A feature film iteration of the popular video game Metal Gear Solid has gone through quite a few ups and downs over the years, but it now sounds like development on the film is moving forward…again.  Konami has confirmed that Metal Gear Solid is in the works with Spider-Man’s Avi Arad onboard to produce.  For those unaware, Metal Gear Solid is a stealth action video game that centers on a solider named Solid Snake who infiltrates a nuclear weapons facility in order to neutralize a terrorist threat.

Arad is the former chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, but his track record is a tad hit and miss.  Hit the jump for more on the Metal Gear Solid movie.

As much as I enjoy film, my first entertainment love will always be music. As such, this weekend finds me in Chicago in anticipation of what could be my final Warped Tour appearance. That’s right, I’m a 26 year-old man (I use the term “man” lightly, of course) who still finds immense joy in the pop-punk genre. Nevertheless, it’s becoming harder and harder for my oldness to blend in with a predominantly sub-18 crowd without looking like a total creep and, therefore, today may very well be my last Warped experience. On the bright side, I still have XBox Live to remind me that I’ve never completely grown up.

Maturity issues aside, on tap in this week’s version of the Top 5 is a slew of interviews for The Amazing Spider-Man, the first trailer and new images for Tom Cruise‘s Jack Reacher, our most anticipated movies from July to September, Savages interviews with Oliver Stone, Blake Lively, etc., and more The Dark Knight Rises coverage than most humans are capable of comprehending. Links and brief recaps for each reside after the break.

A few weeks ago, Sony Pictures invited us to attend the press junket The Amazing Spider-Man.  The reboot takes a grittier, more realistic approach to Peter Parker’s journey to becoming your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and sees the wall-crawler struggling to come to grips with the mysterious disappearance of his parents.  For more on the film, click here for all of our previous coverage.

During my interview with producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, we talked about rebooting the franchise, the decision to pass on Spider-Man 4, potential crossovers with other superhero movies, the crowded superhero movie marketplace, and more.  Hit the jump to check out the interview, and click on the corresponding links for my interviews with co-stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans,  Denis Leary, and Martin Sheen.

Amongst the massive amount of unbridled enthusiasm for The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, it seemed for a bit that Sony’s reboot The Amazing Spider-Man might hit theaters with little fanfare.  The pic finally premiered this past Tuesday to a record-setting $35 million and fairly positive reviews, and though we won’t know the full box office impact until later this weekend, the film is certainly off to a promising start.  With a healthy box office take, a sequel for The Amazing Spider-Man is all but guaranteed (writers were recently hired to perform a rewrite of James Vanderbilt’s follow-up screenplay).  Now an official message from Sony confirms what we already knew: The Amazing Spider-Man is the first in a planned trilogy.

Hit the jump for much more, including evidence that a great deal of Spidey’s origin was cut out of The Amazing Spider-Man at the last minute, and the possible inclusion of the Sinister Six in further films.  Beware, MAJOR SPOILERS for The Amazing Spider-Man follow.

Although Genndy Tartakovsky’s first feature film as a director is the upcoming Adam Sandler-starrer, Hotel Transylvania, he’ll quickly turn around and direct Popeye as his second.  Tartakovsky is best known for his phenomenal series work with a roster including The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars.  (You can check out an example of what a Tartakovsky feature film looks like by watching the recent trailer for Hotel Transylvania.) Writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn (The Smurfs) were attached to pen the Popeye adaptation as recently as last November.  Hit the jump for more on Popeye.

Venom fanboys have had to carry around the disappointment of seeing their favorite character shoved into the awful Spider-Man 3.  However, producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach have never given up the ghost of the slobbering Spidey foe.  As recently as this past March, we reported that Chronicle director Josh Trank was in talks to helm a new movie featuring the villain/anti-hero.  However, how do you have Venom without Spider-Man and how do you have a Venom movie if the character isn’t in The Amazing Spider-Man?

Hit the jump for how Venom might fit into the new comic-book world The Amazing Spider-Man is spinning.

Though we’ve been flooded with an insane amount of The Dark Knight Rises content as of late, we’ve actually got another high profile superhero pic headed our way before Christopher Nolan’s Batman takes his bow.  The Spider-Man reboot that was borne out of a scrapped development on Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 hits theaters this July courtesy of director Marc Webb and new Spidey Andrew Garfield.  Our partners at Omelete recently sat down for a lengthy chat with producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach to discuss the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man.

The duo talked about what made them realize Spider-Man was in need of a reboot, having the opportunity to put a larger focus on the disappearance of Peter Parker’s parents, including Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacey as an intellectual equal to Peter Parker, taking a more practical approach to the effects, the Lizard, and much more.  Hit the jump to watch the interview.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and producers Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach held a press conference in Tokyo yesterday in part to announce that The Amazing Spider-Man will premiere in Japan on June 30, a few days before the July 3 North American release date.  The press conference was nearly an hour long, so the group had a lot more to share.  For instance, when asked what sets the new Marc Webb-directed film apart from Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man trilogy, Arad responded:

“In our movie, [Peter] finds his true love. Gwen Stacy was always the true love of Peter Parker… We found a very, very good story about what makes a human being. About what sets their destiny.”

Hit the jump for the full press conference video, plus a few more choice quotes.

