Saoirse Ronan is very close to signing the dotted line as she finalizes talks to star in Disney’s Order of Seven. Interestingly, according to Variety, Seven was originally developed as a Kung Fu retelling of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” – development began a decade ago.

If Ronan signs the dotted line, she will play Olivia Sinclair, a British expatriate in 19th century Hong Kong.  She seeks the protection of a centuries old group of warriors, who are now a contemptuous group of outlaws.  The reemergence of an ancient evil empress causes Sinclair to help the warriors reclaim their destiny and noble roots.

Variety reports that Disney hopes to boost the international appeal of the movie by casting the roles of the warriors with well-known stars in China, Russia and Japan, creating a global team of heroes. Studio execs have been making trips to those territories to begin talks with local talent.

Michael Gracey, known for his visual effects supervision and commercials, is set to make his directorial debut on the fantasy movie. The most recent version of the script was written by Jayson Rothwell and Michael DeBruyn.

IMDb lists Ronan as the U.K. voice for Arrietty in The Secret World of Arrietty that Disney is distributing for Studio Ghibli and will star in Andrew Niccol’s The Host, based on “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer’s novel.

Red Riding Hood, from the director of Twilight, will be released on June 14th on Demand, for Download, and Blu-ray combo pack.

We are hosting a giveaway in conjunction with the release of the movie. I have two (2) prize packs to send your winners.

Prize Pack Content:

• Cable Cash (which is $5 off the winner’s cable or satellite bill)
• Canvas Roll-up Bag
• Tribal Wolf t-shirt

Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) directs a fantasy thriller that puts a haunting twist on the classic fairy tale. For years the villagers of Daggerhorn have maintained an uneasy truce with a werewolf – but the beast changes the stakes by killing the older sister of beautiful young Valerie (Amanda Seyfried). Promised in marriage to one man but in love with another, Valerie has her life dramatically affected yet again by the creature’s bloody actions. When a werewolf hunter warns that the beast takes human form by day and walks among them, panic sets in as the death toll rises. And Valerie learns she has a unique connection to the wolf that inexorably draws them together, making her both suspect…and bait. Gary Oldman, Billie Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas and Julie Christie also star.

To enter the giveaway, post your name and I will pick the winner June 24, 2011.

Remember: Watch it your way, On Demand, For Download and on Blu-ray combo pack.

Ah, the growing trend of turning everything into Twilight. We’ve got Red Riding Hood coming up looking to bring out Twilight with more werewolves, and some are already calling I Am Number Four the Twilight of alien invasion movies. They’re not too far wrong, sadly, though this is a bit more entertaining than Twilight, but only just a bit.

I Am Number Four follows the Loriens, who have, in the grandest Kryptonian fashion, sent nine of their young folks off to Earth to be raised by Protectors. The displaced Loriens are a powerful set of kids, with all sorts of bizarre superpowers, but as is generally the case with this sort of thing, it takes training to use them properly. The displaced Loriens also have a bigger problem on their hands, the psychopathic Mogadorians, who apparently managed to put paid to everyone on Lorien, but will somehow be killed by nine kids with superpowers. This is the first of many such plotholes. Anyway, the kids are rapidly being killed off by Mogadorians, and the first three are already down. Now, they’re on their way to take out Number Four, who’s been moving around the United States for years under a variety of names. And he’ll have to survive the Mogadorian onslaught long enough to learn how to use his powers and find the rest of the kids to have any shot of taking down the Mogadorians.

Seriously, I could go down a list of plotholes this movie’s packing. Like how a small town in Ohio, where Number Four spends most of the movie, has sufficient wealth to make both a camera store and guitar shop viable businesses but not sufficient to host a community college. Or how Number Six, who Number Four will encounter later in the movie, knows so much about her planet while Number Four spends most of the movie surprised by LITERALLY EVERYTHING. It goes on like this.

