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Olga Kurylenko and Andrea Riseborough will star with Tom Cruise in Joseph Kosinski’s untitled sci-fi movie that is currently in a write by Michael Arndt. William Monahan and Karl Gajdusek penned earlier drafts.

The story takes place in the future and centers on a soldier (Cruise), who is stationed on Earth. The surface of the planet has been destroyed by aliens. The soldier discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, the story twists into a chain of events. He begins to question everything he is aware of and wonders what the truth is.

Variety reports that “nearly every high-profile young actress in town has been connected to the project at some point.”

Variety first reported that Jessica Chastain was cast as a female lead in the fall, but had to bow out because of her commitment to Kathryn Bigelow’s untitled Osama bin Laden movie.

If there was an Oscar for most bizarre news of the year, surely this would be a shoo-in for a nomination. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to cast Werner Herzog as the villain in Tom Cruise’s next vehicle? It’s so insane it just might work…

According to Variety Herzog will play the villain The Zec in One Shot, an adaptation of the novel by Lee Child. Part of the Jack Reacher series, Tom Cruise will play Reacher, the ex US military officer who now roams his country and ends up getting into all sorts of trouble. In this film, the first adaptation of the series (even though the book is the sixth), Reacher investigates a sniper accused of murder. Herzog’s character will play the man behind the big conspiracy.The films is written and directed by Chris McQuarrie (who wrote the latest Mission Impossible film and The Tourist)

Herzog has of course acted before, whether playing a version of himself in Incident at Loch Ness or in Julian Donkey-Boy as a domineering dad. But most of us know (or should know) him as a documentary and feature film director, often obsessed with the stager individuals and phenomena in this world. Those unfamiliar should check out Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man immediately.

This poster of Tom Cruise, returning as Ethan Hunt in Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, shoots me off the planet.

As the fourth installment of the hugely successful spy series, it is going to be big. So big, in fact, they had to shoot it in IMAX. Director Brad Bird (Finding Nemo, Incredibles) had Cruise hanging off the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world in Dubai. I am thinking the perspective on the poster is vertigo-inducing. Wow! I can’t wait until I see it projected seven-stories high in the IMAX Theater.

Ghost Protocol will open everywhere on December 21, 2011, but it will screen early on select IMAX screens on December 16.

Taylor Lautner in Abduction looks pretty darn good, but I am concerned about lines like “Suddenly, everyone around me is dying!”

I must admit the trailer is entertaining, and from watching the trailer I want to see the movie now. Lautner looks good in an action movie. He reminds me of a younger Tom Cruise, but more naïve and vulnerable.

When I see him kick a window out or make love to a young woman on a train, I say “Yea!” This guy looks good. But, I would also like to call Abduction a fantasy movie because where in the world will something like this every happen. Definitely this could not happen in the real world but only in the imaginations of the writer and director.

John Singleton directs Abduction, and, perhaps, that is the movie’s saving grace, not to mention, Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina and Maria Bello. Shawn Christensen wrote the script and is fairly new to the screenwriting world. I truly hope the movie does well because the trailer looks great, fun to watch.

The movie opens in theaters September 23, 2011.

Guillermo Del Toro has experienced yet another setback in what should be his explosion into the mainstream. Last year he was forced to drop out as director of The Hobbit films due to a scheduling conflict. Then came even more exciting news: his long-in-development pet project was being produced by James Cameron. The project was of course At The Mountains of Madness and sadly now this seems to be dead.

At the Mountains of Madness was an adaptation of the HP Lovecraft novella in which a group of Antarctic explorers who accidentally awaken the alien inhabitants of an ancient and hidden city. Cameron backed the project which was to be shot in native 3D. Even more promising news emerged last week when Tom Cruise was rumoured to be the star. But now it appears Del Toro has dropped his pet project and is filming another script later this year. So what happened? According to Deadline, the proposed budget for the Lovecraft horror was in the region of $150 million, which is quite a risky investment. Even more so when the project was aiming for an R-rating in the US. A film with that budget would need to make $500 million worldwide to cover its costs. In an email with Criterion, Del Toro has said the film is “dead”.

It’s a real shame to see this project hit a brick wall. HP Lovecraft is considered to be the grandfather of modern horror, and his mythos of strange creatures is deep and sublimely fascinating. There is yet to be a major film adaptation of any of his works (though there are many straight-to-video duds), and Del Toro’s film could have opened to floodgates to adaptations of one of the most distinct horror writers of all time.

Del Toro is now working on Pacific Rim, a film that Deadline calls a “tent pole-sized project with big monsters and the creation of a new world”. Lovecraft’s work may not be ready to see the big screen, but Pacific Rim sure proves that his influence is present in modern cinema. While there’s no word on what will happen to At the Mountains of Madness, here’s hoping Del Toro will return to it next year.

It looks like the production of Rock of Ages is firming up with the casting of Julianne Hough, Dancing with the Stars Champ. She will star opposite Tom Cruise in the adaptation of the Broadway musical.

Adam Shankman (Hairspray) is directing and choreographing the movie musical. The story is centered around rock hits of the 1980s by Journey, Joan Jett, Bon Jovi and Pat Benatar. It focuses on a couple that meets at the Sunset Strip club Rock of Ages, falls in love and tries to stay together while living the rock life.

The musical premiered in Los Angeles in 2006 and came to Broadway three years later, receiving five Tony nominations.

Here is the footage of Tom Cruise performing his stunt in Russian for Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. The camera crew for this footage was about 8 feet away for Cruise scaling the skyscraper, according to AICN.

Pictures of the stunt have been on the web for awhile, I even posted two here on Screenhead. From this angle it looks easy, but if you look closely at Cruise’s face and arms, he is working hard.  Where’s the director, Brad Bird?

Tom Cruise likes doing his own stunts. If you don’t believe me then take a look at these pictures, which I snagged from Latino Review.  It actually looks fun. I am sure Brad Bird, director, and production crew took all the precautions in order to fully solidify that he likes being a little bit of a “daredevil” but safe to the degree he didn’t fall during the scene. 

I wonder how much of this footage will be on the screen.  The only way to find out is see the movie, Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, when it arrives next year in December.

I heard it first from AICN about a new Top Gun movie in the works. The sources are sketchy, but Paramount has “made offers” to Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott to produce and direct (respectively) a sequel to 1986′s Top Gun.

Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects and the upcoming Wolverine sequel) is the one who did the script work.  What about Maverick, or should I say Tom Cruise?  Well, it seems Cruise has agreed to reprise his Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell role.  Not a big role like in the original, considerably smaller.

However, Cruise will return on one condition that his character not show-up in an obvious way as a flight instructor - like Tom Skerrit’s battle-hardened instructor from the original.  Apparently, McQuarrie has found a way to accommodate this stipulation.

As soon as I hear more, I will post it for you.

Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner will star with one hot actress in Mission Impossible 4. According to Deadline via ISEB.net, Paula Patton is the choice for the fourth installment against actresses Lauren German and Kristen Kreuk.

The actress is set to play a young operative in this spy action movie. I am sure some of you are familiar with her talent. She starred in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire Rain, Déjà vu, Mirrors and Swing Vote.

Brad Bird is directing the film, which is his first live-action film. I am looking forward to seeing the results of his work with real actors in front of the camera.