The first trailer for director Brett Ratner‘s Hercules, starring Dwayne Johnson in the title role, is now online.  The trailer features Hercules fighting off a lot of CGI monsters while grandiose narration builds up the big reveal of Johnson as the Greek demigod.  It’s also a bit strange since the movie was previously billed as “a revisionist take on the classic myth set in a grounded world where the supernatural does not exist,” and I’m pretty sure I spotted a hydra and Cerberus.  However it pans out, this looks like it could be a lot of dumb fun.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, and click on the corresponding links for Johnson talking about Fast & Furious 7, DC superheroes, and G.I. Joe 3.  The film also stars John Hurt, Ian McShane, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan, Rufus Sewell, Robert Maillet, and Irina Shayk.  Hercules opens in 3D on July 25th.

Jerry Bruckheimer’s move from Disney to Paramount is now official.  The prolific producer and Disney decided to part ways after the box office bust of this summer’s The Lone Ranger, on which Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski argued successfully for a budget north of $200 million.  Paramount officially announced today that Bruckheimer has finalized a three-year first-look deal with the studio set to begin next April, returning him to the home where he got his start as the producer of films like Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, and Days of Thunder.

Per Deadline, Bruckheimer’s first film back at Paramount will be the long-developing Beverly Hills Cop 4, which Brett Ratner will direct after he finishes up Hercules.  Eddie Murphy is reprising his role and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol scribes Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec are penning the screenplay.  Additionally, the Top Gun sequel is another priority for the studio, with Tom Cruise also attached to return.

Catching up with some weekend news: After a bidding war, Aaron Berg sold his spec script Section 6 to Universal for $1.2 million.  The Wrap provides the logline: “The historical spy thriller follows the World War I-era formation of British intelligence agency MI6 and its first director, Sir George Mansfield Cummings, who served as the inspiration for M in the James Bond series.”  The bidding reportedly came down to Sony and Universal.  If Sony won, I wonder if the studio had plans to make it a straight-up James Bond spinoff.

No talent is attached at this time, but the project has drawn interest from the likes of Hugh Jackman and directors Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 6) and Brett Ratner (Tower Heist).  That signals that we expect to keep tabs on Section 6 as it progresses through development.

While there are plenty of legitimate complaints to be raised about the advent of “the Twitter age,” the social media service has offered some neat looks into the filmmaking world.  Everyone from Marc Webb to Bryan Singer has used Twitter as a tool to offer fans a look behind-the-scenes at their latest films, and Dwayne Johnson has been doing the same when it comes to his passion project Hercules.  Directed by Brett Ratner, the film is described as “a revisionist take on the classic myth set in a grounded world where the supernatural does not exist.”  We’ve already seen a couple of teases of Johnson in costume, and now the actor has offered a few more looks at the set, including an impressive shot of the Thracian soldiers.

Hit the jump to check out the latest images.  The film also stars Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan, John Hurt, Rebecca Ferguson, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Askel Hennie, and Reece Ritchie.  Hercules opens on July 25, 2014.

MGM and Paramount Pictures have announced that principal photography is currently underway on director Brett Ratner’s ensemble-action film Hercules.  The film stars Dwayne Johnson as the titular demigod and is based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, but the official logline describes the pic as “a revisionist take on the classic myth set in a grounded world where the supernatural does not exist.”  Making a Herclues movie without any semblance of the supernatural is a bit odd, but the story of Ratner’s film finds the titular character traveling ancient Greece with five faithful companions sometime after “the legend” that we’re familiar with.

Hit the jump to read the full official synopsis for the film.  Written by Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos, the pic also stars Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Fiennes, Peter Mullan, John Hurt, Rebecca Ferguson, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Askel Hennie, and Reece Ritchie.  Hercules opens on July 25, 2014.

An American, a Canadian and a German each found work in the movies today. Here’s who was cast in what:

• Denis Leary has been added to the ensemble of football drama Draft Day.
• Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) has signed up for Pompeii, Paul W.S. Anderson’s latest 3D actioner.
• Antje Traue (Man of Steel) will get her Ancient Greek on as the latest recruit for Brett Ratner’s Hercules: The Thracian Wars.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

The cast is filling out for director Brett Ratner’s new take on Hercules.  Dwayne Johnson is set to star as the titular hero, and MGM announced today (per The Wrap) that Ian McShane, John Hurt, Joseph Fiennes, and Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen) will be rounding out the cast.  This film takes a grounded approach to the story, as Johnson’s titular character is portrayed as a mortal with a fearsome reputation rather than as the demigod son of Zeus.  In addition to the aforementioned actors, we learned yesterday that Rufus Sewell (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is joining the cast as well, and Askel Hennie (Headhunters) signed on last month to play a warrior devoted to Hercules.  Production on Hercules is slated to begin this November, with a July 25, 2014 release date planned. [Update: Hit the jump to see who the new additions will be playing.]

Check out the new release dates below:

• Hercules – The Brett Ratner-directed fantasy film starring Dwayne Johnson (Snitch) in the title role has been moved up a couple of weeks to July 25, 2014.
• The Best Man Holiday – Director Malcolm D. Lee’s sequel to his 1999 debut The Best Man now has an official title and a new release date of November 15, 2013.

