Underworld 4 has found its director(s).  Heat Vision reports that the Swedish team-up of Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein will take on directorial duties for the film.  Underworld 4 will mark the second English-language feature for the pair who also co-directed the 2009 UK thriller Shelter starring Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Showtime’s The Tudors).  Marlind and Stein will helm the project for Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment from a script by John Hlavin.  Multi-platform scribe J. Michael Straczynski (Changeling & one of my personal favorite comics, Rising Stars) performed rewrite duties for the film.

With the news of Marlind and Stein’s hiring in the bag, the fourth installment of the Underworld franchise continues to take shape.  Almost two months ago, we confirmed that Kate Beckinsale would return to her rightful place as the unequivocally bad-ass vampire warrior, Selene.   At that time we also reported that the film would begin production in Vancouver during March 2011, with a January 20th, 2012 release in mind.

Fans of the well-received teen comedy Easy A have much to celebrate today. That’s because Deadline is reporting that director/writer/producer Will Gluck has signed a deal with Screen Gems that will have him fill all three roles for an upcoming, untitled comedy starring Emma Stone. The idea is to have the film in production by next summer. While the deal will reunite Gluck and Stone from their time on Easy A, there is an interesting omission that is never mentioned in the article. Hit the jump to find out what that unsecured but key element is and how Gluck and Stone will manage to work this film into their busy schedules.

Screen Gems has partnered with Constantin Film and Unique Features to adapt Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones into the first film in a potential franchise based on her Mortal Instruments book series.  In Bones, “seemingly ordinary teenager Clary Fray discovers she is the descendent of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors dedicated to driving demons out of our world.”  Greenhorn Jessica Postigo scripted the adaptation, which sets a variety of mystical creatures (fairies, warlocks, werewolves, etc.) loose on New York City.  Hit the jump for the official announcement.

Due to the limited film experience of Christina Aguilera and her booming voice, Burlesque faces the brand of skepticism that comes with anchoring your movie with a musician. Writer/director Steve Antin did what he could to surround Aguilera with a seasoned cast, including Cher, who made the leap from song to screen herself with an Oscar win for 1987′s Moonstruck.  Kristen Bell, Cam Gigandet, Eric Dane, and Stanley Tucci round out the cast — check out the first trailer for Burlesque after the jump.

Yeah, I know Comic-Con was a week ago. The problem with landing a ton of awesome interviews is they take time to edit and render.  Also, if I were to post 10 video interviews the same day, most would be missed.  That’s why I decided to spread out all the interviews I did at this year’s Comic-Con and only post  two a day.

Anyway, one of the interviews I’ve been waiting to post is with very beautiful Maggie Q.  While I got to interview her about Screen Gems upcoming vampire movie Priest, since she’s also the lead on The CW Network’s Nikita, we spent some time talking about that show and who she plays.  Finally, since we were at Comic-Con, we discussed what she collects and geek out over – as well as what it was like for her to walk the convention floor.  It’s a great interview so hit the jump to check it out:

Fans of the Resident Evil franchise are sure to get three times what they love as the fourth film in the series, Resident Evil: Afterlife, was shot in 3D and presented as such at its San Diego Comic-Con panel on Saturday. Producer, director and writer Paul W.S. Anderson brought his wife and star Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, and Resident Evil newcomer Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) along with him to present footage and answer questions. Hit the jump for more.

Screen Gems has released the first full trailer for Easy A, a modern comedic take on the classic Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, The Scarlet Letter.  Emma Stone (Zombieland) stars as a high school girl who lies about her sexual exploits in an attempt to boost her reputation as well as her bank account. The impressive cast also includes Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, and Stanley Tucci.  Will Gluck (Fired Up!) directs from a script by relative newcomer Bert V. Royal.

Stone is a charming star, the cast should deliver (I liked Tucci’s line in the clip), and Gluck’s high school sex romp Fired Up! was reputed to be better than it needed to be.  All promising signs.  Check out the trailer for yourself after the jump.

Last year I got to visit the set of Resident Evil: Afterlife when the movie was filming in Toronto.  Now that Screen Gems has lifted the embargo, my goal is to post my set report and a few of the onset interviews later tonight.  Since the studio has only released a few official images from the movie, I decided to grab a bunch from the trailer to add to my interview articles and you can check them out after the jump.  Look for a lot more on Resident Evil: Afterlife later tonight:

Justin Timblerlake will play the male lead in the Screen Gems romantic comedy Friends with Benefits.  Directed by Will Gluck (the upcoming Emma Stone comedy Easy A), Deadline says that in the story a headhunter recruits a magazine editor and since each is too busy to find a mate, they agree to sleep together with no strings attached. Things get complicated when the guy falls for the girl, who’s dating someone else.  I don’t find Timberlake convincing in a movie like this because if you’re a woman, who could possibly be a better choice than Timberlake?  He’s just too good looking.  What actor would you put next to Timberlake and say, “Yeah…Timberlake is handsome and charming and all that, but maybe the girl should go with this obvious Baxter.”

