SPINNING GOLD (Justin Timberlake Joins Cast and Produces)

• JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE IS SPINNING GOLD

Grammy and Emmy award winner Justin Timberlake has signed onto star in the feature film Spinning Gold from Boardwalk Films, a division ofBoardwalk Entertainment Group.

Justin Timberlake

The movie also marks Timberlake's first venture as a featureproducer. Timothy Scott Bogart, who also is penning the script, Evan"Kidd" Bogart, and Gary A. Randall, founding partners of BoardwalkEntertainment Group, also will produce. Rick Yorn is Executive Producer.

Additionally, Boardwalk Records is producing the album inconjunction with the movie, including classic hits reimagined by today'sbiggest artists.

Spinning Gold chronicles the life of music legend NeilBogart, the late father of Tim and Evan, who founded Casablanca Records in 1974and is credited with discovering, launching and nurturing the careers of ageneration of music superstars. KISS, Parliament, Donna Summer, and The VillagePeople were just a few of the acts on the roster of Casablanca Records, whosesound and image would come to define 70s pop culture.

Boardwalk Entertainment Group partner, producer andscreenwriter, Tim Bogart, said, "This movie is literally three decades inthe making, but we knew that without the perfect actor to bring our father tolife on film, his essence and impact on the lives and careers he inspired wouldnever be fully captured – from the moment we met Justin, we knew we'd found ourNeil Bogart. With Justin also a producer on the movie, together we're craftingthis saga about a young dreamer who started with nothing and came of age in the60s and 70s, believing anything was possible and every risk was worth taking.Though he died at only 39, he lived to see all his dreams come true." 

HORIZONS (Cast News)

• HORIZONS

Jessica Chastain

Tree of Life and The Help actress Jessica Chastain hasreportedly won one of the two female leads in Horizons, an upcoming sci-fi filmstarring Tom Cruise and directed by Tron: Legacy's Joseph Kosinski.

Variety reminds us that Horizons "revolves around asoldier stationed on a future Earth, the surface of which was destroyed byaliens. When he discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets offa chain of events that cause him to question everything he knows."

The trade doesn't specify which of those two main femaleroles Chastain has won, but adds that other recently reported candidatesincluding Olivia Wilde, Brit Marling and Noomi Rapace also tested and couldlikely win the other female lead.

Horizons, which is based on Kosinski's graphic novelOblivion, is slated to begin shooting next year for a July 19, 2013 release. 

THE LONE RANGER (Back in Develpoment)

• THE LONE RANGER GETS BACK ON TRACK

The Lone Ranger is out of danger. After Disney haltedproduction due to its ballooning budget, enough cost cuts have now been made toget the endangered pic back on track.

Deadline reports that "the studio is likely to haveeverything resolved by next week, and can start rehiring crew so that thepicture will be ready to begin production in January or February. How that latestart impacts the December 21, 2012 release date remains to be seen."

Johnny Depp remains set to play Tonto opposite Armie Hammerin the title role, while Ruth Wilson is expected to remain aboard as the femalelead. Gore Verbinski will direct and Jerry Bruckheimer will produce.

Deadline claims the $250+ million budget was trimmed to amore acceptable $215 million by rejiggering Depp, Bruckheimer and Verbinski'ssizable deals and cutting the length of the shoot. 

RIDDICK 3 (Cast News)

• RIDDICK 3

Karl Urban will be reprising his role as Vaako in the Riddick 3.

Karl Urban as Vaako

Bloody Disgusting reports that Urban will be back for thefilm, called The Chronicles of Riddick: Dead Man Stalking. In the second film,Vaako was one of the Necromongers who was deep into political and militaryintrigue along with his Lady Macbeth-esque wife (played by Thandie Newton).

Here's the plot synopsis for the film: "Betrayed by hisown kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick (Diesel) fights forsurvival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous thanever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddickonly to find themselves pawns in his greater scheme for revenge. With his enemiesright where he wants them, Riddick unleashes a vicious attack of vengeancebefore returning to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction." 

PRIDE PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES (Cast News)

• PRIDE PREJUDICE ANDZOMBIES

Blake Lively

Green Lantern starlet Blake Lively is in talks to take onthe lead role in the film version of Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudiceand Zombies.

Twitch reports that Lively has met with director CraigGillespie, who offered her the role. No word yet on whether or not she hasaccepted the gig.

Lively follows in the undead footsteps of Emma Stone,Natalie Portman and others, all of whom have been up for the job at one pointor another -- before turning it down. Maybe Blake will stick this time.

KICK-ASS 2 (News Update)

• KICK-ASS 2

With a sequel to the original comic book series hitting thestands, creator Mark Millar tells The LA Times' Hero Complex that he's alreadygot the ending of the third and final miniseries planned and has since the veryfirst Kick-Ass. Meanwhile, on the movie front, a sequel could finally be movingforward.

"I obviously know more than I can say," Millarteases, "but I think people will be pretty happy with the conversationswe’ve been having."

Millar also confirms that, while it's unlikely that MatthewVaughn will return as a director, he could very well produce and potentiallyco-write a second film.

"[E]verybody involved suddenly got hired for a milliondifferent things," he explains, "and re-forming the band again wouldbe impossible. Hopefully, we can use the same actors if and when we do asequel, but getting Matthew [Vaughn] to direct or Jane to write a movie at thisbudget would be very difficult because they’re superstars now and they have projectsof their own... But there’s a window because the actors are all supposed to bein high school and if this came out after 2013, for example, that window wouldhave closed."

The original Kick-Ass, released in 2010, grossed $98 millionworldwide. Vaughn, who directed that film, went on to direct this year's X-Men:First Class.