We’ve got a few release date shifts and announcements for some upcoming animated films to share this afternoon:

• B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations – The Seth Rogen-led DreamWorks Animated film has been moved up from September to June 5, 2015, giving the ghost school-centric film a prime summer date.
• Trolls – DreamWorks Animation has pushed back its feature film adaptation of the popular dolls from June 2015 to November 4, 2016.  Chloe Moretz leads the voice cast.
• Anubis – 20th Century Fox will release this new film from Blue Sky Studios on July 15, 2016.
• Ferdinand – Fox has also dated another animated feature from Blue Sky Studios for April 7, 2017 (that seems so impossibly far away).  Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age, Rio) will direct.

Coming off his directorial debut on last year’s brilliant horror film The Cabin in the Woods, it appears that Drew Goddard has settled on a follow-up directorial project. Goddard will write and direct The Martian for 20th Century Fox, which is based on the e-book by Andy Weir.  The story centers on an astronaut who becomes stranded on Mars and must figure out how to survive long enough to return home.  The premise is not dissimilar from Alfonso Cuaron’s long-in-the-works Gravity, which opens later this year, but Goddard showed tremendous promise as a filmmaker with Cabin so he’ll no doubt deliver something interesting with The Martian.  Hit the jump for more.

Marvel makes it look easy. That’s what kept running through my head while watching Iron Man 3 Thursday night. Pumping out one solid standalone film after another with the overall goal of creating a whole that is equally, if not more, entertaining than its formidable parts can’t be that easy. And yet, Marvel makes it seem that way. In a medium outside of their native reach no less. Granted, Iron Man 3 isn’t without its flaws. But it doesn’t have to be. It succeeds on the exact level it’s meant to: in moving both the individual character and universal stories ahead in an entertaining and logical way. If “Marvel makes it looks easy” was my primary takeaway from IM3, “DC has their work cut out for them” isn’t far behind.

But enough Marvel love for one opening paragraph. In this week’s Top 5 we’ve got Iron Man 3 interviews with director Shane Black and more, a video blog review for Star Trek Into Darkness, the Pacific Rim trailer from WonderCon, Fox’s courting of Michael B. Jordan the the role of Human Torch in its upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, and the new trailer for Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx‘s White House Down. A brief recap and link to each is a “Continue Reading” click away.

Girls star Allison Williams is making the move into features.  Williams, who plays Marnie on the polarizing HBO comedy series, has booked a starring role in an upcoming feature film and has landed on the short list for a highly anticipated superhero reboot.  Deadline reports that Williams will topline the Romeo & Juliet reimagining Rosaline, which tells the classic Shakespeare story from the point of view of Rosaline, Romeo’s jilted ex-lover.  Michael Sucsy (Grey Gardens) is directing the period pic from a script by (500) Days of Summer scribes Scott Neustader and Michael H. Weber.

The Shawn Levy-produced project was previously set up early last year with True Blood star Deborah Ann Woll in talks to play Rosaline alongside Dave Franco and Lily Collins as Romeo and Juliet, but that version of the film did not move forward.  There’s no word on whether Franco and Collins are still attached, but the project is said to be mobilizing at 20th Century Fox.  Hit the jump for news concerning Williams possibly starring in the Fantastic Four reboot.

A new feature film iteration of the musical Guys and Dolls may finally be getting off the ground.  Studios have been trying for years to secure the film rights to a new version of the classic Frank Loesser musical, but the songwriter’s widow never quite found a deal she liked.  That just changed, as 20th Century Fox has now closed a deal to nab the rights and start development on a new Guys and Dolls imminently.  For those unfamiliar, the story takes place in the 1940s and centers on a group of New York City petty criminals and professional gamblers.

Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra toplined MGM’s 1955 feature film adaptation, but Fox is thinking a bit younger for this new version as the studio has its eye on Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to star.  Hit the jump for more. 

It appears that Marvel Studios has secured the rights to another very popular comics character.  While 20th Century Fox’s 2003 take on Daredevil was a bit of a misfire, the studio had been trying to move forward on a new iteration of the character in recent years.  30 Days of Night director David Slade came onboard to direct a Daredevil reboot in the spring of 2011, and Fringe scribe Brad Caleb Kane was subsequently tapped to pen the screenplay.  Movement on the project was quiet for a full year, though, and the following summer Slade left the film to helm the pilot for NBC’s Hannibal.

When Slade exited the project, however, Fox was facing a ticking clock.  The studio had to move quickly to get a new Daredevil movie into production before the rights to the character reverted back to Marvel.  Well, a new Daredevil film failed to materialize in the ensuing months, and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige confirmed today that Marvel now holds to the rights to the character.  Hit the jump for more.

Though the news that 20th Century Fox was moving forward on a sequel to Chronicle came rather quickly after Josh Trank’s film performed very well at the box office, development on the follow-up has been fairly slow.  Screenwriter Max Landis returned to pen the script, but it seemed unlikely that Trank would return to direct given that he’s next helming The Fantastic Four and is also attached to a Venom movie and Shadow of the Colossus.  Last we heard re: Chronicle 2, Landis’ father John Landis claimed that Fox wasn’t happy with Max’s script and wanted “more of the same.”

Now Max Landis himself has spoken up regarding the status of Chronicle 2 and also directly addressing his father’s comments.  Hit the jump to read on.

