Disney has announced a slew of release date debuts and shifts, along with a title for the Muppets sequel.  Briefly:

• Two new untitled Marvel films have been set for release on May 6, 2016 and May 5, 2017.
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner has been set for release on October 10, 2014.
• The star-studded musical Into the Woods, directed by Rob Marshall and starring Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep, will open on December 25, 2014.
• The Muppets sequel has been titled Muppets Most Wanted.
• The bestseller adaptation The Hundred-Foot Journey, produced by Oprah Winfrey, opens on August 8, 2014.
• A presumed animated sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue will hit theaters on July 18, 2014 in 3D.
• Saving Mr. Banks, starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, now opens in limited release on December 13th before expanding wide on December 20th.
• Director Brad Bird’s mysterious new film Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney and Hugh Laurie, has been moved up to December 12, 2014 from its previously announced December 19th date.

Hit the jump for more on Marvel’s newly announced projects.

After all these years, it’s surprising Colin Farrell has yet to lend his voice to an animated character, but turns out, waiting served him well because his character, Ronan, is featured in the “achingly beautiful” world that drew Farrell to Epic to begin with. Ronan is the leader of the Leaf Men and when Mandrake (voiced by Christoph Waltz) and the Boggans threaten to destroy the forest, he joins forces with the formerly human-sized Mary Katherine (voice by Amanda Seyfried), a renegade young Leaf Man, Nod (voiced by Josh Hutcherson), and a slug and a snail, Mub and Grub (voiced by Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd), to ensure a very special little pod stays safe, giving them a chance to keep the terrain lush with greenery and life.

While in New York City celebrating Epic’s May 24^th release, Farrell sat down to talk about how director Chris Wedge and his team of animators first reeled him in, the challenge of working in a sound booth for the first time, Ronan’s backstory, and about how he felt seeing his voice coming out of a completely different body. And before wrapping up, Farrell also spoke a bit about Saving Mr. Banks and Winter’s Tale. Catch it all in the video interview after the jump.

From acclaimed Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and screenwriter J.H. Wyman (Fringe), the crime drama Dead Man Down tells the story of two strangers who are bound together by their mutual obsession with revenge.  Victor (Colin Farrell) is a mysterious man who has infiltrated the crime empire run by ruthless kingpin Alphonse (Terrence Howard) for his own very definite reasons, while his neighbor Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) wants Victor’s help to carry out her own plans for retribution.

At the film’s press day, actor Colin Farrell talked about relating to his character, the environment on set, how much he enjoyed working with Noomi Rapace, chatting about work on their shared hotel balcony the night before they would shoot, and how he got cleaner than he’s ever been to play this character.  He also talked about his roles in the upcoming films Saving Mr. Banks and Winter’s Tale, as well as voicing a character for his first animated feature, Epic.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

As we approach the end of 2012, it can be a little daunting to look ahead at all the great films coming up in 2013. So today we’ll break down the 2013 releases for Disney, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney/Pixar and Marvel Studios. As usual, the Mouse House has a line-up full of live-action movies like Oz the Great and Powerful and The Lone Ranger, superhero features Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World and animated films such as Monsters University and Frozen. There’s even a 3D re-release of the classic The Little Mermaid next year. Hit the jump to see the release date schedule for Disney’s 2013 films.

If you caught Tom Hanks doing any of the press rounds for Cloud Atlas, you may have noticed his oh-so-regal mustache.  The atypical facial hair was for a high profile role that Hanks is currently filming: that of Walt Disney in the real-life drama Saving Mr. Banks.  The story centers on Disney’s twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to author P.L. Travers’ (Emma Thompson) novel Mary Poppins and the rocky relationship that formed between the two.  Our first images of Hanks and Thompson in character have surfaced today, as the production filmed a few scenes on the grounds of Disneyland.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images.  Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side), the film also stars Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Rachel Griffiths, Bradley Whitford, Paul Giamatti, and Jason Schwartzman.  Saving Mr. Banks opens on December 20th, 2013.

Disney has just sent out a press release announcing release dates and changes for their upcoming slate of films.  The most notable announcement is that Edgar Wright‘s Ant-Man finally has a release date. The little-big-superhero is due to hit theaters on November 6, 2015.  Since this will be the first Marvel movie to follow The Avengers 2 (which opens May 1, 2015), I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Hank Pym pop up in Joss Whedon‘s film.

Here’s the rest of the list:

• Iron Man 3 will now be available in 3D – previously announced 5/3/13 wide playdate is unchanged (Marvel)

• Phineas and Ferb moves to “2014 Undated Wide” (from 7/28/13 wide)

• Thor: The Dark World is final title of previous “Thor 2” and will now be available in 3D – previously announced 11/8/13 wide playdate is unchanged (Marvel)

• Saving Mr. Banks is now dated on 12/20/13 wide (Disney)

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier is final title of previous “Captain America 2” – previously announced 4/4/14 wide playdate is unchanged (Marvel)

• Bears is now dated on 4/18/14 wide (Disneynature)

• Guardians of the Galaxy is final title of previous “Marvel Untitled” – previously announced 8/1/14 is unchanged (Marvel)

• DISNEY ANIMATION UNTITLED is now dated on 11/7/14 wide

• PIXAR ANIMATION UNTITLED is now dated on Wed 11/25/15 wide

Filming has commenced on Disney’s star-studded real life drama Saving Mr. Banks.  The film chronicles Walt Disney’s twenty-year pursuit of the film rights to author P.L. Travers’ novel Mary Poppins, and the rocky relationship that formed between the two.  Tom Hanks will take on the daunting task of portraying Disney (the first time he’s ever been portrayed in a dramatic film), while Emma Thompson is set as Travers.  Director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) has assembled a killer cast that includes Colin Farrell and Ruth Wilson (Anna Karenina) as Travers’ parents, Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) as Travers’ aunt who was the inspiration for the character of Mary Poppins, Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) as screenwriter Don Dagradi, and Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak as the songwriting Sherman Brothers.  Moreover, Paul Giamatti and Kathy Baker also appear in supporting roles.

