
If all the "sources" are correct, Arrested Development fans have something to celebrate today: The movie is a go!
Yup, I think I just blue myself.
The Hollywood Reporter is saying today that Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard are "
reportedly closing deals for the long-gestating project from Imagine and Fox Searchlight."

We all know that author Nicholas Sparks wrote
The Notebook, which became a movie starring the sweet duo Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. Before The Notebook Sparks's novel Message in a Bottle became a movie. Later came A Walk to Remember starring Mandy Moore, and this year his book
Nights in Rodanthe arrived on the big screen towing Richard Gere and Diane Lane in its wake.

I loved the first couple of movies in the X-Men series (not so much the 2006 Brett Ratner installment, but hey, we all make mistakes), and I'm a big fan of Josh Schwartz's snappy TV writing, so this seems like it could be a perfect fit:
Schwartz has signed on to write X-Men: First Class, a film focusing on a younger group of X-folk. Schwartz could also direct the movie, though he so far hasn't taken Fox up on the option.
According to Variety, the idea is to focus on the younger characters — Rogue, Iceman, Kitty Pryde, etc.

Normally, learning that a remake of Pinocchio is in development might make me roll my eyes and mourn for my lost childhood — you know, things like that. But something tells me this
dark and twisted remake is going to be different.
For one thing, it's got Guillermo Del Toro behind it as an executive producer, and if ever there was a person who could create a good "fractured fairytale" remake of this story, I'd think he'd be the one.

It's really for serious:
Ridley Scott is going ahead with his movie version of the Monopoly game, and now the project has a screenwriter who will help to "shape a narrative out of the iconic real-estate game." Apparently Scott wants to give the film "a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic Blade Runner."
So .

We all know that Hollywood is extremely remake-happy these days, so I'm not even going to resist
the Karate Kid remake news because it was probably bound to happen, right? Now moving onto the casting: Jaden Smith is first in line to play the lead role, the Kid himself, in a new version of the 1984 pop culture staple. Variety has more info:
The script is being written by Chris Murphy, and the film will shoot next year in Beijing and other cities.

Wow, this is intriguing:
Nicole Kidman is set to play "the world's first post-op transsexual" in The Danish Girl, which will be based on the true story of Danish artists Einar and Greta Wegener. The Hollywood Reporter has details:
Their marriage took a sharp left turn after Einar (Kidman) stood in for an female model that Greta ([Charlize] Theron) was set to paint.
When their portraits become wildly popular in 1920s Copenhagen, Greta encouraged her husband to adopt the female guise.

Jack Black has signed on to play the title role in a "
contemporary reimagining of the classic Jonathan Swift tale," Gulliver's Travels. Apparently director Rob Letterman has been attached to the project for a while, but Twentieth Century Fox quickly greenlit the project once Black signed on. Variety reminds us of the details:
Story centers on Lemuel Gulliver, a free-spirited travel writer who, on an assignment to the Bermuda Triangle, suddenly finds himself a giant among men when he washes ashore on the hidden island of Lilliput, home to a population of industrious, yet tiny, people.

Just as we're getting a
Three Stooges movie for a new generation of moviegoers,
The Wizard of Oz will also be reappearing on the big screen — in CG animation. The $25 million project is backed by a French production company and will be based on Frank Baum's original novel.
The Variety article adds, "The English-language adaptation maintains the tale's main characters and settings.