Here is a slew of new release dates for the following films:

• Dracula – Universal’s Dracula origin story directed by Gary Shore and starring Luke Evans (The Raven) will open August 8, 2014.
• Transcendence – Cinematographer Wally Pfister’s directorial debut starring Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman has been moved up one week to April 18, 2014.
• Blended – The tentatively-titled new rom-com with Adam Sandler and (possibly) Drew Barrymore will open May 23, 2014.
• The Purge – The violent speculative-thriller written and directed by James DeMonaco and starring Ethan Hawke (Sinister) and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) will open June 7th.
• State 194 – Dan Setton’s documentary on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will open May 17th.
• When the Game Stands Tall – Director Thomas Carter’s (Coach Carter) upcoming high school football drama starring James Caviezel (Person of Interest) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield) will open September 19, 2014.
• Heaven Is for Real – Director Randall Wallace’s novel adaptation starring Kelly Reilly and Greg Kinnear is set to open April 16, 2014

Hit the jump for more.

We’ve got some new casting news:

• Kelly Reilly (Flight) has landed the female lead role in Heaven Is for Real, based on the book with the same name, about a young boy named Colton Burpo who comes out of an emergency operation with compelling stories of a visit to heaven.  Greg Kinnear will also star as Reilly’s husband in the film.
• Model and actress Kate Upton (The Three Stooges) is in talks to join Nick Cassavetes’s The Other Woman, which will also star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann.
• Tony Goldwyn (The Mechanic) has just joined director Neil Burger’s film Divergent, which is a futuristic thriller based on author Veronica Roth’s New York Times bestseller.  Divergent will also star Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), Theo James (Underworld: Awakening), and Kate Winslet.

Hit the jump for additional pertinent information on the casting.

Here’s today’s casting news update:

• Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine) is in talks to star in Heaven is for Real, an adaptation of the best-selling Christian-themed book from Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent, to be directed by Randall Wallace (We Were Soldiers).
• Vinnie Jones (Snatch) joins The Killer’s List, a hitman thriller directed by Phil Avalon (Liquid Bridge).
• Dawn Olivieri (House of Lies) has boarded David O. Russell’s latest untitled picture about the Abscam scandal which already lists Jennifer Lawrence,Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams,Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Louis C.K. among its cast members.
• Nick Jonas (Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience) and Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) will star in the edgy thriller Careful What You Wish For, directed by Elizabeth Allen (Aquamarine).

Hit the jump for more on each casting announcement.

From director Sam Raimi, Oz the Great and Powerful imagines the origins of the wizard that was first brought to life in author L. Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz, in a fantastical adventure that utilizes 3D to enhance what is truly an awe-inspiring movie-going experience.  When small-time circus magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is unexpectedly carried from Kansas to the vibrantly beautiful Land of Oz in a tornado, he soon meets three witches – Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams) – who are unsure about whether he truly is the great wizard that they’ve been expecting.  In one of the biggest tales of fake it ‘til you make it, Oscar must use his magical skill and a little ingenuity to help good triumph over evil.

At the film’s press day, Collider got the opportunity to speak with producer Joe Roth during both the press conference and a 1-on-1 interview about how this project came about, his prior experience with the original The Wizard of Oz film, how involved he was in shaping which Baum tales they would blend together to tell this origin story, how important it was to center the film around a flawed hero, why Sam Raimi was the right director, assembling this talented cast, and the most challenging aspects of such a big production.  He also talked about the high-risk and high-reward involved in taking on such iconic characters (he’s done it with Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White), their spin on the Sleeping Beauty story for Maleficent and how crucial the casting of Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning was, how they’re approaching the Alice in Wonderland sequel, and that he hopes to go into production on a very low-budget movie based on the book Heaven is for Real in the summer.  Check out what he had to say after the jump. 

Randall Wallace (Secretariat) is in talks to develop the book Heaven Is for Real as a directing vehicle.  The novel is co-written by Nebraska pastor Todd Burpo, and tells of how his four-year-old son had slipped into unconsciousness during emergency surgery, and when he awoke, he said he had “met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each.”  He also described “the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how ‘reaaally big’ God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit ‘shoots down power’ from heaven to help us.”  Personally, I don’t see how this could possibly be a complete fabrication designed to exploit a four-year-old’s near-death experience to push a Christian agenda.

Hit the jump for more.