Hugh Jackman has made his first film commitment since landing a Best Actor Oscar nomination for last year’s Les Miserables.  The actor has signed on to star in Paramount’s feature film adaptation of the upcoming Harlan Coben mystery novel Six Years.  The book tells the story of Jake Fisher, a man who, after having watched the love of his life marry another man six years prior, decides to attend this other man’s funeral in the hopes of spotting his former flame.  Once Jake realizes that the mourning widow is not Natalie but another woman entirely, his past memories with Natalie are thrown into question.  Hit the jump for more. 

Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite films this year, but I’m not ready to declare the best film I’ve seen this year.  Even though 2012 isn’t over, there have been other films that I enjoyed more and worked slightly better for me.  But Cloud Atlas is definitely the most important film I’ve seen this year in terms of what it represents from an industry perspective.  It is an independent film with a major budget.   The film had the technical resources to meet its grand ambition.  The Wachowski Siblings and Tom Tykwer have been able to successfully craft their vision and do so outside the Hollywood system, which is good because Hollywood never would have made a movie Cloud Atlas.  And if Cloud Atlas tanks, they never will.

You have the power to change that.

When last we discussed Robopocalypse, it was to share director Steven Spielberg’s wish for Chris Hemsworth to play the lead.  Now, it appears that Spielberg would also like Anne Hathaway to join the picture opposite Hemsworth.  While the pairing surely has huge box office potential, Spielberg will still need a producer.  Cue Tom Rothman,  the outgoing head of Fox, who will join the picture in a producorial capacity.

Robopocalypse is based off of Daniel H. Wilson’s source novel, which takes place in a future where “artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication.”   The film will roll into production in early 2013 and will be released on April 25, 2014 day and date worldwide. Hit the jump to read the full press release.

In a bit of startling news, 20th Century Fox Co-Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman will be leaving the studio.  In letter to Fox staff, Rothman says he will resign on January 1, 2013.  A source tells THR that all studio operations will be consolidated under studio co-chairman Jim Gianopulos.  It’s a surprising departure considering Fox’s recent good fortune at the box office with hits like X-Men: First Class, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Chronicle.  Rothman had been with Fox for over 18 years.

Hit the jump to read his full letter, and click here to read Steve’s interview with Rothman from CinemaCon.

At this year’s CinemaCon, I was able to land an exclusive interview with Tom Rothman (Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Filmed Entertainment).  While we posted selected portions of the interview last week, after the jump you can read the entire conversation which covers a lot more than comic book movies.  I love getting to speak with actors and directors, but if you really want to find out which projects are moving forward and why certain decisions were made, a studio head has all the answers.

During the wide-ranging conversation we talked about 48 frames per second, the shift towards higher quality films on Fox’s slate, Prometheus (and it’s rating), Daredevil, Fantastic Four, the Chronicle sequel, The Wolverine, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, a New Mutants movie, A Good Day to Die Hard (Die Hard 5), and more.  Hit the jump to read what he had to say.

All throughout last week, we brought you updates on a number of 20th Century Fox projects gleaned from Steve’s wide-ranging interview at CinemaCon with the studio’s CEO, Tom Rothman.  The exec talked about a New Mutants movie, the rating of Prometheus, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, A Good Day to Die Hard, and gave updates on Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Chronicle 2.  Today we have one last update to share, and it concerns a highly anticipated Fox property.

During the interview, Steve asked Rothman for a status update on the sequel The Wolverine.  James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) is onboard to direct and after a number of delays, production is finally slated to get underway later this year once Hugh Jackman wraps Les Miserables.  Rothman revealed that filming will take place in Australia and Japan, and reassured fans that we’re in for a very hardened Wolverine.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

After 12 years, the Die Hard series returned in 2007 with the first PG-13 entry in the franchise, Live Free or Die Hard.  The film did considerable business, and so development began on Die Hard 5.  After a long director search, Fox finally settled on John Moore (Max Payne) to helm the pic, which now finds Bruce Willis’ John McClane in Russia and teamed up with his son, played by Jai Courtney (Spartacus: Blood and Sand).

Steve recently sat down with 20th Century Fox CEO Tom Rothman at CinemaCon, and during the course of their wide-ranging conversation the executive spoke quite a bit about the story of A Good Day to Die Hard and what makes the film different from other entries in the franchise.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Director Rupert Wyatt delivered a surprise hit with last summer’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  The franchise had been in cold storage since the atrocious Tim Burton remake but Fox decided to give the Apes another chance, and it paid off wonderfully (even though the film was flat-out robbed of the Best Visual Effects Oscar).  Although James Franco was the name on the marquee, the prequel made Caesar (Andy Serkis) the real star and Weta’s special effects geniuses helped bring the character to life.

