Filmmaker Carl Rinsch isn't the last samurai, but the once rumored "Alien 5" director could well be one of many ronin.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rinsch will assume the role of lord and master — and, of course, director — over "47 Ronin," Universal's samurai film that Keanu Reeves has been attached to star in for some time. Chris Morgan, who previously described the film as borrowing elements of "Gladiator" and "300," wrote the most recent draft of "47 Ronin." Read more...

Widely regarded as a class-act and all-around nice guy, it goes without saying that Patrick Swayze -- who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer last night at the age of 57 -- will be dearly missed. Given his vast wealth of film work, Swayze's death has understandably affected both his fans and his fellow co-stars... and boy, did he have some amazing co-stars.

Many actors find one or two other actors that they form an electric connection with on the big screen, but Swayze had an almost uncountable amount of these co-starring collaborations. From the heart-wrenching "Ghost" to the domestic battlefields of "Red Dawn," these five actors informed some of the most enjoyable performances of Swayze's accomplished career. Read more...

-- Martin Scorsese + HBO = "Boardwalk Empire." The cable network signed off on an 11 episode series from the "Departed" director, chronicling the early life of Atlantic City. It's on folks. (Variety)

-- You've got a sneak peek at this one off to the right side of this post. The very first CGI Smurf has been revealed, from the upcoming movie based on the classic cartoon. (PCV Blue)

-- I'm a sucker for anything involving Bill Murray. The actor is set to star alongside Robert Duvall, Lucas Black and Sissy Spacek in "Get Low," which premieres at this month's Toronto International Film Festival. Cinematical just got some exclusive stills and a clip, which I urge you all to go check out. (Cinematical) Read more...

During last night's primetime press conference, President Barack Obama elevated his "hip" factor even further by dropping a somewhat indirect reference to "The Matrix" into his defense of health care reform. Here's the quote: "If there's a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that's going to make you well?"

Of course, any "Matrix" fan will tell you that the blue pill is the wrong choice. That one is Neo's (Keanu Reeves) out, his last chance to remain blissfully ignorant of real-world realities. The red pill makes his "blinders come off," teaching him the truth of what the world has become. Is the President trying to tell us that we should chillax in our blissful ignorance? Or am I just picking nits? Check out the video below and decide for yourself; the reference comes in at around 2:22.

Everyone knows Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Even if you've never read it, you know the story purely from the way the names have become shorthand for a split personality. So, when you think of actors who can embody a split between ferocious and mild, you probably think of Russell Crowe or Christian Bale, perhaps even Hugh Jackman or Brad Pitt. You would probably not think of the laconic Keanu Reeves. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, that's who is taking on the role of the man with two personalities.

Reeves will star in Universal's new adaptation "Jekyll," which is being directed by Nicolas Winding Refn ("Bronson") and boasts a script by Justin Haythe ("Revolutionary Road"). Read more...

Last month, MTV caught up with Keanu Reeves about his dream project -- a live-action remake of the anime classic, "Cowboy Bebop." Reeves confirmed that he and Fox were "trying to do that" and that a writer was attached. Now, The Hollywood Reporter is confirming that Reeves is set to play Spike Spiegel, and that Peter Craig is writing the script. No director has been named.

The sound you might hear now is the howl of a thousand "Cowboy Bebop" fans, who have long been against Reeves' casting and of an American remake in general. I'm not even sure that the news that the original Bebop writing and production team of Kenji Uchida, Shinichiro Watanabe, Keiko Nobumoto, and Masahiko Minami are coming onboard as producers and production consultants will help soften the blow. Read more...

I've pretty much been chasing another interview with David Fincher since the moment my last conversation with him ended nearly a year ago. Sure, his suffer no fools rep strikes fear in anyone in my line of work but the truth is I found Fincher to be a charming and thoughtful subject on the first go round. Now with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" set for release I got Fincher to sit down for another 30 minutes (not quite enough time to get into "Alien 3" alas....).

You can check out the bulk to the Fincher interview here (including a whole batch of exclusive photos) where he reveals more about his plans for a "Fight Club" musical than ever before. The director likens the stage version to "a rock show — a lot of projection, a lot of computer-generated imagery, a lot of conveyor belts...really cinematic but really twisted." A twisted David Fincher work?!? You don't say...

Be sure to check out our reports on what Fincher told me about his Keanu Reeves "Chef" project, the long gestating "Heavy Metal" flick, and his plans for his adaptation of "Torso," aka what you never knew about Elliot Ness.

David Fincher may be best known for dark, gritty films such as "Se7en," "Fight Club," and "Zodiac," but the acclaimed auteur has actually been angling to direct a movie set in the culinary world for many years now, and may soon get a chance to bring his interest in cuisine to the big screen. Fincher, who was recently nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Director for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and is the subject of some rather intense Oscar buzz, is currently developing a film called "Chef," with Keanu Reeves set for a starring role. And now he's talking about the mysterious project for the first time to MTV News.

Though Fincher was once attached to a script for a film called "Seared," which was based upon superstar chef Anthony Bourdain's best-selling memoir "Kitchen Confidential," "Chef" is something new entirely. "'Seared' was a defunct property at New Line," the director told MTV News. "They decided to go ahead and make 'Kitchen Confidential' as a [television] series. This is an original script that's very funny."

So what can we expect from "Chef"? Read more...

It’s no secret that Keanu Reeves loves anime – a main influence on the “Matrix” series. It’s also common knowledge that the actor holds a place in his heart for sci-fi, as evidenced by films like “A Scanner Darkly,” “Johnny Mnemonic” and the currently-tops-in-theaters “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” It’s no surprise, then, that Reeves’ latest passion project revolves around his desire to make a live-action “Cowboy Bebop.”

“Oh yeah, cool,” he said when I asked him about the flick recently. “We’re trying to do that.”

As fans of the Japanese classic TV series know, “Bebop” follows a crew of bounty hunters traveling around the universe in the year 2071. Reeves hopes to play Spike Spiegel, one of these futuristic cowboys forced to pick up the slack after a population crash and hyperspace gateways have left law-enforcement unable to capture many of the galaxy’s most ruthless criminals. Read more...

Story by Todd Gilchrist

Come December 9, 2008, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" will enjoy the widest release in motion picture history. In addition to showing the upcoming sci-fi flick (watch exclusive clips here) on earthbound screens worldwide starting on Friday, December 12, Fox intends to transmit the film into deep space, qualifying DTESS’ opening as “the world’s first galactic motion picture release,” according to a studio announcement.

When the movie -- which stars Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly -- hits theaters Friday, Fox, working with Deep Space Communications Network in Cape Canaveral, will simultaneously transmit the film through space at 186,000 miles per second. Civilizations orbiting Alpha Centauri will be able to view and blog about the film starting in 2012, which means that human audiences should receive their reviews of Reeves’ performance by 2016, accounting for an eight-year roundtrip communication time. Read more...