An animated feature film version of Popeye has been in the works for a while, but now the project finally has screenwriters (an integral part of every major motion picture). Jay Scherick and David Ronn, who wrote this summer’s feature film take on The Smurfs, have been tapped to pen the script for Popeye, per Heat Vision. Sony Pictures Animation and producer Avi Arad are behind the adaptation, which will be released in 3D. While it’s possible to make a kooky and fun cartoony version of Popeye for modern audiences, Scherick and Ronn’s resume gives me some pause. The duo wrote for the smart sitcom Spin City back in the day, but their recent output includes the Kevin James “comedy” Zookeeper and the infamous Norbit.

Basically what this means is we’re in for something more along the lines of The Smurfs than Rango. While that’s not great news for adult moviegoers, the kids sure seemed to love that Smurfs movie so the little one’s shouldn’t be disappointed. Scherick and Ronn were recently tapped to write a sequel to The Smurfs, and have also written a script for the Baywatch movie. Hit the jump to watch some of the first episode of the Popeye cartoon show.

Back in March 2010, we reported that Sony Pictures Animation was developing a 3D CGI movie based on the popular character Popeye.    Now it looks like the movie may be finally moving forward as It’s on the Grid reports that Jim Carrey and Amy Adams will be voicing Popeye and his rail-thin girlfriend Olive Oyl, respectively.  We’ve reached out to Sony for comment, but haven’t heard back from them.  As for this potential casting, we all know that Carrey could voice Popeye in his sleep and Adams could probably do a great job with Olive Oyl.  The real question is how a character like Popeye will translate into 3D CG because let’s face it: in a three-dimensional context, a guy with a ugly mug and bulging forearms looks a little creepy.

[Updated: Sony has now gotten back to us and informed us that the casting news is false and It's on the Grid has taken down the info from their story.  There ya go. ]

To learn more about Popeye, hit the jump.

The two biggest panels in Hall H this year are The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and The Amazing Spider-Man.  That’s not to diminish all the other films and TV shows that will be in the Hall, but we all know those are the biggest.  But Breaking Dawn is a known quantity.  When it comes to Spider-Man, folks are still struggling to understand the reboot.  The words “gritty”, “contemporary”, and “realistic” have been thrown around in regards to the film, but what does that mean?  At the film’s panel, 6500 people are waiting for director Marc Webb to provide them an answer to that question among others: How will the actors play their roles?  What can we expect from the set pieces?  How will this stand apart from Sam Raimi’s trilogy?  This panel isn’t just a chance to see the new Spider-Man in action, but to convince folks that this reboot can stand on its own.

Hit the jump for the recap of The Amazing Spider-Man panel.

Today, David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo finally got its Lisbeth Salander by casting Rooney Mara in the role of the troubled-but-brilliant hacker.  Tonight, Heat Vision reports that actress Noomi Rapace, who played Salander in the original Swedish adaptation, is looking to make her stateside debut.  According to THR, Rapace arrived in Hollywood this past weekend and met or will be meeting with “filmmakers McG, Joe Roth (Freedomland), Brett Ratner and Ridley Scott, as well as producers Avi Arad and Di Bonaventura Pictures, production execs Marc Evans at Parmamount and Greg Silverman at Warner Bros.”

Rapace earned herself a Best Actress Guldbagge (the Swedish equivalent of the Oscar) for her performance in Dragon Tattoo.  She speaks fluent English and wisely decided not to include herself in the running to reprise her role as Salander in Fincher’s remake (no one wants to be typecast as a troubled-but-brilliant hacker).  She did return to play Salander in both the Swedish versions of the sequels The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

Andrew Garfield (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) will play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot.  Garfield’s casting follows months of speculation about who would don the webs.  Garfield was among the final list of contenders along with Jamie Bell, Anton Yelchin, Aaron Johnson, Logan Lerman, Alden Ehrenreich, Frank Dillane, Michael Angarano, and Josh Hutcherson.  Hutcherson had reportedly been offered the role yesterday.

Whether that’s true or if he turned it down is irrelevant (although I can’t imagine anyone turning it down).  Columbia Pictures has sent out a press release confirming Garfield as Spider-Man.  I liked Garfield in Parnassus, and he’s going to get a lot more exposure later this year when he’s seen in David Fincher’s Facebook movie The Social Network and Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go.  Hit the jump for quotes from Webb and the producers regarding Garfield’s casting.  Spider-Man is set to open in 3D on July 3, 2012.

Update: We’ve been given some pictures and video from today’s event in Mexico where director Marc Webb and producers Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin made the big announcement.  You can see Andrew Garfield looked shocked as he stepped onto the world stage.  Hit the jump to check everything out.  It’s after the highlights from the press release:

Sony is getting ready to power up freakishly forearmed sailor Popeye and giving him the CGI and 3D treatment.  Variety reports that Spider-Man producer Avi Arad is on the project with Mike Jones set to write the script.  Says Arad:

“Scott called me and said, ‘I have something for you,’” said Arad, who grew up watching Popeye shorts in movie houses in his native Israel. “I literally started singing the famous Popeye song (after securing the rights). What always blew me away is the level of the animation. It was so beautiful and unbelievably detailed.”

I’m going to go ahead and believe that was the case at the time Arad saw those shorts.  The character was adapted into a live-action film in 1980 starring Robin Williams and directed by Robert Altman.  Sony is already getting into the classic cartoon re-adaptation business with The Smurfs set to hit theaters on July 29, 2011.  For more on the history of the sailor man, hit the jump.