Hit the jump for more on the project, including the film’s full synopsis.

A trio of actors has been tapped to round out the cast of director John Lee Hancock’s (The Blind Side) real-life story Saving Mr. Banks.  The film stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and tells the true story of the visionary’s 14-year courtship of Australian author P.L. Travers for the rights to the Mary Poppins character.  Emma Thompson plays Travers, who was wary to sell the rights to the studio as the Mary Poppins story was highly personal and reflected hardships in her own life as well as her relationship with her father.  Variety reports that Jason Schwartzman, Paul Giamatti, and Ruth Wilson (The Lone Ranger) have joined the cast.

Schwarztman will play Richard Morton Sherman, a songwriter who wrote a number of songs for Disney films (including Mary Poppins), while Giamatti will portray Banks’ chauffeur while she’s in Los Angeles.  Wilson will portray Travers’ mother in flashbacks opposite Colin Farrell, who is set as the author’s father.

We’ve got a few casting stories to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Ashley Judd and Robert Forster are the latest additions to the Gerard Butler-fronted White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.
• The Raid star Iwo Uwais has joined the cast of Keanu Reeves’ directorial debut Man of Tai Chi.
• Bradley Whitford is in early talks to join Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks.

Hit the jump for details on these casting additions.

Colin Farrell is looking to join a Disney feature.  Deadline reports that the actor is in talks to join the cast of director John Lee Hancock’s (The Blind Side) period drama Saving Mr. Banks.  The Mouse House pic stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and tells the true story of the visionary’s 14-year courtship of Australian author P.L. Travers for the rights to the Mary Poppins character.  Emma Thompson plays Travers, who was wary to sell the rights to the studio as the Mary Poppins story was highly personal and reflected hardships in her own life as well as her relationship with her father.  Farrell is in negotiations to play the character of Travers’ father who died when the author was 7 years old, so it’s safe to assume that the structure of Saving Mr. Banks will include flashbacks.

Farrell is on a roll as of late, as he recently wrapped a star-studded reunion with In Bruges director Martin McDonagh on Seven Psychopaths opposite Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken.  He’ll be seen later this summer in the Total Recall reboot, he’s currently filming the crime drama Dead Man Down alongside Noomi Rapace, and he may lead the supernatural drama Winter’s Tale.

Despite a pretty swell fake poster pitting Ryan Gosling as Walt Disney, it appears Tom Hanks may be the one to portray the legend onscreen.  While we previously heard he was a possibility, Variety now reports that Hanks is officially in talks alongside Emma Thompson to star in the “making-of Mary Poppins” film Saving Mr. Banks.  The pic tells the true story of Disney’s 14-year courtship of Australian author P.L. Travers for the rights to the Mary Poppins character.  Thompson is negotiating to play Travers, who was ultimately displeased with the 1964 feature film adaptation (especially the animated sequences) and even more upset with the way the property was treated by Disney.  Ironically, Disney is the studio that’s putting Saving Mr. Banks together.  Hit the jump for more.

John Lee Hancock (Blindside) is reportedly in talks to direct Saving Mr. Banks, a feature film based on the true story of how Mary Poppins came to be a Walt Disney classic. Disney is in the process of acquiring the Kelly Marcel Black List script retelling the story of the 14-year-long courtship of Australian author, P.L. Travers by Walt Disney himself in order to secure the film rights to Mary Poppins. No company would be a better fit than Disney, who owns the rights to the 1964 classic starring Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and David Tomlinson, as Mr. Banks. Hit the jump for more on the project, including who might be stepping into Walt Disney’s shoes.

Disney has picked up Kelly Marcel‘s Black List script, Saving Mr. Banks.  The story centers on how Disney persuaded P.L. Travers sold the studio the rights to make Mary Poppins, and how Travers was dissatisfied with aspects of the film, especially since the story was deeply personal to her.  Per Deadline, “Mary Poppins was highly personal, and reflected hardships in her own life and her relationship with her father, who died when she was 7.”

The movie became one of the biggest hits in Disney’s history, but Travers hated the animated sequences, and she refused to sell any of her other works to Disney (somehow, Disney managed to survive).  Present-day Disney is already looking to make the film a star-studded affair, and according to Deadline, “There have been rumors of the script being considered by Tom Hanks (for Walt Disney) and Meryl Streep (for Travers).  I don’t know if I can buy Hanks as an anti-Semite.

Each year, Hollywood releases “The Black List.” The list is a compilation of the “best” unproduced scripts making the rounds of Hollywood, as voted on by hundreds of film executives. Past scripts that have made their way to the list include Diablo Cody’s Juno and Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Network. This year, topping the list is Graham Moore’s script for the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game. Turning was a mathematician and codebreaker during World War II who was criminally prosecuted for his homosexuality, after which he elected chemical castration over prison, and eventually ended his own life.

The Imitation Game has been in the works for a while, and last we heard Warner Bros. was keen on getting Harry Potter director David Yates to take the helm. Leonardo DiCaprio is also said to have taken a liking to the role of Turing. Also appearing on the list is Matt Damon’s planned directorial debut Father Daughter Time and Chewie, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of Star Wars from the perspective of Peter Mayhew. Hit the jump to peruse the entire list, which includes two Pinocchio projects, a movie about catching a screening of Jurassic Park, and zombies!