Quite a hubbub occurred earlier today over 20th Century Fox’s supposed difficulty in developing a sequel to Prometheus, and now screenwriter Damon Lindelof has provided a statement on the matter.  Talk of a follow-up to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi film has been around ever since Scott and Co. were doing press for the first film, with both Scott and Lindelof offering up plenty of details regarding where Prometheus 2 might lead.  The first film was developed with an eye towards possibly moving forward with a full trilogy should audiences spark to Prometheus, and with a global box office haul of $403 million, Fox is understandably keen on getting a sequel going soon.

Lindelof opted not to come back and pen the script for the follow-up due to scheduling issues, and a new report today claims that Fox and Scott are “freaking out” over trying to figure out the story for Prometheus 2 after Lindelof “abandoned” the project.  Hit the jump for much more, including Lindelof’s comment on the matter.

Though the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past is gearing up to begin production next month, another long-promised X-Men spinoff film continues to linger in development hell.  Fox has been working on a Deadpool movie for what feels like an eternity now, and the last thing we heard about the project was a rumor that the studio had shot 8-minutes of test footage for the proposed pic.  That was over a year ago and we haven’t had any significant updates in the interim.  Ryan Reynolds remains attached to star, but the hurdle for the studio is greenlighting a hard-R superhero movie in which the protagonist frequently breaks the fourth wall.

Reynolds recently gave a bit of an update on the project, saying that “it’s sitting there” and discussing the difficulty of getting the go-ahead from Fox for such a unique film.  The actor also addressed how the Deadpool spinoff would handle the character’s appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Let the battle of the Moses epics begin!  Two high profile films about the Biblical character have been in development for the past year or so—one at Warner Bros. with Steven Spielberg flirting with the director’s chair, and one at Fox that has Ridley Scott attached to direct.  Yesterday, Warner Bros.’ film Gods and Kings was dealt a blow when Spielberg finally left the project, and now it appears that Fox is ramping things up on Exodus as Scott is looking to make the pic his next film after he completes post-production on The Counselor.  The Gladiator filmmaker has taken a big step forward towards production, as he and Fox are apparently courting Christian Bale to tackle the Moses role.  Hit the jump for more.

You may not know visual effects artist Tim Miller by name, but you’ve surely seen his work.  Miller frequently collaborates with David Fincher, and he was responsible for the fantastic opening credits sequence for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and he helmed the Fincher-produced launch trailer for Halo 4 late last year.  He’s also attached to co-direct Fincher’s CG adaptation of The Goon, but now 20th Century Fox has tapped Miller to take the helm of a sci-fi feature film of his own as Variety reports that Miller will helm the action thriller Artemis, with John Davis onboard to produce.

Andrew Lobel (Tunnels) has been tapped to write the script for Artemis, which is described as a contained action thriller set in outer space.  No further details are known, but Miller is also attached to direct a couple of other interesting properties including Fox’s long-in-development Deadpool movie and the graphic novel adaptation Gravel.  Here’s hoping one of these films finally gets off the ground soon, as Miller’s work in the past year has been very promising.  Hit the jump to check out some of Miller’s stuff.

It’s been quite some time since we heard anything about 20th Centry Fox’s new adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic Frankenstein, but the last word on the project was that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was possibly interested in taking on a starring role.  The project has been in development for a couple of years, with Shawn Levy initially attached to direct before Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin, Sherlock) stepped in as his replacement last September.  The pic has a script by Chronicle scribe Max Landis, and now it looks as if things with Radcliffe are actually firming up as the actor is in final talks to play Igor.  Hit the jump for more.

Though Matthew Vaughn was previously set to direct the X-Men: First Class sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past only to step down and let Bryan Singer take the helm instead, it looks like he might be involved with another upcoming 20th Century Fox superhero property.  Vaughn remains a producer on Days of Future Past, and now proverbial Chatty Cathy Mark Millar has revealed that Vaughn will also be producing Fox’s upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, which will be directed by Chronicle helmer Josh Trank.  Hit the jump for more.

Bridesmaids breakout Melissa McCarthy is set to make her feature debut as a leading lady this weekend with the release of the comedy Identity Thief, but the actress and her husband Ben Falcone are already setting up three more upcoming projects with their newly-formed On the Day production banner.  Briefly:

• Michelle Darnell – McCarthy will star in and produce this comedy for Universal based on an original character of her creation and a story idea hatched by McCarthy and Falcone.  Falcone will produce and write the script alongside McCarthy and Groundlings member Steve Mallory.
• Cousin Irv From Mars – This adaptation of the upcoming book by Bruce Eric Kaplan (Girls) will be developed by On the Day at Universal, with Kaplan writing the script.  The story centers on a boy and his weird cousin who happens to be from Mars.
• Just Do It – McCarthy and Falcone board this Fox adaptation of the sex-help book of the same name by Douglas Brown.  The duo will produce and take a pass on the existing script by Michael Aguilar (The Departed), and McCarthy is attached to appear in the film.

Hit the jump for more details.

Fans looking forward to the release of the upcoming fifth film in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard, now have the opportunity to experience the absolute maximum amount of Die Hard before watching the new film.  20th Century Fox announced today that a five-film Die Hard marathon will be playing in theaters on February 13th.  Fans will watch Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Live Free or Die Hard back-to-back, leading up to a screening of director John Moore’s A Good Day to Die Hard a few hours before it opens wide.  That’s a lot of Die Hard.

Hit the jump to check out a poster for the event.  Further details will be announced soon.  A Good Day to Die Hard hits theaters on February 14th.