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As we told you earlier in the week, Disney is re-opening the classic 3-D attraction "Captain EO," a sci-fi short starring Michael Jackson as a starship captain tasked with delivering a gift to the wicked Witch Queen (Angelica Huston). With some help from the power of song, Jackson and his crew overpower the queen and teach her that it's okay to be good.

Touching. The attraction re-opened yesterday, complete with a shiny new 70mm print. We've got some video from the event, that you can check out below. And of course, if you want to see "EO" you can head to a Disney theme park. Or wait for the (hopefully) inevitable 3-D Blu-ray release, which I expect will arrive sometime after 3-D display technologies have been adopted by the public at large.

Tags captain eo, michael jackson, Video

That headline isn't a reference to the Coen brothers' remake of "True Grit" being an up in the air prospect. It's more my general shock and awe at the idea of the master filmmakers actually doing it.

The remake has actually been percolating in the public's mind since September, when the news first hit the trades. It was confirmed at the same time that Coen pal and Oscar front-runner Jeff Bridges would reunite with the Coens, taking the Rooster Cogburn role that was previously made famous by screen legend John Wayne. It was later revealed that stars Matt Damon and Josh Brolin were in discussions for key roles in the film, as Cogburn sidekick La Boeuf and main villain Tom Chaney, respectively. Now it looks as though the final puzzle piece has fallen into place, with a casting announcement of a relative unknown for the character of Mattie Ross. Read more...

Tags Coen Brothers, ethan coen, Hailee Stanfield, jeff bridges, joel coen, Josh Brolin, matt damon, True Grit

We learned last week that a Kurt Cobain biopic that's been in development for a couple of years is finally picking up some momentum. A script penned by David Benioff has been floating around since 2007, said to be partially based on the 2001 Cobain biography, "Heavier Than Heaven." Universal is now moving forward with plans to put the story in theaters, and they've turned to "The Messenger" director and co-writer Oren Moverman to make that happen.

As last week's report revealed, Moverman is in negotiations to re-write the script and direct the film. MTV spoke to him earlier this week, and while he confirmed that talks are indeed underway, he cautioned us to remember that no deals have been made just yet. Read more...

Tags kurt cobain, Oren Moverman, The Messenger

Following a tad slowly on the heels of "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" and the upcoming "Clash of the Titans" remake is another blockbuster involving Greek mythology: "War of the Gods" (aka "Dawn of War"), a sword-and-sandals epic being helmed by visionary filmmaker Tarsem ("The Fall") that will tell the story of Athens founder and legendary Minotaur-killer Theseus. Henry Cavill (Showtime's "The Tudors") will star as the hero, and now joining him, according to Variety, is Indian actress Freida Pinto ("Slumdog Millionaire").

Pinto will play Phaedra, "an oracle priestess" and (future?) wife of Theseus, who joins him in the quest to stop the titular war -- pitting the younger Olympian gods against the elder Titan gods -- from beginning. The character has been portrayed many times on screen, mainly in adaptations of plays by Euripides and Jean Racine, the most recent of which starred Helen Mirren in the part. Read more...

Tags freida pinto, Henry Cavill, Tarsem, War of the Gods

FROM MTV.COM: When MTV News caught a screening of Kristen Stewart's "The Runaways" at the Sundance Film Festival in January, we came away impressed by how the 19-year-old actress "physically embodies the role [of rocker Joan Jett] and curses and growls as the part demands." What did it take for KStew to embody so movingly a real life '70s rock-and-roll icon?

A keen sense of observation, a willingness to study hard and simply good casting. That's how ex-Runaways guitarist Jett explained it in an Interview magazine story.

Continue reading Joan Jett Says Kristen Stewart 'Nailed' 'Runaways' Role

Tags Kristen-Stewart, the runaways, Twilight

Nothing can stop John McClane. Not a building filled with German terrorists, not an airport filled with bad guys, not a vengeful money-grubbing brother and certainly not the failings of the Internet. So when Bruce Willis gets back in the saddle for McClane's next adventure –- something he hopes to begin shooting next year, as he recently told MTV News -– you can be sure that the gun-toting badass will come out on top yet again.

Assuming, of course, he's not completely out of his element – which is exactly where Willis wants to put him.

The "Cop Out" star revealed that he'd like to take a "worldwide" approach to "Die Hard 5," presumably meaning that McClane would leave the states behind to battle an international threat. If that's the case, here are a few foreign settings that could pose a challenge for the "Die Hard" hero. Read more...

Tags bruce willis, Die Hard 5

Just try to accept that Jonah Hill is this generation's Elizabeth Shue. I guess that should have him co-starring with Jaden Smith in this summer's "Karate Kid" redo. But that is not the case, nor is he likely to be splashing under waterfalls in the Caribbean with Taylor Lautner (today's Tom Cruise, I've been told) for a modern day "Cocktail." What Hill is doing is taking Shue's role in a semi-remake of "Adventures in Babysitting."

According to The Hollywood Reporter Hill will star as the title character in "The Sitter," an unofficial update of the 1987 comedy which gave the world its introduction to future "Rent" lead Anthony Rapp, a taste of what The Mighty Thor might look like on the big screen (as played by Vincent D'Onofrio) and the first of two Keith Coogan movies with babysitter-related titles. Oh, and it's the movie that inspired many drunken pleas for friends to stay out at the bar by utterance of the memorable line, "nobody leaves this place without singing the blues." Read more...

Tags david gordon green, jonah hill, The Sitter

"Battleship" had a July 1st, 2011 release date attached to it when Universal announced Peter Berg as the film's director. That date has since been pushed back to May 25th, 2012 for Memorial Weekend, however, and the head man at Hasbro agrees that the move needed to happen. The boardgame-based movie about an epic confrontation between humans and aliens has ballooned to become a an ambitious summer sci-fi flick, and that evolution has meant that Berg will be getting ample backing from its producers.

"Universal was kind enough to say, 'Let’s give it the resources it needs,'" Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner told MTV News. "This idea of a flotilla of ships that run across the early stages of an alien invasion provided a good backdrop for a great summer movie." Read more...

Tags battleship

FROM MTV.COM: That smile! That ever-present tan! Those abs! In just a few short months, Taylor Lautner has gone from the little kid in "Twilight" to the man in "New Moon" to the heartthrob wanted by millions of fans — and all of Hollywood. Now, in the four months since the second "Twilight Saga" film made him a star, the 18-year-old has lined up an equal number of high-profile projects.

But which will stretch his acting talents? Which might make him as popular with boys as he is with girls? And which could launch a signature franchise outside of Stephenie Meyer's realm? For the answers to those and more questions, let's take a closer look at the upcoming slate of one of Hollywood's fastest-rising young stars.

Continue reading Taylor Lautner's Post-'Twilight' Career Is On The Fast Track

Tags New Moon, Taylor Lautner, Twilight

Forget the idea of retro-fitting old movies for 3-D, which sometimes reminds me too much of when Ted Turner thought it'd be a good idea to colorize classic films back in the mid-80s. Vampires are a much better trend. If you don't believe me, just check out the mash-up video "Gone with the Wind with Vampires," which takes the all-time top-grossing (adjusting for inflation) classic and tosses in a plot involving bloodsuckers. Rhett Butler as a Civil War-era Dracula? Or is he more like a 19th century Edward Cullen? Either way, it fits.

Here are five more classics that could be retro-fitted with vampires: Read more...

Tags apocalypse now, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, Midnight Cowby, Night of the Hunter