New Line Cinema’s new iteration of The Nutcracker now has a director. Deadline reports that Adam Shankman (Hairspray) has signed on to the project. Scripted by Darren Lemke (Jack the Giant Killer), the film goes back to the original 1815 book The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman and centers on a young girl who is taken on an adventure by her now animated wooden toy soldier. The tone is said to be in the vein of Alice in Wonderland (as is every fantasty/adventure movie in development these days), as it’s a drama with action and a love story. The project is reportedly shaping up to be Shankman’s next film, and New Line is aiming for a holiday 2013 release.

While Shankman’s resume is hit and miss, his musical work is pretty impressive and he should bring a fun version of the classic story to life. Universal also has a version of The Nutcracker in the works with Rise of the Planet of the Apes producers John Mann and Jon Gunn onboard. Shankman recently wrapped the 80’s-centered musical Rock of Ages with Tom Cruise and Julianne Hough.

Universal Pictures has just acquired a pitch for The Nutcracker, a new version of the classic tale. The live-action adventure movie comes from John Mann and Jon Gunn, and Heat Vision reports that Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) will produce. This version of the story will focus on a 12-year-old girl who receives a Nutcracker doll from her clockmaker-inventor grandfather on Christmas Eve. She then embarks on an adventure that night that includes a war featuring “a seven-headed Mouse King and his army of mice, curses and themes of ugliness and beauty.” No other plot details are known, but it appears that Universal is planning on a big-budget adventure movie.

We’ve got a whole bunch of new posters for you tonight — one each from Faster and The Nutcracker in 3D, plus a set of six from Priest.  As a refresher:

• Faster stars Dwayne Johnson as a man looking to avenge his brother’s death from behind the wheel
• Nutcracker is the latest retelling of the classic holiday ballet, with Elle Fanning at the lead
• Priest is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name led by Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Lily Collins, each of whom get their own character one-sheet

Check out all the posters and synopses for each film after the jump.

Darren Lemke, writer of the upcoming Shrek Forever After and Jack the Giant Killer, has a new action-adventure fairytale adaptation in the works: The Nutracker. Yes, based on the ballet. According to Heat Vision, New Line has picked up the project, which is being produced by Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment (New Moon, the upcoming adaptation of the popular video game Gears of War).

For those not up on their ballet, The Nutcracker follows a 12-year-old girl who receives a nutcracker doll as a gift from her godfather on Christmas Eve. But as the night wears on, the doll comes to life and becomes involved in a war against a Mouse King with seven heads. This won’t be the first time the story’s been turned into a film, but perhaps the first time on this large a scale. It’s unknown as of now exactly what form the adaptation will take–live action or animated.