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From Viggo Mortensen to Javier Bardem, there are plenty of names floating around for the coveted role of Roland Deschain in "The Dark Tower." Ron Howard certainly has his work cut out for him in terms of finding his gunslinger, perhaps the single most adored figure in all of Stephen King's catalogue.

But Roland isn't the only major role that Howard needs to fill. There are other integral players from the nefarious Man in Black to recovering drug addict Eddie Dean. Then, of course, there's Susannah Dean.

King has said before that he always envisioned Angela Bassett as an ideal actress for Susannah, but given Bassett's current age, her casting doesn't seem likely. It seems especially unlikely given a new rumor that the part of Susannah is Naomie Harris' for the taking. Read more...

Tags Naomie Harris, The Dark Tower

Elijah Wood's participation in "The Hobbit" might come as a surprise to some of you, but here at MTV, this was a long time coming. We spoke with the "Lord of the Rings" star in 2008 about the possibility of Frodo Baggins having a role to play in Uncle Bilbo's youthful journey through Middle-Earth. Even back then, Wood was more than open to the idea.

"I would imagine that if he does exist [in 'The Hobbit'], it'll make some sort of sense. Otherwise, I don't think they would do it," he told us more than two years ago. "I certainly wouldn't want to do it. I don't want to have a whole character piece that doesn't really exist that they're cobbling together."

Even though Frodo doesn't appear in J.R.R. Tolkien's classic "The Hobbit" novel, Wood had an idea for how the deeply burdened hero could factor into the two-part prequel. Read more...

Tags elijah wood, the-hobbit

We've already given you our selections of the top 30 movies to look forward to in 2011, but a film is only as good as the sum of its parts — and thankfully, there are a lot of great parts coming our way this year.

There's no shortage of excellent actors delivering doubtlessly compelling performances in 2011, while others are poised to make major moves that will impact theatergoers some years from now. From starring in superhero blockbusters to making unexpected career choices, here are 10 actors we're keeping our eyes on this year! Read more...

Tags Andrew Garfield, blake lively, chris hemsworth, Hailee Steinfeld, james franco, jennifer lawrence, mila kunis, natalie portman, ryan reynolds, Tom Hardy

The stars are lining up for the upcoming sequel to "Clash of the Titans," "Wrath of the Titans." Edgar Ramirez, best known for his roles in "Vantage Point" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," is officially in negotiations to play the god of war, Ares, according to The Wrap. It sounds like he is one of the Titans to get a beefed up role in the sequel, because Tamer Hassan played Ares as a minor role in the first flick.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" villain Toby Kebbell is also on the verge of accepting an offer to play Agenor, a Phoenician king of Tyre who was also thought by some to be the son of Poseidon.

They'll be joining the returning cast from the first film of Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson. The Wrap is unclear whether the rest Zeus's mythological court of Apollo (Luke Evans), Athena (Izabella Miko), Poseidon (Danny Huston), Hermes (Alexander Siddig) and the rest will be replaced or reprising their roles as Titans. Read more...

Tags bill nighy, clash of the titans 2, Clemence Poesy, edgar ramirez, hayley atwell, Toby Kebbell, Wrath of the Titans

Judd Apatow has probably had at least a role to play in most of your favorite recent comedies, but while he's brilliant at guiding talent and letting them shine in their own movies, he's equally compelling, if not more so, as a writer and director himself.

Apatow is currently in the midst of preparing his fourth directorial feature, and while it's more or less a given that many of the faces from his steady stable of actors are going to have roles to play here, I don't think anyone could have been prepared for this: his next movie is a "Knocked Up" spin-off.

Well, sort of, at least. Think "Get Him To The Greek" versus "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," except instead of focusing on Russell Brand's raunchy Aldous Snow, Apatow's fourth feature film will center on Pete and Debbie, the troubled married couple played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann in "Knocked Up." Read more...

Tags judd apatow, Leslie Mann, paul rudd

There's no question that Bilbo Baggins provides the heart and backbone of "The Hobbit," but the hairy-footed Hobbit is more than willing to share the screen with his nephew as well.

News broke yesterday that Warner Bros. is handling the worldwide theatrical and video distribution for "The Hobbit," but that's not all we're hearing from The Shire. Buried in Deadline's coverage of the announcement is a brief tease that Elijah Wood might reprise his "Lord of the Rings" role of Frodo Baggins for Peter Jackson's prequel.

Deadline's report received further confirmation from The One Ring, who state that Wood will return to Middle-Earth as Frodo. Read more...

Tags elijah wood, the-hobbit

Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman's "Season of the Witch" arrives in theaters today, offering moviegoers the chance to travel to a faraway land filled with knights, crazed wolves and, as you may have surmised from the title, witches. But if the witches you'll see in this latest fantastic flick rub you the wrong way, don't worry: There are plenty of other witches out in the brew.

From goodhearted spellcasters with the best of intentions to nefarious necromancers with the darkest of designs, we've picked out the best movie witches of all time. Click here or on the pic below for a photo countdown of the top 10, or hit the jump for the plain old text version!

Read more...

Tags Harry Potter, hocus pocus, nicolas cage, practical magic, ron perlman, season of the witch, The Blair Witch Project, The Craft, the witches, the witches of eastwick, the wizard of oz

For what it was, 2008's "Death Race" was more or less a mindlessly entertaining jaunt that essentially followed its original Roger Corman-produced forefather. The story follows a wicked prison warden who forces his prisoners to race in a no-holds-barred, slightly-dystopian driving competition... to the death.

Well, now they're going back to the well with "Death Race 2," a home video release that stars Luke Goss in place of the predecessor's Jason Statham. The film comes out on DVD and Blu-ray on January 18, and we've been given an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the film's action and driving stunts. Check it out below.

Although it's called "Death Race 2," the film is technically a prequel to the 2008 film, exploring the origins of the first "Frankenstein" car driver Carl "Luke" Lucas (Goss), who fans will recall died in the opening moments of '08's "Death Race." Read more...

Tags death race, Death Race 2000, Luke Goss, Video

Apparently, insane asylums have become veritable sorority houses for mentally unstable hot girls.

In case you missed the memo -- or the awesome trailer for Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" (in theaters March 25) -- the U.K. trailer for horror maestro John Carpenter's "The Ward" is here to drive that point home. And how does it hammer that into our brains and retinas? With prolonged shots of sexy young mental-ward patients like Amber Heard, Lyndsy Fonseca and Danielle Panabaker scrubbing themselves clean in a communal shower, naturally. Hit the jump to watch! Read more...

Tags amber heard, danielle panabaker, jared harris, john carpenter, lyndsy fonseca, mamie gummer, mika boorem, the ward, Video

Another year is in the can, and we've seen some exciting new projects get picked up and some other promising films fall by the wayside. But what we're really sick of is so many super geekily awesome flicks spending ages languishing in production hell. So here's your New Year's resolution, Hollywood: Get these 11 films through the production process by the end of 2011 so we can have them in theaters by 2012. No more excuses and no more horsing around! Read more...

Tags Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, arrested development, dark shadows, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, ghostbusters 3, Gravity, Jack the Giant-Killer, Oz The Great and Powerful, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Snow White and The Huntsman