FILM BUZZ

It's rumoured that Marvel Studios is in talks for Joss Whedon to direct The Avengers! The film will bring together Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) together for one incredible flick. The film is fast tracked and could be out as soon as May of 2012.

A film about the life of Jackie-O is in the works with Darren Aronofsky as the director and his fiancée, Rachel Weisz, playing Miz Jackie herself. The flick would look at the iconic First Lady's life in the days following her husband's, President Kennedy, assassination.

Samuel L Jackson and hunky Kellan Lutz have signed on to star in the underground fighting thriller Fury about a drifter who finds himself forced into the savage world of a modern gladiatorial arena, where men fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses.

Zac Efron is looking to further his acting credibility and set to co-produce a remake of Snabba Cash (Easy Money), the acclaimed Swedish film. The thriller follows three interconnected storylines involving drugs and organized crime, with the main character a young man (Efron) who hopes to strike it rich quickly by becoming a runner for a coke dealer.

David Cronenberg's next film A Dangerous Method is based on the play by Christopher Hampton and is about the conflict between Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and his pupil Jung (Michael Fassbender). Keira Knightley will play Sabina, a disturbed young woman brought to see Jung by her father after which Jung and Sabina have an affair.

After his star turn opening the Oscars openly gay Neil Patrick Harris has joined The Smurfs as the first live-action human character and now Glee star Jayma Mays has also joined the cast as the pregnant wife of Patrick Harris's character. Also, Hank Azaria will play Gargamel, the sworn enemy of the Smurfs. Katy Perry will be voicing Gargamel's creation, Smurfette. The story takes place in Central Park in New York City and centers on the happy expectant couple's lives being turned upside-down upon meeting the blue creatures.

Sir Ian McKellen updated his personal website recently saying The Hobbit will "start shooting in New Zealand in July." The report went on to say filming will take over a year and the first draft of the script "is crammed with old and new friends, again on a quest in Middle Earth." We can't wait.

Ivan Reitman will direct rom-com Friends With Benefits starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman and while the story is being kept quiet, it it said to revolve around the ease with which men and women become sexually involved, but have a far more difficult time establishing emotional bond.

Sigourney Weaver has signed on to star as a vampire queen in Vamps, a romantic horror-comedy from Amy Heckerling (Clueless). The film is a modern-day story focusing on beautiful young vampires (Alicia Silverstone and Krysten Ritter) who are living the good nightlife in New York until love enters the picture and each has to make a choice that will jeopardize their immortality.

Director David Fincher (Benjamin Button, Fight Club) is the front-runner to direct the American remake of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo based on the late Stieg Larsson's bestseller, which is cinemas right now in the novel's native Swedish language. A must-see film by the way.

Perfect casting for a villain. Hugo Weaving is set to join the cast of The First Avenger: Captain America as the film's baddie, the Red Skull, Captain America's arch-enemy since 1941, when he engaged in espionage and sabotage as Hitler's right-hand man.

Taylor Lautner continues to rack up new projects, this time signing on for Abduction, a film centering on a teen who has long felt disconnected from his parents, and figures out why, which unleashes a chain of violent events. Plus he has signed on to bring to the big screen the boy with plastic arms, Stretch Armstrong.

Gwyneth Paltrow has joined Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law in Contagion for director Steven Soderbergh written by Scott Z. Burns (The Informant and The Bourne Ultimatum). The film takes place in a worst case scenario of a deadly virus taking place over four continents.

The third film in the Riddick franchise, simply titled Riddick and starring Vin Diesel as the title character will apparently follow Diesel's character — the most wanted man in the galaxy — who's been left for dead on a barren alien planet, dealing with "trisons" (three-legged bisons) and "mud demons." He must then contend with two squads of bounty hunters, one of which ride rockets called jetcycles.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan has apparently landed a role opposite Sam Worthington in The Fields to be directed by Michael Mann's daughter Ami Canaan Mann. The film centres on a Texas homicide detective (Worthington) who joins with a New York detective to investigate unsolved murders in the Texas bayous. Meanwhile Universal is still working with Alex Proyas developing Dracula Year Zero with Sam Worthington in the lead role.

The success of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes has not only inspired a possible like-minded Three Musketeers movie, but has now encouraged UK-based Ecosse Films to go the same route in developing a feature adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Guy's ex, Madonna, is dipping her toes once again in the feature film pool, this time with plans to direct W.E., a biopic about the affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson that led to the British royal abdicating the throne to marry his divorcee lover. Vera Farmiga (Up In the Air) is apparently up for the role of Simpson. Madonna is writing the script with her Truth or Dare director, Alec Keshishian. Madonna last directed Filth and Wisdom in 2008.