Warner Bros. has unveiled three brand new behind-the-scenes featurettes and a new TV spot for director Zack Snyder’s Superman film Man of Steel, highlighting some great new footage alongside interviews with members of the cast and crew.  Each of the three featurettes focuses on one of the film’s themes, so we’ve got Speed focusing on Superman’s intensely quick movements, Strength focusing on the two different approaches to Supes’ abilities from his two fathers (Russell Crowe’s Jor-El and Kevin Costner’s Pa Kent), and finally the self-explanatory Flight.  Along with new footage, we see Henry Cavill, Diane Lane, Crowe, Snyder, and producers Deborah Snyder and Charles Roven talking about the film.

Hit the jump to take a look at the featurettes and new TV spot.  Man of Steel opens in 3D on June 14th.

A major development is taking place on the long-in-the-works feature film adaptation of the popular video game World of Warcraft.  The project has been in the works for a number of years, with Sam Raimi attached to direct for quite some time.  Raimi finally dropped off last summer so that he could focus full-time on Oz the Great and Powerful, and Legendary Pictures subsequently brought on screenwriter Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) to rewrite the screenplay, which was initially penned by Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan).  Now the studio is getting serious about making the movie happen, as Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones has been tapped to take the helm for a planned fall 2013 production start.  Hit the jump for more.

[Update: The Tracking Board [via Bleeding Cool] hears that Warner Bros. wants Johnny Depp to star.  Tracking boards are not the most reliable source, so treat this as a rumor for now as you note that Depp’s name is being mentioned in certain circles that chase such insider info.  More official casting reports should arrive soon.]

NOTE: This is a completely spoiler-free recap of The Dark Knight Rises IMAX Prologue

With The Dark Knight Rises IMAX Prologue hitting theaters next week in front of Mission Impossible 4, Warner Bros. decided to world premiere the footage tonight at the IMAX theater at Universal Citywalk in Hollywood.  As you might imagine, the theater was filled with journalists from around the world, as well as some of the Dark Knight filmmakers like director Christopher Nolan, producer Charles Roven, Jonathan Nolan (Chris’ brother and a screenwriter on the film) and producer Emma Thomas.

As the lights went down and the film started to play, you could feel the energy in the room rise as we were treated to the first look at the opening six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises and a montage of short clips from the rest of the film.  So you’re probably wondering what I thought….it was fucking awesome.  Hit the jump for more including a video blog recap.

Charles Roven (The Dark Knight) and Alex Garter (Season of the Witch) of Atlas Entertainment have signed on to produce the adaptation of the comic book Langley High with Benderspink.  Variety provides the synopsis:

Story centers on a student from Langley High, the school that’s located just 1.7 miles from CIA headquarters. After his father is captured in Russia and disavowed as an agent of the CIA, the student teams up with an undercover CIA agent teacher from his high school and ends up on a mission of revenge.

The premise set up by comic creators Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman has that nice hook—I’m already in love with the first act where they show us around the school.  Once they leave the school, though… it could work on screen with the right cast.  As always, I vote for casting a real teenager as the main high schooler.

Director Edward Zwick is going to China. The Last Samurai director is set to helm the inaugural film for Legendary East, The Great Wall. Zwick and his longtime writing partner Marshall Herskovitz will pen the screenplay for the flick that “reveals the legend behind a great mystery of our age: why this magnificent structure came to be.” The script will be based on a story by Legendary Entertainment Chairman and CEO Thomas Tull and World War Z author Max Brooks. Tull is also producing alongside Jon Jashni, Alex Gartner, Charles Roven (The Dark Knight Rises) as well as Zwick and Herskovitz.

The wall itself was originally constructed in the 5^th century BC to keep out nomadic groups from the Chinese Empire, but has a storied history as it has been rebuilt, added to, and maintained throughout multiple culturally significant periods in China’s history. Hit the jump for more, including the full press release.

Warner Bros. has set screenwriter Michael Ross to rewrite their futuristic Robin Hood movie that’s currently in development. Deadline reports that the previous draft was written by Jason Dean Hall and takes place in a dystopian London. A band of thieves “restores hope in the beleaguered population.” Charles Roven, Richard Suckle and Gianni Nunnari are producing, and commercials director Nicolai Fuglsig is at the helm. I’m not exactly sure the world needs another “reimagining” of a classic tale, but Warner Bros. seems to think otherwise.

