Links for you: Blue Smurfs and Red Sonja

Get your first look at what CGI Smurfs will look like. (Hint: awful) [The Movie Blog]

ABC releases a 2 minute sneak peek of FlashForward. [ComingSoon]

New photos of the Volturi from The Twilight Saga: New Moon are online. The photos include Michael Sheen as Aro and Dakota Fanning as Jane. [Empire]

The Fantastic Four franchise gets a reboot. [Film Junk]

How would Marvel reimagine Disney heroines? [Jeffrey Thomas's Portfolio via In Contention]

A handy user's guide to the Academy's new best picture voting rules. [Film School Rejects]

Get your first look at Amanda Seyfried in Chloe. Seyfried plays Chloe, an escort hired to seduce Julianne Moore's husband (Liam Neeson). The film is on the Toronto Film Festival lineup. [FirstShowing]

Rose McGowan says Red Sonja begins shooting in 2010. Don't hold your breath. [Get The Big Picture]

First photos of the Volturi from New Moon

According to someone over at ONTD! (via The Playlist) these are official Volturi character art from Summit Entertainment and really, they're only worth it for Michael Sheen. If you don't know who the Volturi are, they're a law-enforcing vampire coven. It hurts just to write that crap. Featured in the photo along with Michael Sheen are Dakota Fanning and Jamie Campbell Bower. The Twilight Saga: New Moon is set to open on November 20, 2009.

Michael Sheen signs on to 'New Moon'

Michael Sheen will play a vampire in Twilight sequel New Moon. After playing a werewolf in the Underworld movies, it's safe to say that Sheen has an affinity for playing monsters. Sheen will play Aro, leader of the Volturi vampire coven. If you want to know more about Aro, ask your little sister, or girlfriend, or whoever. Just don't come to me, because I have no intention of getting wrapped up in the Twilight universe, Michael Sheen crush be damned.

Director Chris Weitz "aggressively" went after Sheen for the part and considering some of Sheen's recent work like The Queen and Frost/Nixon (admittedly I hated both films, but he was fantastic in them) it isn't hard to understand why Weitz would want him. I'm just wondering why Michael Sheen would sign on to this.

Casting links: Frieda Pinto joins Julian Schnabel, Zac Efron won't dance, and more...

Hollywood's newest It girl, Freida Pinto has signed on to star in Julian Schnabel's latest film, Miral. The film is an adaptation of Rula Jebreal's book about an orphanage during the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel. It sounds good, but you can just feel the controversy and angry protests coming from a mile away. Not that Schnabel will care. [Variety]


Zac Efron has (thankfully) dropped out of the remake of Footloose. He is also starring in 17 Again (a remake of sorts), and an adaptation of Johnny Quest. I can feel my childhood dying a slow death. [HitFix]


Mad Men star Jon Hamm has joined the cast of indie drama Howl, and will play defense lawyer Jake Ehrlich, who inspired the TV series, Perry Mason. The film is about the 1957 obscenity trial of Allen Ginsberg's poem. The film also stars James Franco and David Strathairn. It's possible that there is just too much handsome in all this. [Variety]


And speaking of howls: Twilight sequel, New Moon has five new actors to play members of the wolf pack. Chaske Spencer, Bronson Pelletier, Alex Meraz, Kiowa Gordon and Tyson Houseman have been cast, although no one has revealed who will play whom. Each member of the wolf pack is of Native American decent. Spencer is Lakota (Sioux), Pelletier is Cree-Metis, Meraz is Purepecha (Tarasco), Gordon is Hualapai, and Houseman is Cree. [Empire]


On the biopic front: Anthony Hopkins is attached to play writer Ernest Hemingway in Hemingway and Fuentes, which will be written and directed by Andy Garcia. Annette Benning may also take on the role of Hemingway's widow, Mary Welsh. I'm drawn to this because the film isn't taking the typical paint by numbers, biopic formula. Instead, it will focus on the last days of Hemingway's life. [Hollywood Reporter]