-- Rebecca De Mornay, who I'll always identify with the delightfully cheesy "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle," gets to roll out her sadistic mommy act again when she stars in the upcoming remake of the 1980 horror flick "Mother's Day." Latter-day "Saw" director Darren Lynn Bousman is directing, so expect plenty of greasy, grimy gore to keep you up at night when De Mornay and her band of twisted sociopaths terrorize a family living in their old home. (Variety)

-- Nicolas Cage has signed on to star in the revenge flick "Driving Angry," which will be a 3-D release. Cage will play a man who sets out on a quest for bloody murder after his daughter is killed and her child is kidnapped. Patrick Lussier will direct a script that he co-wrote with Todd Farmer. Lussier previously directed "My Bloody Valentine 3D," so he's got plenty of experience in looking at a scene with an eye towards multi-dimensional spectacle. (The Hollywood Reporter) Read more...

A direct relationship exists between the growing size of Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" cast and the mystery surrounding exactly what the hell we're going to see on the screen when it hits theaters in 2011. "Man Man" star Jon Hamm is the first confirmed male to join the all-female cast of the "Watchmen" director's next film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Of course, there are no details on what role Hamm will play. More of the same from the increasingly mysterious "Sucker Punch." We know his character's name though: High Roller. Probably not a god-given birth name. I wonder if he's supposed to be a gambler, or if "High Roller" is meant more as a metaphor. Maybe Hamm's character is constantly putting himself in danger, taking a high-stakes gamble with his life. Or something. Read more...

I'm not going to lie to you: there's not a tremendous amount here about "Sucker Punch." Director Zack Snyder has prepped his cast well, so no one's really spilling the dirty. In the video after the jump, "High School Musical" star Vanessa Hudgens does answer one burning question we have about her character Blondie. First check out her comments on acting and the sorts of roles she's been looking for in her post-"High School Musical" world.

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What would you rather see Carla Gugino dressed up in: a nurse’s uniform or a madam’s dress/corset? Fortunately for you fanboys, you’ll get both costumes in Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Sucker Punch.” Gugino is reuniting with her “Watchmen” director for the film, in which she’ll play a dual role. Of sorts.

The film takes place in a 1950s mental institution, where a young girl (Emily Browning) has been sent for a lobotomy. However, with the help of her friends (Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone and Abbie Cornish) she enters an alternate reality with hopes of escaping the hospital. Read more...

A lot of content popping today Around the Blogosphere. Before getting into vampire romance and genital mutilation, I'll start things light with a rebooted take on "Point Break," Cinemash-style. Human Giants Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel are joined by "Reno 911" cops Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant in a return to the classic Patrick Swayze/Keanu Reeves surfer cop drama.

Plenty more to come, so click yourself past the break. Read more...

FROM SPLASH PAGE: The "Watchmen" Director's Cut DVD hits shelves this week, capping a limited-release run in theaters, and now that we're at the mid-point of 2009 it's hard not to look back on the film a little more fondly. With few blockbuster-level comic book films on the immediate horizon and mixed reactions to the last one ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine") comic fans might feel an understandable urge to revisit Zack Snyder's adaptation of the epic Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons series.

Along with 25 minutes of extra footage (and significantly more violence and gore, according to Snyder), the "director's cut of "Watchmen" will also offer a host of behind-the-scenes clips and making-of video moments -- including the following "The Unfilmable Is Filmed" featurette that puts the vast scope of the project in the spotlight:

Check out the clip at EXCLUSIVE: Check Out The 'Watchmen' Director's Cut DVD Extra 'The Unfilmable Is Filmed'

I've been feeding you readers a pretty constant stream of overly expensive (or sometimes just questionable) items in my daily eBay Prop-Watch postings. Today I'm veering off in a little bit of a different direction: the selection is affordable and very clearly not a prop. It is a cool, fan-serving little piece of ephemera though.

Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" is not a terrific adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel. It is far better than a lot of people gave it credit for, but the plot becomes unhinged towards the end thanks to the liberal changes made to the story. It's impressive really, how the alterations maintain a surprising level of narrative accuracy while completely abandoning the tone and themes in Moore's original. That said, "Watchmen" is a beautiful film, and an exceedingly entertaining viewing experience for a spectacle junkie like me. Read more...

Director Zack Snyder, the eye-popping filmmaker behind “300” and “Watchmen,” has hired none other than Vanessa Hudgens to star in his next action flick, “Sucker Punch.” But without any real action-hero experience, was it just a matter of assuming the singing/dancing “High School Musical” star can do anything that’s physically demanding if she’s already twirled around a dance floor with Troy Bolton?

“No, I didn’t even look at it that way at first,” Snyder explained, echoing Hudgens' own excitement for the film about a group of institutionalized young girls using fantasy to escape. “She rehearsed, she did the audition for the scene. I wasn’t sure at first – [the casting people] were like ‘Oh, Vanessa’s coming’ and I was ‘Oh, okay - that sounds cool’ but I didn’t know what to think.” Read more...

It’s the bold news that all of Hollywood is still buzzing about, as well as weighing its implications: 10 movies will be nominated for Best Picture at the next Oscars, double the usual amount. But when I caught up with Zack Snyder this week, he had yet to hear the news.

“10?” marveled the “Watchmen” and “300” director, who had been tied up all day doing interviews for those films’ upcoming Blu-Ray releases. “No way!”

Yes way. And, since we had the unique opportunity to break the news to one of Hollywood’s top filmmakers, we were also able to get his unfiltered thoughts as he processed the Academy’s bold decision – and what it meant for his profession. Read more...

As you all learned earlier today, "High School Musical" star Vanessa Hudgens is very excited about her role in the upcoming Zack Snyder project, "Sucker Punch." Speaking with MTV's Matt Harper on the set of "Beastly," the singer gushed her affection for the "300" director's work, and her joy at being able to break away from her youth-oriented roots.

"Sucker Punch" tells the story of a wrongfully institutionalized young woman (Amanda Seyfried, at last report) who retreats into a fantasy world of her own creation as a coping mechanism. Hudgens will play Blondie, one of Seyfried's fellow inmates. Well here... why don't you see for yourself:

Don't go! There's more! Hudgens also had a bit to say on her audition for the role and how she landed the part-- but almost didn't. It's good stuff, so keep on reading after the jump. Read more...