Last November, we reported that 20th Century Fox was planning multiple sequels to the successful blockbuster with Wyatt and Serkis slated to return.  Steve recently interviewed the studio’s CEO, Tom Rothman, and learned that they’re hoping to get the next movie in theaters by summer 2014.  Hit the jump for more.

Steve sat down with 20th Century Fox CEO recently at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and we’ve been bringing you highlights from their wide-ranging conversation.  We already shared what Rothman had to say about a New Mutants movie and the rating for Prometheus, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, and now we wanted to share the CEO’s updates on a few highly anticipated Fox properties.  Rothman talked about the status of the studio’s Fantastic Four reboot, Daredevil, and a sequel to this year’s hit superhero pic Chronicle.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

The sci-fi pic Prometheus is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated films of the year.  It marks a return to sci-fi for director Ridley Scott, it has an incredible cast, and the footage looks amazing.  Much has been made of what the rating of the film will be, given that Scott’s Alien was rated R but we now live in a marketplace dominated by PG-13 blockbusters.  Scott himself previously said the film should be rated R and told audiences that the film we see come June will be his director’s cut.  In case words from the man himself weren’t reassuring enough, Steve sat down with 20th Century Fox CEO Tom Rothman earlier today at CinemaCon and during their wide-ranging conversation, Rothman has even more assurance that we won’t be seeing a neutered version of Prometheus:

“I can assure the fans—I’m very aware of their concern—absolutely they can take it that the film will not be compromised either way.  So if that means that the film is R, then it’ll be an R.  If it’s PG-13, then it’ll be a PG-13, but it will not be compromised.

Hit the jump for more:

At this morning’s 20th Century Fox CinemaCon 2012 panel, Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos (Co-Chairman Fox Filmed Entertainment) world premiered footage from all their upcoming releases and talked about what they have coming up in the future.  While I was excited to see more of Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus, and Liam Neeson kicking a lot of ass in Taken 2, the real surprise was Ang Lee‘s Life of Pi.  Called unfilmmable by anyone that’s read Yann Martel‘s 2001 novel about a boy and a tiger that get stranded at sea, the unfinished footage that Fox world premiered today was nothing short of stunning, and it was easily the highlight of their presentation.  While you might have wondered if Ang Lee could pull it off, based on what I saw today, Life of Pi is an early contender for Best Picture and all the other year end awards.  Hit the jump for more.

If you haven’t noticed from the sheer enormity of superhero coverage as of late, we currently live in a film environment that is flooded with comic book content.  The “superhero movie” genre is more popular than it’s ever been before, and as long as these movies keep making piles of money (they will), don’t expect the trend to die down any time soon.  While Marvel is currently getting much of the attention with its extremely prolific and interconnected series of films, 20th Century Fox revitalized the X-Men series last year with the wonderful X-Men: First Class.  A sequel is in the works for that film, and production is gearing up to begin on a follow-up to the Wolverine spin-off, The Wolverine.  The studio owns a number of other Marvel characters, giving them the potential to make some truly exciting comic book movies.

Steve got the chance to sit down with Fox CEO Tom Rothman at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.  While they talked about a number of Fox properties throughout the course of the conversation (look for more updates here on the site soon), we wanted to bring you a tidbit of information that Rothman dropped about a feature film adaptation of a really fun Marvel property: The New Mutants.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Fox Filmed Entertainment Co-Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman went on Jim Rome this morning and since Rome is a big fan of the Die Hard franchise, Rothman answered some questions about the upcoming sequel.  Rothman told Rome [via /Film] that the official title is A Good Day to Die Hard, because I guess John McClane (Bruce Willis) is now a Klingon.  Shooting is set to begin in January 2012 for a February 14, 2013 release (President’s Day weekend, but it may also be a nice date flick).  The story will have McClane traveling to Russia to save his son John McClane, Jr., “but nothing is what it seems.” (Russia’s been dead the whole time!)  They’re still casting for John McClane Jr. and they’re not sure if the film will be PG-13 or R.

Hit the jump for more details on the sequel.

While rumors of Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nowhere Boy) playing Cyclops in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class have been online for over a month, it seems the story might be true as AICN has gotten an email from scooper “Son of Rothman” saying it’s a done deal.  The name is a play on 20th Century Fox President Tom Rothman.  If the casting news is true, he’ll be joining Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and James McAvoy (Professor X).  A lot of other names have been reported online, but I don’t believe any are officially confirmed.

I recently spoke to producer Lauren Shuler Donner and she said they start filming X-Men: First Class next month in London.  What that means is, we’re going to start hearing a lot more casting announcements very soon.  However, if Fox is smart, they’d get the cast together and bring them down to Comic-Con and put them on the stage in Hall H.  It would definitely get a lot of press and the fans would love it.  Also, with the release date June 3, 2011, this is the only Comic-Con for this movie.  More after the jump: