1. Fox and Warner have agreed to forego a jury trial and to let a federal judge decide whether Watchmen will be released as planned on March 6. The judge is expected to render his decision January 20, only a month and a half before the release date, but Warner has asked him to render it as early as this Monday. — Los Angeles Times, Variety, David Poland, Hollywood Reporter
2. Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell are in talks to play the bad guys in Iron Man 2. As usual, story details are a closely-guarded secret, but the speculation is that Rourke would play either Whiplash or Crimson Dynamo, while Rockwell would play Justin Hammer. For what it’s worth, between Rourke and Robert Downey Jr., that now makes two talented but washed-up 1980s movie stars whose recent comebacks have been capped by a role in this Marvel Comics franchise. — Variety, Hollywood Reporter
3. The first three Harry Potter movies were rated PG. The next two were rated PG-13, as befits the fact that Harry is getting older and the stories are getting darker and more mature, with raging hormones and major characters dying, and so on. But now comes word that the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has been rated a mere PG, for “scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.” Can it possibly be that the sixth movie has toned things down, just as the series is moving towards its death-filled climax? — FilmRatings.com
4. It’s official: Taylor Lautner will be back as the werewolf Jacob Black in New Moon, the sequel to Twilight. — Stephenie Meyer, Anne Thompson, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Nikki Finke
5. DJ Caruso, who helped make Shia LaBeouf a movie star by directing him in Disturbia and Eagle Eye, has signed on to make Jack the Giant Killer for New Line Cinema. The story “is set in motion when a princess is kidnapped, threatening a long-standing peace between men and giants. A young farmer is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giants’ kingdom in hopes of rescuing her.” — Hollywood Reporter
6. Teresa Palmer will play the love interest in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a modernized version of the fable made famous by Fantasia (1940). The film also stars Nicolas Cage as the sorceror and Jay Baruchel as the apprentice. — Hollywood Reporter
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