Pixar has added another writer into the fold, at least temporarily, by welcoming Marti Noxon (Buffy).  Senior development executive Mary Coleman announced the addition of Noxon to an unspecified project during the Austin Film Festival.  Pixar is known for keeping their creative community close-knit, so any new blood comes as a welcome surprise.  Especially considering Noxon’s prior experience, having also written for television shows such as Mad Men and Glee, plus feature treatment work for I Am Number Four and Fright Night. Noxon’s producer creds are even more extensive.  Hit the jump for more, including what Noxon might be working on.

While I am a fan of director M. Night Shyamalan’s story ideas, his feature film track record has fallen off precipitously since 1999′s The Sixth Sense.  Perhaps a dip in the small screen pool will get him back on track, as Shyamalan is heading to SyFy with the scripted series, Proof.  Based on an original idea from Shyamalan (+1), Proof revolves around the orphaned son of billionaire parents who offers a reward if someone can present proof of life after death; Shyamalan will also direct (-1?). Hit the jump for more.

Jennifer Lawrence has firmly hit the A-list with The Hunger Games, and her 2012 has just begun.  She’s set to appear in theaters later this year in the thriller The House at the End of the Street and David O. Russell‘s adaptation of The Silver Linings Playbook.  She’s also current shooting on the period thriller Serena, and this fall she’ll be shooting the Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire before moving on to the sequel to X-Men: First Class.  Now she’s in talks to line-up another film.

According to Deadline, Lawrence may star in the adaptation of gossip columnist Jeanette Walls‘ best-selling book The Glass Castle: A Memoir.  Hit the jump for more.

The feature film adaptation of the Hasbro board game Ouija continues to cycle through screenwriters.  Last November, TRON Legacy screenwriters Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz were hired to come up with a script based on the black magic that comes from a piece of cardboard and plastic pointer you can buy at Target.  Then Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Lion King 1 ½) was hired to work on the script, and now Heat Vision reports that screenwriting duties have now passed to Marti Noxon (Fright Night).  Noxon was also hired last May to write a new draft of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a film which can’t keep its directors or find bankable lead actors.

McG was attached to direct Ouija, but there’s no mention of him in Heat Vision’s story.  Losing McG would not be the worst thing that could happen to any movie.  Ouija is still looking for a home after Universal dropped the film back in August, but Hasbro still envisions the movie “as a family adventure in the tone of The Mummy centering on a family who has to deal with otherwordly chaos that is unleashed.”  Hopefully, the family will learn the danger of buying Hasbro games.

DreamWorks Pictures is bringing their 3D reimagining of Fright Night to Comic-Con this year in a big way. The studio announced today that in addition to a Hall H panel featuring stars Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Imogen Poots, as well as director Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Marti Noxon, a special advance screening of the film will take place at the convention. If that’s not enough, they’re also throwing a “fan appreciation party,” which I can only assume involves people dressing up as vampires. Oh and punch. Lots of punch.

In celebration of the event, the studio is offering two fans the chance to win a VIP trip to San Diego for the convention. As a tie-in to their “Fright Night Feeding Frenzy” social media campaign, the fan that “spreads the frenzy the farthest” each week wins a prize. Hit the jump to read the full press release. Fright Night opens August 19th.

It looks as if scribe Marti Noxon (I Am Number Four) will reunite with director Craig Gillespie on Lionsgate’s adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s bestselling parody novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Having recently teamed-up for the upcoming Fright Night remake starring Colin Farrel and Anton Yelchin, TheWrap reports that Noxon has written a new Zombies draft for Gillespie who took the helm back in April. At that time, it was believed that the director would use a script by David O. Russell (The Fighter). It now looks as if Russell’s effort will fall to the wayside to make room for Noxon’s draft.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has yet to cast any roles after Natalie Portman dropped out of the lead to act solely as a producer. For those unfamiliar, Grahame-Smith’s book tells the story of Elizabeth Bennet, a zombie-killing heroine who sees her efforts to save England from the undead interrupted by fellow hunter Fitzwilliam Darcy. For more on the project, hit the jump to check out a more detailed synopsis of the book.

Last week, the trailer for the re-imagining of the 1980′s classic Fright Night hit the web, giving fans a sneak peek at what this new version would look and feel like, when it hits theaters on August 19^th. After its debut, Collider spoke to screenwriter Marti Noxon in this exclusive interview about her thoughts on the trailer, if there was anything she wished they’d left out, and how well it represents the film’s tone.

Fright Night came about for Noxon when she got the idea that Las Vegas, with its deserted and desolate neighborhoods, was the perfect place for a creature of the night to hide out. Inspired by movies like The Lost Boys and Poltergeist, and with a vampire that is not sympathetic or cuddly, by any means, Noxon took the relationships from the original and balanced them with humor and sexiness, throwing in some action scenes for good measure. In this interview, she also talked about this being her first return to the vampire genre since Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the experience of getting to watch the film with test screening audiences, how the film’s car chase sequence is an homage to Near Dark, the likelihood that they’ll bring Fright Night to Comic-Con this year, her skeptical interest in a possible Buffy reboot without the involvement of creator Joss Whedon, and the fact that a sequel for I Am Number 4 (which she was a writer on) is most probably shelved for now. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

Marti Noxon has written and executive produced for many critically acclaimed television series including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers & Sisters, Point Pleasant and Still Life. She has also been a consulting producer for Mad Men, Prison Break and Angel. And now, to prove how in-demand she has become, she has also written two highly anticipated feature films for DreamWorks, with I Am Number Four (due out on February 18^th) and the re-vamped Fright Night (due out in August).