There’s no word on what this means for the Wachowski siblings’ Robin Hood project. Last December we reported that the Wachowskis were working on a modern day version of the Robin Hood tale, simply titled Hood. They were looking at Will Smith to star, but we’ve heard no updates on the project in quite some time. The Wachowskis are currently busy casting their epic adaptation of Cloud Atlas which is set to start shooting next month.

After months of speculation, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have announced that Henry Cavill will play Clark Kent/Superman in the upcoming Superman film directed by Zack Snyder.  Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder are the producers of the film.  The screenplay is being written by David S. Goyer based on a story by Goyer and Nolan.  The untitled Superman film is scheduled for a December 2012 release. Here’s what Snyder said about Cavill:

“In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honored to be a part of his return to the big screen.  I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry.  He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield.”

More, including the official announcement, after the jump.

Here are two major pieces of The Dark Knight Rises news that you can take to the Gotham City bank. First up, Warner Bros’ has announced that Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle. Kyle’s alter-ego is Catwoman, but the press release doesn’t mention the character. They only refer to Hathaway’s role as “Selina Kyle”.

The other major piece of news from the press release is that Tom Hardy will be playing the Batman villain Bane. It was previously rumored that Hardy would be playing villainous psychologist Dr. Hugo Strange. Personally, I think Strange is a more interesting character than Bane, whose claim to fame is that he broke Batman’s back in the comics. Hit the jump to check out the press release. The Dark Knight Rises is due out July 20th.

In a not-too-surprising revelation, producer Charles Roven says that Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies do not inhabit the same universe as Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman movie.  Here’s what Roven told Shock Till You Drop about whether the two characters would exist in a shared universe:

No. That may be in somebody’s mind but right now the Batman lives in his world and the Superman lives in his world. Those stories are those stories and we haven’t thought beyond each individual picture.

That’s not a big surprise since Nolan has decided to firmly ground his take on Batman in reality and a flying space alien who shoots heat beams out of his eyes doesn’t really fit with that.  Hit the jump for more on The Dark Knight Rises (due out July 20, 2012) and Superman: The Man of Steel (due out holiday 2012).

In May 2009, we reported that Fran and Kaz Kuzui were going to re-launch Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a feature film but without the input of Joss Whedon (and after reading Buffy: Season Eight, that might be a good thing).  In a press release, it was announced that Warner Bros. has now optioned the rights from the Kuzuis and that Atlas Entertainment and Vertigo Entertainment will produce.  Whit Anderson has been brought on to write the script.  Atlas’ Charles Roven said of the new take “Details of the film are being kept under wraps, but I can say while this is not your high school Buffy, she’ll be just as witty, tough, and sexy as we all remember her to be.”  Hit the jump for the full press release.

When I read Variety’s report that Warner Bros. wants to take the popular 60s sitcom Gilligan’s Island and turn it into a movie, my first thought was, “Wasn’t this already announced months ago, if not years?”  It’s campy, it’s got name recognition, and it’s the kind of adaptation that elicits, “Ugh.  They’ll make anything into a movie!” from casual film-goers who don’t know the half of it.

For those not familiar with American pop-culture history, Gilligan’s Island was about a hapless group of castaways having misadventures on an uncharted and uninhabited island in the Pacific.  The show is best known for having male viewers argue the relative hotness of lead female characters Ginger, Mary Ann, and Mrs. Howell.  Also, expect the movie to make the mandatory joke about the Professor being able to make a radio out of a coconut but failing to create a device that would get the group rescued.

Charles Roven and Richard Suckle are on board to produce.  Brad Copeland (Wild Hogs, Yogi Bear) will write the screenplay and his involvment should clue you into the movie they’re trying to make.

If you’re wondering whatever happened to the Scarlet Speedster, tales his film adaptation’s death have been greatly exaggerated.  According to screenwriter Dan Mazeau, “The Flash” is still zipping along. and he should know since he’s the screenwriter currently working on the movie.  Put on your winged helmet and hit the jump for more on what’s happening with Barry Allen/Wally West/your-preferred-Flash-alter-ego.

We haven’t reached awards season yet, but since there are now ten nominees for Best Picture, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see one of those slots taken by Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s “The Hurt Locker”, which is racking up great numbers at the box office in addition to its critical acclaim.

Now Variety is reporting that Bigelow and Boal will team up again for “Triple Frontier”.  While the logline is currently unknown, the film is set in a border zone of South America known as “la triple frontera”, and is a haven for organized crime.  The film is intended as an action-adventure, ensemble project that producer Charles Roven hoping to get in front of cameras sometime next year.