Hit the jump for more on both of these pictures.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this morning.  First up, Taylor Kitsch may soon be tackling a serial killer film.  Though the talented Friday Night Lights actor didn’t have the best 2012 when it came to box office success, Kitsch seems to be taking everything in stride.  The folks over at Bloody Disgusting report that the actor is attached to star in the thriller Exit 147, which centers on a small town sheriff who arrests a man driving across the desert at night and holds him captive as part of a sadistic game.  Kitsch would play the sheriff, and Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane, The Girl) is attached to direct from a script by Travis Milloy (Pandorum).

We haven’t heard any official confirmation regarding Kitsch’s casting Exit 147 just yet, so it’s one to keep an eye on the in the near future with regards to the actor’s upcoming schedule.  Kitsch most recently wrapped the contemporary true-life Navy SEAL story Lone Survivor from director Peter Berg alongside Mark Wahlberg and Emile Hirsch.  Hit the jump for casting news concerning director Brett Ratner’s Hercules.

Paramount Pictures has announced that director Brett Ratner’s Hercules will hit theaters on August 8, 2014.  The film is an adaptation of Steve Moore’s graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, which paints the popular character with a darker tone.  Dwayne Johnson is set in the title role as “a mercenary who turned his back on the gods following the loss of his family, ‘finding solace only in battle.’”  Currently the only other film slated for release in August of 2014 at the moment is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which opens on August 1st.  With a firm release date set, production on the film should get underway later this year.

The first images from the R-rated comedy omnibus Movie 43 have gone online.  The film has been in development for years since it takes a while to find time in the schedules of a gigantic cast whose ranks include Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Terrence Howard, Halle Berry, and Jason Sudeikis just to name a few.  The films in the collection were directed by Brett Ratner, Elizabeth Banks, Mike Judge, Peter Farrelly, Bob Odenkirk, Steve Baker, Damon Escot, and more.  While I’m sure the collection will be a mixed bag, these images show off the potential for some hilarious short films.  There will also be a major plotline, but Farrelly, who also produced the film with Charlie Wessler, wouldn’t tell EW what it is.

Hit the jump to check out the images and to learn about some of the plots.  The film also stars Gerard Butler, Kristen Bell, Chloe Moretz, Josh Duhamel, Johnny Knoxville, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Richard Gere, Anna Faris, Justin Long, Liev Schreiber, Uma Thurman, Seann William Scott, Kieran Culkin, Leslie Bibb, Jimmy Bennett, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Kate Bosworth, Patrick Warburton, Tony Shalhoub, Chris Pratt, Jack McBrayer, Aasif Mandvi, and Bobby Cannavale.  Movie 43 opens January 25, 2013.

And the remakes keep on coming.  Walt Disney Pictures is moving forward with an update of director Garry Marshall’s 1984 comedy The Flamingo Kid.  The original film starred Matt Dillon as a working class kid who takes a summer job at a beach resort, only to be taken under the club owner’s wing and coerced to leave his blue-collar roots behind in favor of the luxury-living lifestyle.  Deadline reports that Brett Ratner (but of course) will produce the remake for Walt Disney Pictures alongside Michael Phillips (The Sting).  Music video director Nzingha Stewart has been tasked with writing the screenplay, but no director has been set on the project just yet.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer for the original The Flamingo Kid.

It’s obvious that Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) was the right man for the director’s chair as The Hunger Games is off to a roaring start at the box office. But what would the film have looked like if it were helmed by a different director? Michael Bay, Brett Ratner and Roger Corman would certainly have emphasized the sex appeal and violence. Garry Marshall and Nancy Meyers would probably focus on the romantic side.  How would Terrence Malick, Federico Fellini and Werner Herzog have approached the source material? What about Christopher Nolan or Woody Allen? Thanks to these alternate reality movie posters for The Hunger Games, we can get a glimpse of what might have been. Hit the jump to check them out.

Midnight Run is about to get Ratner-fied. Development on a sequel to the 1988 buddy action-comedy began in early 2010 when word came that Universal was working on a follow-up with star Robert De Niro attached to reprise his bounty hunter role from the original. Now comes word that Mr. Brett Ratner is in talks to direct the sequel and screenwriters David Elliot and Paul Lovett (G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra) have been tapped to perform a rewrite. For those unfamiliar, the first film starred De Niro as a bounty hunter tasked with escorting an embezzler (Charles Grodin) across the country. Hit the jump for more on Midnight Run 2.

Brett Ratner may soon be putting his immense knowledge of the music video industry to good use. Variety reports that Ratner and Sony are nearing a deal to turn the non-fiction book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum into a feature film. The book is an oral history of the rise of MTV in the late 80s and early 90s told from those involved in bringing the channel to prominence. Ratner is producing the project with an eye towards directing, with Jody Lambert (People Like Us) attached to write the script. Though I’m not the biggest fan of Ratner’s films, I have to admit that this is a pretty great marriage of director and material. Ratner started out as a music video director in the early 90s, helming numerous videos for Mariah Carey (including “Heartbreaker”), LL Cool J, and Wu-Tang Clan.

The Tower Heist director continues to helm videos to this day, so he hasn’t exactly lost touch with his roots. There’s certainly some interesting material to be mined from MTV’s rise; for those too young to remember, the channel basically ruled pop culture throughout the 90s and early 2000s. There’s no guarantee that Ratner will sign on to direct, but I genuinely hope he does. Ratner is next set to tackle Hercules with Dwayne Johnson in the starring role. Hit the jump for a synopsis of I Want My MTV.