Now, this was actually a book to start with, apparently, so maybe some things have been lost in translation, like pretty much every Harry Potter fan will huffily point out every time I mention a plot hole in the movies. But still–a movie should not come with required reading just to get anywhere with the plot. A movie needs to be self-contained, with maybe some points left open for sequels (as this one so clearly did). Worse, it took almost an hour for I Am Number Four to start getting interesting, and much of the last few minutes was a terrific rolling fight scene but even here they didn’t take long to start setting up that sequel, which is inevitable, because we’ve got all sorts of unanswered questions in here.

Still though, it’s not bad–it’s certainly not the reprehensible train wreck that Twilight was–and will prove at least watchable. Though if you take a pass on this one until it hits on video and the sequel comes out, you might feel better about the whole thing.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives it a passable five out of ten, and looks at least somewhat forward to seeing where we go with this.

Love is in the air for humans and vampires…

This photo is for all the Twilight Fans who adore Breaking Dawn. It is a romantic photo of Isle Esme decorated with lanterns on a beach leading to a boat. Summit Entertainment twitted on Valentine’s Day: “Happy Valentine’s Day from Isle Esme!”

According to Twilight aficionados, Isle Esme is the tropical island where Bella and Edward spent for their honeymoon in “Breaking Dawn.” It is an island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro and owned by Esme Cullen, the matriarch of the Olympic Coven.

As mentioned before on Screenhead, the first part of Breaking Dawn will be released on November 18. 2011 and the conclusion will be released on November 16, 2012.

The folks out at Lions Gate sent over a copy of Fierce People for us to review for you, and I have to admit, this one caught my eye by putting Donald Sutherland in a movie with Twilight’s own whiny emo Kristen Stewart. But could K-Stew actually act for a change? That was the question I went into Fierce People with…what I got…well…you’ll see.

Fierce People takes Liz Earl and her son Finn, as they get the invitation of a lifetime, to come live on the estate of billionaire Ogden Osbourne. It helps that Liz Earl is a drug addicted masseuse and that Ogden owed Liz a substantial favor. But now, Liz and Finn are on the Osbourne estate, and enjoying it immensely. Especially Finn, who just met Ogden’s granddaughter Maya. But when Finn is assaulted on the estate by a masked intruder, he begins to learn that there’s a lot hiding under the surface. What he finds out about the whole mess will leave him deeply disturbed.

The upshot to this is that this is an After Dark film, though distributed by Lions Gate like most of the After Dark films are. There was about an eighty percent chance going in that this was going to be good, since that’s pretty much the track record for all of After Dark’s films.

First off, if Kristen Stewart had put this kind of performance into Twilight, I think I might have been a lot more enthusiastic about the whole thing. She’s amazing when she wants to be, and here, she clearly wants to be. The clear star of the whole thing, however, is Donald Sutherland, who alternates between doddering old man and devious sharpie just often enough to make you wonder how often the whole “doddering old man” thing is a total load designed to throw you off.

And the movie takes  a whole lot darker turns, especially the farther in it gets. It’s interesting, of course, but it just gets creepy toward the end. It’s still impressive, but it’s definitely a lot darker.

All things considered, truly, this is an awesome movie that really catches your attention and claws into it, hanging on for dear life as it goes hurtling through a progressively darker warren of twists. It’s dark and wonderful stuff, make sure you don’t miss it if you can stand the dark.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Fierce People a nine out of ten for being incredibly strong and deep, a little tough to follow sometimes, but still bringing so much quality content to the fore that it can’t help but be good.

One of my favorite British actors, Michael Sheen, will return as one of the vampire leaders in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

According to Variety, Sheen closed the deal with the studio to reprise his turn as Aro, the leader of the vampire royalty Volturi.

Directed by Bill Condon, the movie is based on the final book in the Meyer series, which will be in two parts. Book centers on the mortal Bella (Kristen Stewart) marrying the vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella giving birth to a half-vampire, half-human daughter.

Taken star Maggie Grace has been cast in the two-part final installment of the vampire epic, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. Bill Condon is directing the two films. First one will be released November 18, 2011 and the second November 16, 2012. 

Grace will play Irina, a member of the Denali coven who harbors a mistaken grudge against the Cullens that sows the seeds of her own destruction.

The movie star is dead, and here to replace him or her is the movie franchise. So many times have we seen replacements for Lord of the Rings and the dwindling Harry Potter films. Most, like the brilliant His Dark Materials trilogy or the Dark is Rising novels, fail to progress. But some, like the Twilight films, make so much money that it only perpetuates the studios’ search for more series with built-in audiences that they can market the hell out of. Cue Ender’s Game.

This week an LA Times blog broke the news that Gavin Hood is developing the first movie of a potential franchise, after Wolfgang Peterson dropped out (Maybe we’ll get a film that doesn’t give more time to explosions than characters or plot). Hood made his name with the acclaimed South African drama Tsotsi, which picked up the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2006. Since then Hood directed the not-so-acclaimed Rendition and Wolverine. It’s time to up his game with Ender’s Game.

Written by Orson Scott Card, the series of 11 novels starts with Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a boy who excels in a military school designed to train teens for a war with an aggressive alien race known as the Formics. But when Ender realises that his battle simulations are real, he begins to regret the destruction he causes. The first novel happens to be a favourite of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The project is only in development so don’t expect the film to hit our screens anytime soon.

Over at Next Movie they have the skinny on what are the haps with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse being re-release on Friday in honor of Bella’s birthday on the 13^th.

Apparently, their report is unofficial, of course, but word is the movie will be released in multiple editions on both Blu-ray and DVD – a single disc for thrifty viewers and a two-disc special edition for true fans who want the whole “Eclipse” experience – on December 4, 2010.

The Special Edition experience is going to come with a bunch of extras like commentary tracks from Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart and Stephenie Meyer, deleted and extended scenes, photo gallery, music video and a six-part behind-the-scenes making-of documentary that boasts the secret of just how they make those vampires look like Twilight vampires.

Vampires Suck would not exist if it weren’t for Twilight.  Bold pronouncement, I know, but it’s true. And that makes it a little tough to review.

Vampires Suck follows clearly angst-ridden misunderstood teen Becca as she moves from her home in Nevada following the revelation that her mother’s  been “doing some pro golfer” (which we discover via implication that it’s actually Tiger Woods). She goes to stay with her father in Sporks, and that’s when the romantic horror gets started.  Bella–I mean Becca–meets Edward Sullen (not Cullen, but Sullen–which is actually much more appropriate) over long slow-motion stares, and begins a love affair that will span…a few months, I guess…and end up at the prom?

Basically, if you take everything that was stupid, overwrought and unintentionally funny about Twilight, Breaking Dawn and Eclipse, crank it up past ludicrous, and put it all together, you get Vampires Suck.

See, I found this hilarious.  Why?  Because I sat through Twilight and New Moon. You may remember the reviews of same I did, and if not, I just linked them for you. And for the most part, I hated these movies because they contained so many parts that were stupid, overwrought and unintentionally funny. And Vampires Suck cheerfully mocked EVERYTHING I couldn’t stand about those movies. But this poses a problem.

For Vampires Suck to truly be entertaining, you have to be in the middle of this big Venn diagram–that’s the one with the two circles that overlap.  On the left, one circle reads “Saw Twilight / Breaking Dawn / Eclipse / Any or all of the above” and the other reads “Couldn’t stand it”.  To really appreciate this movie, you have to have both seen the movies, so that you understand the references, and you have to have hated it, so that you WANT to understand.  When you know from experience how stupid it was that Bella basically sat in a chair for three months after Edward left her, it’s funnier that Becca sat in a chair for three months after Edward left HER, and it’s even better because this time everything Becca sees from her window is wearing Edward’s jacket and hairstyle, even a poodle.

See what I mean?  You have to know the reference, and have enough distaste for the reference that mocking it is worthwhile.  If you have these, you’ll laugh constantly.  If not, many of the jokes will likely fall flat.

So for me, and those like me, Vampires Suck is a constant string of laughs.  For those not like me, Vampires Suck is a in-joke fest that never does anything that wasn’t already done. Thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale averages the whole thing out and gives Vampires Suck a five out of ten.