Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, Amores Perros) has assembled quite the cast for his upcoming comedy Birdman.  The film centers on an actor who once played an iconic superhero, and now faces troubles with his ego and family as he prepares to mount a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim past glory.  Though Iñárritu’s previous work veers on the heavy drama side of things, he’s nabbed some top-notch comedic talent to bring this lighter film to fruition as Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, and Zach Galifianakis have been enlisted to topline the pic.  Hit the jump for more.

For our final Toy Fair image article, we’re doing a huge roundup of NECA toy images.  While they’re making figures/toys for all the regular movies and TV shows you’d expect, the highlight of NECA’s 2013 lineup is the 60′s Batman featuring Adam West!  The reason it’s taken so long to get an Adam West Batman is lawyers.  From what I’ve been told, Warner Bros. owns Batman, while 20th Century Fox owns the show.  For years the two companies have been trying to work out an agreement to release DVDs/Blu-rays and new merchandise with little success.  However, late last year, the two companies finally worked out a deal and 2013 should see a lot of new toys and hopefully a home video release.  Which is great news for the fans.

In addition to checking out the first 60′s Batman toy in quite some time, you can also see new toys for Aliens, A Christmas Story, Captain America, Michael Keaton’s Batman, Carrie, Gremlins, E.T., Harry Potter, Hulk, Iron Man, Pacific Rim, Predator, Prometheus, Scarface, Rambo, The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, Thor, and a lot more.

Michael Keaton will be seen on screen almost a year to the day when José Padilha’s RoboCop reboot blasts into theaters, but Keaton has signed on for another high profile action film with the same release date.  Reports have Keaton joining DreamWorks’ Need for Speed adaptation starring Aaron Paul and Dominic Cooper.  The Scott Waugh picture is based off of the Electronic Arts streetracing game.  Also starring Imogen Poots, Kid Cudi, Ramon Rodriguez, Rami Malik andHarrison Gilbertson, Need for Speed (and RoboCop) opens February 7, 2014.  Hit the jump for more details on Keaton’s role.

Of all the actors who have played Batman on the big screen, I’ll always have a soft spot for Michael Keaton.  Then again, I tend to enjoy Michael Keaton in all of his movies, and I wish he had donned the cape and cowl a third time.  In a recent interview with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast, Keaton said he wanted the third go-around, and pitched an origin story along the lines of where Christopher Nolan eventually went with the caped crusader.

Hit the jump for more.

New images from the set of director Jose Padilha’s RoboCop remake show off more looks at the film’s futuristic vehicles. We’ve seen glimpses of the cop car and taxi before, and the motorcycle popped up recently, but now we have much more extensive looks at all of them. With all these vehicles to wash and wax, it’s no wonder the film was recently bumped to 2014.  As a bonus, we finally know the answer to why Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) retains one human hand as the cyborg-cop: bunny fingers.

RoboCop stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Jay Baruchel and Jackie Earle Haley. RoboCop opens February 7th, 2014.  Hit the jump to see the images.

We’ve only been able to get glimpses of director Jose Padilha’s RoboCop reboot via a bunch of set photos and today’s no different.  What is different is that this batch of photos show off Michael Keaton as the OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars, Michael Kenneth Williams as Alex Murphy’s (Joel Kinnaman) partner Officer Jack Lewis and Abbie Cornish as Murphy’s wife, Ellen. Oh and some more shots of Kinnaman in his cyborg attire. The picture also seem to confirm that Kinnaman’s Murphy will retain a human right hand: a corporate attempt to show the supercop’s human side or an Achilles’ heel of sorts?

RoboCop opens August 9th 2013 and also stars Gary Oldman, Jay Baruchel and Jackie Earle Haley.  Hit the jump to see the new set photos. 

It looks like Larry David’s comedy feature set up to debut on HBO finally has a name: Clear History.  More important than that oddly ambiguous title is the all-star cast that David and director Greg Mottola (Superbad) have lined up.  We previously reported that Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Michael Keaton (Batman) were attached to star, but a slew of others have joined the production.  Clear History will also feature Kate Hudson, Bill Hader, Amy Ryan, Eva Mendes, JB Smoove, Danny McBride and Phillip Michael Hall.  Hit the jump for more on Clear History.

Fresh off the news that he’ll be playing the villain the RoboCop remake, Michael Keaton is set to direct the dramedy Buttercup.  The story centers on an adult woman who must confront her elderly father after he’s arrested for drunk driving again.  In assuming responsibility for him, the woman “learns to not only accept his faults, but finally trust the other men in her life.”  The project has been in development for quite some time, with Jennifer Aniston and Alan Arkin at one point attached to take on the leads and Sarah Polley set to direct.

