Iron Man 3 crossing the $1 billion mark at the box office today, Marvel is currently enjoying its status at the top of the superhero movie food chain.  The studio has a full slate of films hitting theaters over the next couple of years as part of its Phase Two plans, culminating in The Avengers 2 in 2015.  However, even with the prospect of Thor and Captain America sequels and Guardians of the Galaxy on the horizon, fans are still clamoring for more, more, more.  The studio’s Phase Three is a giant question mark at the moment, with only one film firmly slated for release to kick off a new batch of superhero movies: Ant-Man.

Director/co-writer Edgar Wright recently talked a bit about the film and why it’s taken so long to come to fruition, revealing that production will finally get underway next year.  Hit the jump to read on.

The twin brother-sister superheroes Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have been likely contenders to join The Avengers 2 since April when Joss Whedon teased, “I’ve got these two characters, two of my favorite characters from the comic book, a brother-sister act. They’re in the movie.”  Kevin Feige followed that even though the characters fall into a legal grey area (The characters are mutants, Magneto is their father, and Fox could have possession since they own X-Men), they would be available.  Today, Whedon has confirmed that the characters will be in The Avengers 2.

Hit the jump for more including what Whedon had to say about bringing Iron Man into The Avengers 2.

Thursday evening’s TV ratings are in, and it’s season finales galore.  Here’s a brief look at the highlights:

• The emotional series finale of The Office scored a 3.0 rating in the 18-49 demo and 5.7 million viewers, which is up from last week’s 2.3 rating and marks the highest-rated episode of the show since January of 2012.
• The season finale of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, however, topped the night with a 4.4 rating and 14.78 million viewers.  That’s down half a ratings point from last week’s 4.9 rating but even with last year’s finale rating of 4.4.  The episode was the most watched program of the night, besting even the season finale of American Idol.
• Another season finale on CBS, that of Elementary, was up a tenth from last week’s series low with a 2.0 rating and 8.93 million viewers for the two-hour episode.

Hit the jump for the full ratings report for Thursday, May 16th, including Hannibal, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and more.

Though director David O. Russell is currently busy helming his follow-up to last year’s Silver Linings Playbook, it appears that he’s lining up another high-profile project for the near future.  A report has surfaced claiming that Russell is attached to both write and direct the long-in-the-works JFK conspiracy film Legacy of Secrecy.  The film is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann, which asserts that Mafia godfather Carlos Marcello confessed to FBI informant Jack Van Laningham to having ordered JFK’s assassination.  As part of a dangerous and long-secret undercover operation, the FBI positioned Van Laningham to become confidant to Marcello, who ruled organized crime in Louisiana and most of Texas for decades.

Leonardo DiCaprio came onboard to produce and star in the pic back in 2010, and is expected to play Van Laningham.  Hit the jump for more, including the prospect of Robert De Niro joining the cast.

The Billionaire Box Office Club has a new member.  Just a couple weeks out from its domestic release, Marvel’s Iron Man 3 has now grossed over $1 billion worldwide.  That makes the Shane Black-helmed pic the 16th film ever to cross that benchmark, as it surpasses the grosses of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ($974.9 million), Jurassic Park ($969.4 million), and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($963.4 million).  It also makes it the second highest grossing Marvel film of all time, easily besting Iron Man 2’s worldwide gross of $623.9 million.  Obviously, though, Iron Man 3 has a long way to go to catch up to The Avengers, which takes the number three all-time slot with $1.5 billion.  Hit the jump for more.

Fast & Furious 6 is still a week away, it will probably be a monster hit.  Universal has already scheduled Fast & Furious 7 for July 11, 2014, and tapped James Wan (Insidious) to direct.  The series has branched out from its L.A. roots since the third film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and according to Vin Diesel, Fast 7 will be heading to some exotic locales.

Hit the jump for more, but be aware of spoilers for Fast & Furious 6.

In the past, Christopher Nolan has expressed interest in directing a James Bond film.  Last summer, Nolan, a long-time fan of the series, said he was serious about the prospect, but added “It would have to be the right situation and the right time in their cycle of things.”  Although it is absolutely not the right time in their cycle of things, Daily Mail reports that there have been informal talks about directing James Bond 24 between Nolan and Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G .Wilson.  As you may recall, Broccoli and Wilson tried to get Skyfall director Sam Mendes to return, but he passed on the gig.  In March, we learned that MGM wanted a new Bond movie within 3 years, so the clock is ticking to get someone in the director’s chair.

The assumption that Nolan would direct Bond 24 is preposterous because Nolan is at work on Interstellar.  Pre-production is underway, roles have been cast, and a November 7, 2014 release date has been set.  Unless Nolan wants to piss off everyone at Paramount and Warner Bros (the studios behind Interstellar), he’s not doing Bond 24.  If there have been any informal talks, I believe they would be for James Bond 25.  That would be the smart, pro-active move, but right now the focus should be (and will be) on who’s doing the 24th film.

We have a new batch of Godzilla set photos and a video clip that confirm that the military will have a big presence in the monstrous reboot, directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters).  In the last set, star Aaron Taylor-Johnson was seen in Army fatigues.  Taylor-Johnson is still running around among the soldiers and tanks in the new set, but this time in plainclothes: jeans and your typical cool-guy action-hero leather jacket.

Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn,  Bryan Crantson, Ken Watanabe, and Richard T. Jones also star.  Godzilla opens in 3D on May 16, 2014.  See the images and footage after the break.