While at the press day for I Am Number Four, Marti Noxon did this exclusive interview with Collider, where she talked about how she came to the film, what her input and changes were on the script, balancing all of the aspects of such a complex story, why she thinks she can connect so well with high schoolers, why audiences connect so strongly with supernatural stories about young people, and what made her decide to be a storyteller, in the first place. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

Marti Noxon is a versatile writer and producer who works in both film and television, but particularly excels in character-driven genre stories that appeal to a wide audience.  With the suspense thriller I Am Number Four hitting theaters on February 18th, the very busy California native took some time to chat with Collider for this exclusive interview.

While we’ll run the portion of the interview where she talks about that film, starring Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron, closer to its release date, she also has the revamped Fright Night coming out in August and was happy to share the impression she’s already gotten of that film, her thoughts on the casting, how intense the film will get, and what it’s like to have so many people interested in the project. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

Though Patton Oswalt saw his career blossom from his work on The King of Queens, I find myself much more satisfied with his work as one of the best stand-up comedians working today. However, a report from Vulture that mentions a Fox sitcom being developed around the laugh riot of a man is enough to get me excited about his return to a half-hour comedy series. Oswalt has teamed with comedian Scott Aukerman (former Mr. Show writer and Comedy Death Ray host) to spawn a comedy series following a man whose wife of 20 years hits the road, thus forcing him to get back into the dating world and live on his own. Sounds like your average sitcom, but with Oswalt and Aukerman’s comedic sensibilities, I’m more than looking forward to the final product.

Hit the jump for news on two new series from a trio of veterans from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Alex Pettyfer is freaking out.  He’s just discovered he can shoot light from his hands and it looks like he has flashlights shooting out from inside his skin.  He’s sitting in a small janitor closet in a High School hallway and I’m standing very close to director D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye, Disturbia).  We’re all looking at the monitors.  Timothy Olyphant, who plays Pettyfer’s guardian, walks into the closet shortly after Pettyfer and he’s telling him to relax.  As Olyphant gets him to calm down, the light emitting from his hands starts to dim until it finally goes away.  While the effect is being done practically, it looks real on the monitor.  I’m impressed.  I watch take after take of Olyphant and Pettyfer trying to get it right.  For more on what it was like to be on the set of I Am Number Four, click here.

Anyway, while on set I was able to interview Timothy Olyphant. He talked about why he wanted to get involved in the project, who he plays, and he also talked about his hit FX show Justified and Gore Verbinski’s animated movie Rango.  Hit the jump for more:

Imagine if you were offered the chance to audition for a huge Hollywood movie.  One being produced by both Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay.  Now, imagine you go to the audition.  They’re getting ready to watch you do a scene.  But instead of showing off how prepared you are, you walk out due to nerves.  Eventually, after resisting, you go back and screen test and you’re offered the lead role.  That’s the true story of how Alex Pettyfer got cast in director D.J. Caruso’s I Am Number Four.

While Pettyfer is still relatively unknown, next year will see the twenty year old Brit lead two vastly different films that get released within a month of one another (February and March).  Up first is I Am Number Four, and then CBS Films releases Beastly.

Anyway, a few months ago I got to visit the set of I Am Number Four (read all about it) and while there I got to participate in a roundtable interview with Pettyfer.  During the interview he talked about how he got cast, what it means being the lead, and he also talked about the universe of I Am Number Four and the rest of his cast.  Hit the jump to read or listen to what he had to say:

While D.J. Caruso was rumored to be directing a number of projects after Eagle Eye and Disturbia, he eventually decided to take on the sci-fi action-thriller I Am Number Four for DreamWorks.  Since we’ve covered the film extensively during the casting process, you might remember that the movie is being produced by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay (who almost directed it himself).

I Am Number Four is about a group of aliens that have landed on Earth.  They’re just trying to survive.  Other aliens are after them.  The one that’s being targeted currently goes to High School.  He’s recently met a girl.  All he wants is to fit in and to stop moving around all the time.  Just as he finally gets happy, he starts to get some newfound powers, and that’s when he’s finally targeted and he has to fight to survive. For a lot more on the movie, read my set report.

Anyway, a few months ago I got to visit the set of I Am Number Four and participate in a roundtable interview with Caruso.  He talked about why he wanted to take on this project and how he got involved.  He also revealed a ton about the universe these characters inhabit and what might be coming up in future installments.   Hit the jump for more:

While moviegoers have seen a lot of Teresa Palmer over the past few years in films such as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Bedtime Stories, for her upcoming sci-fi action thriller I Am Number Four, we’re going to see a new side: action star.  That’s because in director D.J. Caruso’s upcoming movie (produced by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay), Palmer plays a mysterious outsider who eventually kicks some serious ass on screen.

A few months ago I got to visit the set of I Am Number Four while the production was shooting in Pittsburgh (read all about it).  On set I was able to do a roundtable interview with Palmer and she talked about the challenges of getting ready to film all the action and she also revealed who she plays in the movie and why it’s such a cool part.  Hit the jump to read or listen to what she had to say:

When director D.J. Caruso cast Dianna Agron (Glee) as the lead in his sci-fi action thriller I Am Number Four, he took a chance on a rising young star.  After all, while Glee was getting a lot of press, there was always the chance the show would flame out.  But if you follow ratings, you know Glee is bigger than ever, and the casting of Agron looks like a great move.

Anyway, a few months ago I got to visit the set of I Am Number Four (read all about it here) while the movie was still being shot.  While there I got to do a roundtable interview with Agron and she talked about who she plays, why she wanted to play a character that was so different that her role on Glee, the differences between making a movie and a TV show, training for the role, what it’s like working for director D.J. Caruso, and she talks about meeting Steven Spielberg.  Hit the jump to read or listen to what she had to say: