-In what’s expected to be a continuous game of musical chairs regarding release dates, Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” has moved from a May release date to July 10th, taking the place of the recently-vacated “2012” slot. Also moving to July is the Katherine Heigl/Gerard Butler dream pairing “The Ugly Truth,” which lands on the 24th. Expect more dominoes to fall in the coming weeks. [BoxOfficeMojo]
-With a hot summer release coming, Cohen’s not resting on his laurels. He’s also rumored to be involved in the development of an American remake of the popular Spanish cop franchise “Torrente,” about a racist, right wing cop busting up a drug ring. A grain of salt with this news, people- the news comes from series creator Santiago Segura. [CHUD]
-In the realm of hypothetical casting decisions, MTV recently got Billy Bob Thornton to reveal that he was in brief talks to star as Iron Man. Downey Jr., Thornton, Rourke- do they scout for these movies in dive bars? [MTV]
-There’s a lot we don’t know about “Halloween 2,” but at least we know that it will sound just as shitty: composer Tyler Bates, who’s material for “Watchmen” sounds pretty neat but has otherwise composed some deeply mediocre, vaguely-metal scores, is returning for the sequel after having scored the original film. [Upcoming Film Scores]
-Director Tarsem Singh (“The Fall”) is talking up his next film already, and saying some pretty intriguing things. He describes “War Of The Gods” as “Carravagio meets Fight Club” in a bit of an interview posted by Empire Online. Originally, “War of the Gods” was set to be a big 2010 release competing with another swords-and-sandals epic, Louis Letterier’s “Clash Of The Titans,” but no news for either has been released, so perhaps the studios are noting the recession and planning production cautiously. [Empire Online]
-Interested in picking up some Criterion releases but not sure what to go for? Why don’t you listen to Monte Hellman? The iconoclastic filmmaker behind Criterion release “Two Lane Blacktop” weighed in with his ten favorite Criterions at the Criterion main site, the latest in an impressive collection of top tens. [Criterion]