This film is not to be confused with Ivan Reitman’s film of the same name starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.  Deadline says it will likely be Reitman’s film that has to undergo the name change.

Timberlake will next be seen this October in David Fincher’s The Social Network, which is about the creation of Facebook.

With Sony Screen Gems premiering the 3D red band trailer for Resident Evil: Afterlife this Friday night at Wonder Con, it’s no surprise the promotional machine has ramped up with the release of the first images from the movie (thanks to MySpace).  Starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Spencer Locke, Wentworth Miller, Shawn Roberts, Boris Kodjoe, Kim Coates, Norman Yeung and Kasey Barnfield, RE: Afterlife continues the adventures of Alice in the world of the undead.

While many films made in 2D are getting released in 3D, Resident Evil: Afterlife was filmed using 3D cameras.  What that means is…this thing is going to look awesome in 3D!  Hit the jump to check out the first images and look for the trailer this Saturday at 2:15pm.

Per boxofficemojo.com, Sony’s Screen Gems has shuffled the release dates for a few of its upcoming films. Thriller The Roommate, starring Leighton Meester, has been bumped from September 17th to February 4, 2011. Crime thriller Takers, starring Idris Elba and Matt Dillon, originally set for release on May 14th, moves to August 20th.  Underworld 4, which will see director Len Wiseman return to the helmer’s chair of the action-horror franchise, has been bumped from January 21, 2011 to September 23, 2011; moreover, according to boxofficemojo.com, the film will apparently not be shot in 3D, despite previous reports. Another action-horror title, Priest, starring Paul Bettany, will be getting the 3D treatment (in post-production) and, as a result, has been bumped from August 20th to January 14, 2011. Finally, high school comedy Easy A, starring Emma Stone, has been assigned a September 17, 2010 release date.

Finally, Universal’s sci-fi actioner Repo Men, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, has been bumped up from April 2nd to March 19th.

Hit the jump to see what all 6 films will have to contend with at the box office on their new release dates.

If you’ve been reading Collider the past few days, you’ve seen what I’m calling “7 Days with Producer Mike De Luca”.  The reason for the name is, I was able to speak with De Luca for an extended amount of time and rather than post everything at once, I’ve broken our conversation up into smaller parts.  I’ve already posted what he said about the Metal Gear Solid movie, Ghost Rider 2, Drive Angry and Dracula Year Zero. Today it’s all about Priest and what’s up with the remake of Fright Night.

On Priest, De Luca says Screen Gems President Clint Culpepper flipped over the concept and thinks the movie could be the start of a franchise.  Of course it’s all about box office numbers, so if the film does well, expect a sequel for sure.  De Luca also confirms Priest will have a presence at this year’s Comic-Con.

And for fans of the original Fright Night, you’ll be relieved that De Luca says:

“I get it that remakes are a drag to hear about. I’m on the Internet all the time. I know what they say. Like there’s no original ideas in Hollywood. I understand the responsibility on the remake front of things because there are fans…you have responsibility I think to the fans of the original and you also have the responsibility to not suck even more than something original because you have so many people expecting you to suck because of the predisposed bias against remakes and stuff.”

He goes on to explain the idea of the remake, that Fright Night could be filming this year at DreamWorks, they’re expecting the first draft of the script in a few weeks, and compares the scope and size of the film to Disturbia.  Much more after the jump:

Screen Gems has released synopses and some first look images from their 2010 films and it’s all after the jump.  Some of the new/first look images are from The Roomate (starring Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly), Death at a Funeral (starring Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Zoë Saldaña), and Takers (starring Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Idris Elba, Jay Hernandez, and Hayden Christensen).

Also, while they didn’t release any images, they did provide the first synopsis for Burlesque which stars Cher, Christina Aguilera, Eric Dane, Cam Gigandet, Julianne Hough, Peter Gallagher, Alan Cumming, Kristen Bell and Stanley Tucci.

Check out everything after the jump.  It’s posted by release date.

A few weeks ago I got to see about twenty minutes from Screen Gems upcoming movie Legion.  While I didn’t see enough footage to say if the final film is going to be worth our time, one of the clips they showed us was great, and it just so happens Screen Gems released a clip from the scene today.  Since I’d rather not spoil it, hit the jump and check it out.  But I will say it involves a grandma named Gladys…

In what I can only pray is a kind of “That would be fun, we should make that movie someday,”-story because I can’t fathom why Jamie Foxx would want to go back and make a movie starring his stand-up/”In Loving Color” character, Wanda Wayne.  You don’t see Jim Carrey angling for a Fire Marshall Bill movie and Foxx has far more respect and critical appreciation than Carrey.

On the other hand, I completely understand Martin Lawrence digging his stand-up/”Martin” character, Sheneneh Jenkins for a movie since Lawrence has shown he has no interest in expanding beyond the “College Road Trip”/”Big Momma’s House”-type films he’s done for the past several years.  But regardless of their career trajectories, Lawrence and Foxx are planning to star in a feature film crossover of their 90s, ugly women character, “Sheneneh and Wanda”.  Hit the jump for details.