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Cloverfield producer and Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams is working on a new disaster movie for Universal according to The Hollywood Reporter. Abrams and David Seltzer, the screenwriter of the original “Omen,” are working together on an earthquake movie for the studio.

Hecklerspray reports that Sony execs have sacked the current Venom script and are calling for an all new one.

According to the newspaper The Quad-City Times, Donald Borchers’ Children of the Corn remake begins shooting in September. The movie will air on the Sci-Fi Channel sometime in 2009. Casting is now underway. Commenting on the original screen adaptation Borchers says, “They put a lot of sugar, if you will, into the coffee. Stephen King doesn’t take his coffee with sugar.” He adds his take will carry a dour ending.

E! reports Tom Cruise has signed on to star in Adam Taylor’s (Definitely Maybe) new comedy Food Fight. The movie will center around a New York chef who is forced to pack his knives and leave the world of elite cooking. Cruise has also been rumored to be starring opposite Ben Stiller in a movie version of the classic Hardy Boys detective books.

Variety reports Anjelina Jolie has taken Tom Cruises spot in the espionage thriller Edwin A. Salt.

Brad Pitt has officially joined Tarrantino’s Inglorious Bastards.

According to the BBC News theaters in London are considering banishing popcorn altogether due to requests from patrons. Moviegoers have apparently been complaining about the mess and noise.

According to NDTVMovies.com Robert Downey Jr claims that the new Batman movie The Dark Knight is too complicated. The Iron Man star appears to be uncertain about the movie’s plot. “I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get many things that are so smart. The Dark Knight is like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and scriptwriting and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’  “I didn’t understand The Dark Knight… I still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and, in the end, they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it – this is so high brow and so smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.'”

Sony has signed writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless to write the script for its new take on Flash Gordon, just a few months after winning rights to the classic SF franchise from Hearst, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sazama and Sharpless are also writing the vampire tale Dracula Year Zero for Universal and Zack Snyder’s Cobalt 60. Breck Eisner is attached to direct and Neal Moritz.

Variety is reporting Zak Penn is set to write The Argonauts for 20th Century Fox. Penn recently wrote The Incredible Hulk, Elektra, Fantastic Four and The X-Men. The move by Fox to bring to the big screen a new sword-and-sandal pic is something that seems to have caught the attention of many studios recently with a remake of Clash of the Titans in the works, several Hercules based projects and God of War with Brett Ratner directing for Universal. 

Entertainment Weekly reports that Johnny Depp may have signed on to play the Madd Hatter in Tim Burton and Disney’s new Alice In Wonderland 3D. The rumor is as yet unconfirmed.

Sources:
THR
Hecklerspray
Shock Till You Drop
The Quad-City Times
E!
BBC News
NDTV News
Variety
Entertainment Weekly