Those actors are no longer involved, and Variety reports that Keaton replaces Niki Caro as the director of the most recent iteration of the project, with a script by Alice O’Neil.  Keaton previously directed 2008’s The Merry Gentlemen, so this wouldn’t be his first time behind the camera.  Casting is currently underway for Buttercup, but no word on when production might begin.

While things haven’t exactly been going smoothly for director Jose Padilha’s RoboCop reboot lately, the acquisition of Michael Keaton (Batman) as the villain will surely go a long way to remedy that.  Hugh Laurie (House, M.D.) was previously attached to play the antagonist but talks recently broke down.  Keaton would be playing Raymond Sellars, the CEO of Omnicorp, the corporation that builds RoboCop.  The reboot of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 cult classic stars Joel Kinnaman in the title role.  Hit the jump for more on the remake and to read what Padilha had to say about Keaton coming on board. 

We previously reported that Greg Mottola’s untitled comedy that stars Larry David, Jon Hamm and Michael Keaton may be debuting on HBO.  Now we have a bit more clarity on what the plot of the film concerns and more information on what Keaton’s character will be.  The partially improvised comedy seems like it will play out as a feature-length version of David’s successful Curb Your Enthusiasm series.  Hit the jump for more on the project.

While fans are still praying that Larry David decides to make another season of Curb Your Enthusiasm at some point, the writer/actor/comedian is currently busy riding around in cars with Jerry Seinfeld and prepping a “mystery project.”  Said mystery project is a partially improvised untitled feature film that will star David, Jon Hamm, and Michael Keaton and will be directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland).  Though we last heard that the film was set up at Fox Searchlight, it now looks like David is mulling a debut on HBO instead.  Hit the jump for more.

In a recent interview, Michael Keaton talked about his involvement in a new Larry David movie that sounds very similar, at least in set-up, to David’s long-running HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm (meaning there’s lots of improv and not much more than a generally outlined script).

It looks like David is going in a different direction from his last feature film, 1998′s universally panned Sour Grapes (it’s still difficult for fans to understand how this movie went so wrong), which certainly seems like a good thing. Hit the jump for more details on the project, including what Michael Keaton had to say.

Director Tim Burton looks to be returning to his comedic roots with his upcoming film Dark Shadows.  The first trailer premiered the other day, and the main comparison that came to mind tone-wise when watching the trailer was Burton’s masterwork Beetlejuice.  The ghoulishly funny 1988 film is a classic, and rumors of a sequel have lingered for quite a few years now.  We got a brief update from Burton back in January, when he confirmed that his Dark Shadows screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith was working on a screenplay.

Steve got to speak with Grahame-Smith earlier today at WonderCon where the screenwriter was promoting Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and he gave an update on the Beetlejuice sequel confirming that Michael Keaton would return to star and Burton would produce.  He also revealed that the film will take place 26 or 27 years after the original, and teased what the premise might involve.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

We’ve got a couple of acquisition stories to report today. First up, Dimension has picked up U.S. distribution rights to the thriller Penthouse North. Directed by Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy), the film stars Michelle Monaghan as a photojournalist blinded in Iraq who becomes entangled in a sadistic criminal’s (Michael Keaton) search for a missing fortune. The script was written by David Loughery (Lakeview Terrace), who will also produced alongside Jeff Sackman and Michael Baker. Production begins in Ottawa on December 7th.

Additionally, Tribeca Film has acquired the U.S. rights to the French thriller Sleepless Night. The film debuted to a wildly positive reception as part of the “Midnight Madness” portion of the Toronto Film Festival.  Matt caught the pic and loved it, and now Tribeca Film will release the film VOD and theatrically stateside in 2012. The story centers on an undercover cop trying to get his kidnapped son back from a drug-dealing nightclub owner. An English-language remake is already in the works at Warner Bros. You can watch the trailer for the French film here. Hit the jump to read the press releases concerning Penthouse North and Sleeplees Night.

Veteran director Joseph Ruben will lead stars Michael Keaton and Michelle Monaghan in the psychological thriller Penthouse North. Written and co-produced by David Loughery (Obsessed), the film will center on a photojournalist (Monaghan) who has moved into a New York penthouse in an attempt to escape her sordid past. As the story goes, she becomes entangled in a criminal’s (Keaton) search for a missing fortune. According to THR, Penthouse North is scheduled to begin shooting this November in Ottawa.

As for Keaton and Monaghan, the latter can next be seen alongside Gerard Butler in Machine Gun Preacher which premieres at TIFF before hitting limited U.S. theaters on September 23rd. The former was last seen making a great turn as Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s captain in The Other Guys. With regards to director Joseph Ruben, Penthouse North seems to fall right in his wheelhouse as the filmmaker has made a living helming thrillers of various quality such as Dreamscape, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Good Son (a film that I still can’t refrain from yelling “He’s the one doing all of these horrible things!” while watching) and 2004′s The Forgotten starring Julianne Moore.