In addition to announcing that Die Hard 5 (or as it’s now officially called, “A Good Day to Die Hard“) will be released on February 14, 2013, 20th Century Fox has revealed the release dates for some of their other upcoming films.  According to THR, the Percy Jackson sequel, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters will hit on Wednesday, March 26, 2013.  The Billy Crystal and Bette Midler comedy Parental Guidance (previously titled Us & Them) is set for November 21, 2012 so it can try to draw in families over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Other dates include Taken 2 on October 5, 2012, Curtis Hanson’s surfing drama Men & Mavericks on October 26, 2012, and the 3D family film Walking with Dinosaurs has been pushed up to October 11, 2013.

Hit the jump to find out what films are sharing these weekends.

A couple more casting stories for you today. Firstly, Elizabeth Shue and Abigail Spencer (Mad Men) are set to star in Curtis Hanson’s surfing pic Of Men and Mavericks. The real-life story stars Gerard Butler as a local surfing legend and mentor to Jay Moriarty (Jonny Weston), a world champion surfer who died in a diving accident at 22. THR reports that Shue will play Moriarty’s mother, while Spencer will take on the role of Butler’s character’s wife. The film will chronicle Butler’s transformation from reluctant mentor to father figure through the training of the young Moriarty. Leven Rambin also stars. Fox 2000 will co-finance and distribute with Walden Media. Jim Meenaghan and Mark Johnson penned the script.

Hit the jump for the casting news regarding Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

We have a couple of quick casting stories for you this afternoon.  First up, Robert Knepper has joined Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges in Robert Schwentke’s supernatural action flick R.I.P.D. The story centers on two deceased cops (Reynolds and Bridges) who come back to Earth to police rogue spirits (known as “Deados”) who refuse to depart our world. According to Heat Vision, Knepper, who is probably best known for his role as creepy hick Theodore ‘T-Bag’ Bagwell on Prison Break, will play a “Deado” although the size of his character’s role is unknown.  The film is currently filming in Boston and also stars Kevin Bacon, Mary Louise-Parker, Stephanie Szostak, Marissa Miller, and James Hong.  R.I.P.D. is set to open on June 28, 2013.

Hit the jump for casting news on Curtis Hanson’s surfing biopic Mavericks.

Gerard Butler has signed on to play surfer Rick “Frosty” Hesson in Curtis Hanson’s Mavericks.  We first reported on the film about a year ago when we learned that Hanson was developing a movie based on the late legendary surfer Jay Moriarty and that Sean Penn was considering the Hesson role.  According to Variety, the story will center on Moriarty’s “quest to ride the iconic Northern California break known as Mavericks, where winter swells bring in treacherous waves the size of five-story buildings. Moriarity trained for more than a year under Hesson, forging a relationship that transformed both their lives.”  Hanson, whose last film was 2007′s Lucky You, will direct from a script by Kario Salem and Brandon Hooper.

While Lucky You was a misfire, Hanson tends to deliver solid movies and I’m interested to see what he’ll do with this story.  I’m also thrilled to see Gerard Butler in a movie that isn’t a disposable, lowest-common-denominator, get-a-new-agent rom-com.