Daniel Radcliffe has traded in his Harry Potter scar for some more obvious prosthetics in Horns, a new film from director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes).  Adapted by Keith Bunin from the Joe Hill novel of the same name, Horns centers on Ignatius “Ig” Perrish (Radcliffe), a young man who wakes up to find himself accused of the violent rape and murder of his girlfriend.  Oh, and he has horns growing out of his forehead that seem to come with the bonus powers of forcing people to confess their sins and getting them to give in to their darkest impulses.  Horns also stars Juno Temple, Max Minghella, James Remar and Kelli Garner.  Hit the jump to see the horns and to read what Radcliffe had to say about the much darker role.

Just yesterday we learned that The Social Network star Max Minghella was in talks to join Daniel Radcliffe in the supernatural fantasy thriller Horns.  Now three more names are looking to be added to the cast, as Variety reports that Juno Temple (Killer Joe), Joe Anderson (The Grey) and Kelli Garner (Lars and the Real Girl, Pan Am) are in talks to sign on.  To be directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes), the film is based on the novel of the same name by Joe Hill and centers on Ig Perrish (Radcliffe), the main suspect in the rape and murder of his girlfriend.  He wakes one morning to find horns growing from his head, appendages that have the ability to force confessions from strangers, which aids him in his quest to find the real killer and exact his revenge.

Temple, who was seen this summer in The Dark Knight Rises, is in advanced negotiations to take on the girlfriend role in this fairly crazy-sounding pic.  No word on who Anderson or Garner would play, but production is set to get underway this fall.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this afternoon.  First up, Hot Fuzz scene-stealer Paddy Considine is set to reteam with director Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for the comedy The World’s End.  The plot centers on five childhood friends going through an epic pub crawl in order to reach the fabled pub, The World’s End.  But as they make their way to the pub, they discover that the fate of humankind is on the line.  Rosamund Pike is set as the film’s female lead, a woman who shares a romantic past with Pegg’s character, and Variety reports that Considine will play “a former ladies man and musician who has grown up to be a divorced architect.”

Considine has appeared in Submarine and The Bourne Ultimatum and made his directorial debut to much acclaim with last year’s Tyrannosaur.  Production on The World’s End begins next month.  Hit the jump for casting news concerning The Social Network’s Max Minghella teaming up with Daniel Radcliffe for a truly crazy-sounding fantasy thriller.

After starring in the fantasy franchise Harry Potter and making a departure with the horror/thriller The Woman in Black, Daniel Radcliffe is now set to blend genres in the supernatural fantasy/thriller, Horns. An adaptation of the best-selling novel by Joe Hill, Horns centers on Ig Perrish (Radcliffe), the main suspect in the rape and murder of his girlfriend.  He wakes one morning to find horns growing from his head, appendages that have the ability to force confessions from strangers, which aids him in his quest to find the real killer and exact his revenge.  The premise sounds awesome and this could be a great turn for Radcliffe, who will get to once again seek vengeance for the death of a loved one.  Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) is set to direct.  Hit the jump for more details.

Director Alexandre Aja, who most recently helmed the camp-heavy horror pic Piranha 3D, is now poised to take on vampires. Deadline reports that Aja is in negotiations to direct an adaptation of the Image Comics title Undying Love. The story is set in modern day Hong Kong and centers on an ex-soldier who strikes up a relationship with a Chinese girl who turns out to be a vampire. The protagonist learns that the only way he can be with his love is to defeat her vampire creator, who just so happens to be one of the most powerful creatures in history and is surrounded by an army of monsters.

The pic is decidedly darker material than Piranha 3D, as the story is set against the backdrop of the Hong Kong criminal underworld. Aja has experience with straight-horror, as he also directed High Tension and the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, so he won’t be completely out of his element here. In a film climate populated only by vampires that are either whiny or incredibly horny, a darker take on the creatures is much welcomed. The comic’s creators Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman wrote the screenplay so I imagine the film won’t veer too far from the comic. Aja most recently became attached to direct an adaptation of Horns but there’s no word on whether that pic or Undying Love will go first.

In October 2009, Mandalay Pictures picked up the screen rights to Joe Hill‘s novel Horns.  The book centers on “a 26-year-old man who wakes up with a massive hangover and discovers horns sprouting from his head. He becomes convinced that their existence is tied to the unsolved murder of his girlfriend.”  That would also be my logical conclusion from sprouting horns on my head.  The movie has been churning through development hell ever since, but today Heat Vision reports that Piranha 3D director Alexandre Aja will helm the adaptation.  Keith Bunin wrote the screenplay and Mandalay is in the process of packaging the movie in order to secure financing.  We reported back in March that Shia LaBeouf was set to star, but Heat Vision makes no mention of him in their story so presumably he’s dropped out.

The plan is to have Aja direct Horns in late spring-early summer 2012 before he moves on to adapt the manga Cobra the Space Pirate.  Hit the jump for the synopsis of Joe Hill’s novel.

Elijah Wood shined in the debut season of FX’s Wilfred, but now the actor is taking on hallucinations of a decidedly darker sort. The actor has nabbed himself the lead in the indie remake of the 1980 serial killer pic Maniac. Deadline confirms (as first reported by Bloody Disgusting) that Wood will play a serial killer who works at a shop that sells antique mannequins, and spends his spare time stalking prey on the internet and planning out his kills. The character suffers hallucinations that take him back to when his mother abused him, and he gains a sense of revenge against his mother each time he kills a victim. Nora Arnezeder (Safe House) also stars, as reported by BD. Franck Khalfoun (P2) is directing the indie, and Alexandre Aja (Piranha 3D) and Gregory Lavasseur (The Hills Have Eyes) are onboard to produce.

Wood is set to reprise his role as Frodo throughout the year-long production of The Hobbit, and recently completed work in the dramedy Celeste and Jesse Forever. His voice talents will be on display with the release of Happy Feet Two on November 18th.

After his 2003 film High Tension and its ridiculously terrible ending, director Alexandre Aja has found success in directing remakes of the horror flicks The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha and now he may be lining up to direct another.  Twitch reports that Aja is in talks to direct a new adaptation of the Stephen King novel Pet Sematary.  The book was adapted by Mary Lambert in 1989 and centers on a grief-stricken father who decided to bring the family’s dead son back to life by burying him in a haunted cemetery. They then learn that “sometimes dead is better”.  I’ve included a synopsis of the book after the jump along with the trailer for the 1989 film.

Aja is also set to direct an adaptation of the space opera manga Cobra: The Space Pirate.  However, since that project is still trying to find financing and likely wouldn’t go in front of cameras until 2013. There’s time for Aja to do Pet Sematary in between and if it’s a hit, it could help garner the cash he needs to move forward on Cobra.

Alexandre Aja is currently writing his next movie, a live-action 3D adaptation of Buichi Terasawa’s popular manga, Cobra the Space Pirate. The Piranha 3D director had already shared his enthusiasm about this project few months ago, and it really seems like a personal goal that he has set for himself. “Cobra is unique. Of all the animés I used to watch as a kid, it’s the most avant-garde, in both rhythm and imagination,” he told French site Cinemateaser.

Hit the jump to find out more.

It looks like Piranha 3D‘s fake Oscar campaign has worked.  Ving Rhames has won/will win the Acadamy Award for Best Actor in 2011 for his work in Alexandre Aja’s 3D horror-fest.  While this Funny or Die video exists in a wonderful alternate universe, I would like to imagine the day when Ving Rhames will give what looks to be one of the all-time great award acceptance speeches.  And no, I don’t know why he’s holding a tux throughout the speech.

Hit the jump to check out the video.  Piranha 3D is now in theaters.

When we interviewed Piranha 3D director Alexandre Aja at Comic-Con, he talked about a film he was developing based on the Japanese manga Cobra the Space Pirate.  It’s clearly a passion project for the French filmmaker, who remarked “We grew up watching the TV animation of it, so it’s like Star Wars for us. We love that.”

It looks like Aja has finalized the necessary rights deals, as he’ll soon begin work on the script, with dreams of a 3D sci-fi space opera in mind.  To hear what he had to say about his plans for the film, as well as some background on the source material, hit the jump.

While at Comic-Con, I was given the chance to interview the cast and crew of this summer’s bloodiest 3D horror film, Piranha 3D. After screening roughly six minutes of footage the night before, I was eager to see what everyone had to say as I was blown away by what I had witnessed. During the interviews I had access to three groups. The first was Jerry O’Connell, Kelly Brook, and Paul Scheer. The second group was director Alexandre Aja and producer Mark Canton. The third and final group featured Elizabeth Shue, Adam Scott, and Steve McQueen. Hit the jump for all three videos and to find more of our coverage of Piranha 3D, which hits theaters this Friday.

Piranha 3D (due out August 20th), from French filmmaker Alexandre Aja, is a horror thriller in which all hell breaks loose during Spring Break. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area’s new razor-toothed residents. The film promises outrageous death scene, an enormous amount of blood and plenty of nudity, while taking audiences on a wild, fun ride.

During a roundtable the day after their footage was screened off-site at Comic-Con, due to its R rating, director Alexandre Aja talked about making a horror film realistic, gauging when you’ve gone too far and the desire for audiences to have fun seeing the film.

He also revealed that he’s currently developing two franchises – one for a Japanese manga, called Cobra the Space Pirate, and one for a Spanish graphic novel, called Blacksad – and that he will be producing a remake Maniac, with Greg Levasseur directing.

Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Deemed “too hot for Comic-Con” by the e-mail invite, director Alexandre Aja (High Tension) and a majority of the cast debuted new footage of Piranha 3D Thursday night at the Regal Theater in downtown San Diego. The screening featured approximately 8-10 minutes of new footage from the film (screened in 3D) and was followed by a short Q & A session with the panel including: Alexandre Aja, producer Mark Canton, visual designer Neville Page, Eli Roth, Adam Scott, Jerry O’Connell, Steven McQueen, Elisabeth Shue, Kelly Brook, Riley Steele, and Paul Scheer.

If I had to encapsulate the footage previewed into a single word it would be “ridiculously insane.” All right so that’s two words. Nevertheless, when there is that much blood crammed into less than ten minutes, one word just can’t do it justice. Hit the jump for details of the footage as well as some highlight quotes from the panel.

A new trailer for Dimension’s Piranha 3D has hit the net and if you weren’t excited for director Alexandre Aja’s (The Hills Have Eyes) movie before…you will be now.  Unlike all the movies that take everything so seriously, I think the entire purpose of Piranha 3D is to have fun while watching it.  And based on the trailer, you will.  Also, I love how they’ve cast Richard Dreyfuss in a movie about fish trying to eat people and Christopher Lloyd as another Dr. Brown type.

Finally, it should be noted, unlike 2D movies that get converted into 3D like Clash of the Titans, Piranha was shot in 3D.  Which means that’s the way you should see it.  Check out the awesome trailer after the jump.  Piranha 3D gets released August 27, 2010.