Monday's Mentions

• Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) has moved on from period films to teenage assassins.  He reunites with Saoirse Ronan who plays the titular role of Hanna about a teenage assassin trained by her father (Eric Bana) to find a CIA agent (Cate Blanchett).  The movie will release April 8, 2011.  But that's not all, he also developing a live-action version of The Little Mermaid, minus the singing crab and fish.  He says it will be more like the Hans Christian Andersen tale.  As a fan of the original, I'm curious to see how he would bring it accross to the screen.  
• The blogosphere is in a uproar about the critically acclaimed film Blue Valentine,  when it premiered at Cannes seemed like a lock for acting nods for both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.  But the film has been handed a NC-17 rating by the MPAA.  While that certainly means its chances for Oscar are diminished, it means now we just want to see it precisely because of it's rating.  Way to go, MPAA.  
• The Green Lantern trailer is set debut alongside Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie.
• In news that will shock no one, the sequel to this year big animated hit, How to Train Your Dragon, has been all but set.  All the creative talent including the voice talents of Jay Baruchel, America Ferrara and Jonah Hill will all return for the movie.   The sequel will have a release date sometime in 2013.  This was one of favorite animated features of this year and I'm pleased to see we'll see more stories taking place in this universe.   
• Martin Freeman (Love Actually, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) has confirmed that he dropped out of The Hobbit.  With the movie production in jeopardy and Peter Jackson announcing it's all not really official, will the film ever take off?  What do the fanboys have to do to make this a reality?