British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, a fairly unknown face here in the States, but a well-known and highly regarded character actor in the UK, has been cast as the villain of the upcoming Star Trek sequel, scheduled for release in 2013. Cumberbatch has appeared in such films as Atonement, War Horse, and will appear in the upcoming The Hobbit as well.

Star Trek was one of the most successful films of 2009, and a big part of its success came from its cast: a batch of young, talented actors, aided by seasoned veterans like Eric Bana and Simon Pegg. Much of the original cast will be returning for the sequel: including Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Seldana, to name a few.

The Star Trek sequel, helmed by J.J. Abrams, is in production now and is scheduled for a Summer 2013 release.

According to a report in the LA Times, the upcoming zombie apocalypse movie World War Z, starring Brad Pitt, may be the first one in a trilogy. Apparently, Paramount Pictures and director Marc Forster see World War Z as a trilogy, rather than a standalone flick. World War Z, with a reported budget of $150 million, is slated for release in December 2012.

Cowboy Bebop is one of the most beloved anime series ever, and a live-action feature film has been in and out of development for a very long time. In its current iteration, it’s at Fox with Keanu Reeves attached to play protagonist Spike Spiegel.

However, back in the early 2000s, there was another set of producers looking to cash in on Cowboy Bebop, and they had someone else in mind: reportedly, Stephen Dorff was set to play Spike Spiegel, with Cameron Diaz as Faye. The above poster is a fan-made affair that circulated the net in 2003, based on rumors at the time. If you know Cowboy Bebop, you’ll know that the poster and the cast do it far from any justice.

Luckily for Cowboy Bebop fans, the film never materialized. The new version with Keanu Reeves was reportedly put on hold in 2010 pending a rewrite in order to reduce the budget of the production.

Director Zack Snyder is hard at work on the new Superman film, which is scheduled to begin filming this spring. According to rumors, Warner Bros. is in late-stage talks with Bradley Cooper for the part of none other than super villain Lex Luthor — a role which has been previously portrayed by heavy hitters like Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey.

Bradley Copper seems somewhat of an odd choice for the bald villain, but we’ll see how it works out (we’re yet to see Cooper bald, after all). The new Superman movie, officially titled Man of Steel, is scheduled for a 2013 release.

Peter Jackson and crew and well underway with filming The Hobbit part one and two, but they’ve had enough time (and footage) to splice together an impressive trailer. The Hobbit premiers in December 2012, with part 2 scheduled for release a year later.

Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated sci-fi thriller Prometheus has received its first teaser, and boy does it tease. It brings back memories of Alien and follows a similar storyline: mankind has discovered origins of life in the Universe, and sets out to find out what happened. The movie opens in Summer 2012.

Great trailer and needs no introduction; it tells it all. I am excited. It is freezing here in Northern California, but watching this trailer warms me up. I can feel summer coming. May 25th is when Men In Black 3 hits the theaters.

Today, folks, we’ve got something special for you, as the folks at The Asylum sent over a copy of Dragon Crusaders for us. This by itself wouldn’t be so special, until you consider one important fact: I can’t tell what movie they’re ripping off. Thus, it looks like we’ve got something interesting here–original Asylum fare.

Dragon Crusaders takes us out on the open sea, as a group of Knights Templar find themselves up against a band of pirates. Naturally, Knights Templar don’t much care for pirates, and descend upon them with all the fury you’d expect. But when the knights in turn are cursed to take on horrible forms, they find they must take on something much, much worse than they expected in order to break the curse, and by extension, save humanity from a fate only slightly worse than being burned alive–being burned alive and eaten by enormous lizards.

Original Asylum fare doesn’t happen very often these days, with the bulk of their work dedicated to titles that sound vaguely familiar, because, not surprisingly, they are. But sometimes they get something original out, and that’s where the bulk of their best movies comes from. Sure, they have the occasional clunker–who doesn’t?–but give The Asylum some original content, the stuff that hearkens back to their best times when they were just getting started and putting out some really impressive stuff, and they can really show you a good time.

See, Dragon Crusaders is almost disturbingly ambitious. They’re going to have dragons and gargoyles and even zombies–though they call them revenants–in here. Though admittedly, the narrative is a little light on the cohesiveness, it’s not exactly doing a terrible job of getting the point across. And what it lacks in decent narrative structure it will amply make up for with a lot of action. Plenty of swordfights and the like will race across this like no tomorrow.

The question you’ll have to ask yourself, of course, is are you okay with a plot that only half makes sense but will pack in loads of clanging swords and people getting hit with pointy things in a thoroughly medieval fashion? Chances are most will be, and with good reason. Dragon Crusaders is reasonably fun and pretty exciting; flawed, to be sure, but still very exciting.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Dragon Crusaders, as a result, a flawed but still fun six out of ten. It’s certainly one of the more fun pieces I’ve seen The Asylum put out, especially recently, but it’s not without its problems. Though those problems are pretty substantial, it’s still hard to ignore the sheer amound of fun involved in this one.

Photojournalism has often been regarded as one of the more exciting branches of the fourth estate, and if you want to see that for yourself, then it’s a good idea to check out Five Days Of War, a copy of which the folks out at Anchor Bay sent us for review. You’ll be able to get this one Tuesday, and you’ll want to see it when it hits.

Five Days Of War takes us back to 2008′s brief, sharp war between Russia and Georgia. And a group of journalists are out in the midst of the combat, filming and doing what they can to get the story. They even manage to save a school teacher caught in the middle of the horror. Things only get worse the farther in they get, and they’re recording every last scrap of it. And this diligence has drawn the attention of the various parties involved in the fighting, who want desperately to suppress the news, because when you’re fighting a war the last thing you want is CNN or the like to start screaming “war crimes”. But there’s a problem–the Beijing Olympics is going on right at the same time, so the networks are shorthanded. And that means the footage that our reporters are risking their lives for may never get out in the first place.

Part commentary on the media industry and part commentary on war, the commentaries do have a tendency to get a bit heavy-handed, but they’re going to be packaged in the midst of so much straight-up action that it’s going to be hard not to be engrossed by what you’re seeing here. If you ever wanted to see a combination of action and drama done right, look right here. The best part is it’s even going to offer a few–a very few–laughs along the way serving as a way to break up some of the tension, which is a nice bonus. You run constant tension and it stops being entertaining and starts being just plain old grueling. And Five Days Of War does an excellent job of breaking up its tension occasionally enough to where you get the full effect of it without it being too much of a strain on you.

It’s a top-notch experience that delivers up a whole lot, and is going to be hard to watch in a few places, but at the same time, will put on one impressive show for a great many reasons. If you ever wished your action movies had a bit more substance to them, or if you just want a kind-of-realistic account of war journalists, then you’ll definitely want to have a look at Five Days Of War.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Five Days Of War an eight out of ten–it’s going to be loud, violent, and bloodsoaked, but one thing it will not be short on is pure substance.

Impressively prolific studio Lions Gate brings us another set of terrific titles to make up the multi-review this week, and the block this week is made up of three they’ve sent out for us: Mob Rules, From Prada To Nada, and KJB.

Mob Rules gives us a dose of dramatic action, as we go out to London. A pair of felons with a penchant for Shakespeare find themselves out for revenge in a bid to get back the money they should have received from a job gone wrong years prior. And said felons have a plan to get it all back that’s going to take them from London to America and points beyond.

While there is both plenty of action and drama in Mob Rules, there’s an interesting sense of humor running throughout that crops up at unexpected points and gives a distinct note of surprise that’s very welcome. Think of this like a slightly gritty, slightly urban, slightly downsized, and very, very English version of Ocean’s 11. The end result is still very watchable, and brings together a lot of interesting and largely dissimilar (but surprisingly interrelated) plot points that make this one unexpectedly deep.

From Prada To Nada, meanwhile, takes us out to California, where a couple of Beverly Hills princesses have been living it up on Daddy’s fortune. But when Daddy’s fortune goes the way of the dodo, the duo finds themselves staying with their aunt. And in the process, they get exposed to a whole new side of life. Will the experience make them better people? Or will it break them just as much as it broke Daddy?

If this one is giving off a Simple Life with Paris and Nicole kind of vibe to you, then rest assured, you’re not alone. However, considering that this is actually a strange kind of Latino version of Sense and Sensibility (complete with mariachi band at a man’s funeral), it’s going to be a little deeper than you might think. Okay, it’s going to be a lot deeper than you might think. It’s actually a reasonable facsimile, though it’s been a while since I last read Sense and Sensibility. Fair warning, though: it will spend a good chunk of time being a total downer, but then, so did pretty much everything Jane Austen ever wrote. Still though, it’s surprisingly engrossing stuff, and you’ll likely get a kick out of it, especially if you have a literary bent.

Lastly we’ve got KJB, which here is an acronym for the King James Bible. And this is the story of how it came to be. For those of you not familiar, the story of the King James Bible is actually a deep and complex tale that’s jammed to the gills with intrigue and just a little suspense to round out the whole package. See, a lot of people had a vested interest in keeping the King James Bible out of a lot of people’s hands, and this is going to give you at least some of the story behind that.

I say some, of course, because this is actually a Dove Family Film selection. That basically means that you’re not going to get the whole story out of this, but you’ll get quite a bit of it, anyway. And considering the kind of performances put up here, you should be reasonably happy with the final outcome. Want a shot of history that doesn’t come from the History Channel for a change? Like religious history? Then you’ll be in excellent company with this one.

So there you go, another three fine Lions Gate titles; each have their ups and downs, and each one will cater toward a specific interest, but each will be worthwhile in its own way. You’ve got plenty of great options out there, and keep it right here for plenty more to come!