With Kevin Smith’s Cop Out defying the tidal wave of negative reviews and still managing to bring in nearly $20 Million this past weekend, other studios are looking to amp up their comedies in hopes they will be a trending genre for moviegoers this year.

With that, Paramount and Dreamworks is gearing up for next week’s release of She’s Out of My League, starring Alice Eve and Tropic Thunder’s Jay Baruchel. The film throws an interesting twist into the “boy meets girl” dynamic by adding the fact that the guy is a lanky geek and the girl is a “10″. Never heard that one before, right?

The film hits theaters on March 12th, but we were lucky enough to get our hands on a few tasty new clips to share with you. Check them out after the jump. In addition to Barchel, the film also stars Mike Vogel, Debra Jo Rupp, Kim Shaw, Geoff Stults, and T.J. Miller. It hits theaters on March 12.

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TNT, the network known for its legal/detective dramas (including endless reruns of Law & Order), is now venturing into Sci-Fi with Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks on a series that will star Noah Wyle and Moon Bloodgood. The series, despite not yet having a name, has a pilot directed by Carl Franklin (Devil in A Blue Dress, Out of Time) — who is also working with Spielberg on episodes of the forthcoming WWII television mini-series The Pacific — and a story written by Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat.

Noah Wyle, who has become quite familiar with TNT through his numerous The Librarian TV Movies, will star as a professor that winds up in the rebellion against the alien invaders. Bloodgood, who really seems to have a taste for the genre with her past roles Terminator: Salvation and the “canceled too-soon” series Journey Man, will play a therapist that works with surviving children of the invasion.

Other names of cast members include Seychelle Gabriel (The Spirit, and M. Night Syamalan’s The Last Airbender), Jessy Schram (Life, Crash: The Series) and Drew Roy (Greek, Lincoln Heights). According to reports, the series opens shortly after aliens have wiped out most of humanity. The aliens are now rounding up the few people left, but they are met with strong resistance from a group of soldiers and civilians who fight for their survival – all while struggling to maintain their humanity.

The series is set to debut sometime in 2011.

Peter Jackson has made films that many have considered “instant classics”, such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, a bloated and unnecessary remake in the form of King Kong, and some little-seen but great cult classics such as Bad Taste, Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners. His newest film, The Lovely Bones, adapted from Alice Sebold’s novel of the same name, is kind of a combination of all of the above.

The story focuses on Susie Salmon, a fourteen year-old girl who lives in rural Pennsylvania with her parents and two siblings. She describes to us, via narration, what she wants to be when she grows up, her disliking of a snowglobe with a penguin in it, and even how she normally gets the “skeevies” when she sees someone looking at her weirdly. She didn’t get that last feeling soon enough, which inevitably leads to her murder and time spent in the “in-between” Heaven and Earth.

We see that the Salmons are an idyllic family as they get Susie a camera for her birthday. She is in the throes of her first unrequited love, and even has to suffer through a film club that makes her watch Othello with that guy “who has two first names. Laurence. Oliver.” It’s after this class, and a bold move from the boy that she likes, which leads her into the hands of Mr. Harvey.

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It was recently announced that “hot megastar” Robert Downey Jr. was turning down the role in Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau’s next feature, Cowboys and Aliens. Well, now comes word from Deadline Hollywood that James Bond himself may be stepping up to do battle against the beings from another world.

Daniel Craig is currently in talks to sign on for the lead role of Zeke Jackson in the movie based on the Fred Van Lente graphic novel. The original story is about “feuding frontier settlers and Native Americans in the Old West who team up to fight extraterrestrials.”

The Script comes from Star Trek and Transformers scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, as well as a screenwriting credit to Lost’s Damon Lindelof, and the film has got Dreamworks and Imagine Entertainment powerhouses Steven Spielberg, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard producing. This could very well turn out to be a mega hit like the small-scale District 9, or a bloated and missed opportunity like 1999’s Wild Wild West (or Transformers 2, whichever flop you want to go with).

No word on when the film is set to start shooting, but the studio is looking at a release date in mid 2011. What are your thoughts on Craig taking over for RDJ?

Jay Baruchel has got quite a lot going for him lately. He gets to run along a crazed Nic Cage while he does in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and now he gets to play the not-so-good-looking guy in a romantic comedy called She’s Out of My League.

Leaning towards more “comedy” than “romantic,” the story takes the convention of “Average boy meets hot girl” and throws it on it’s head. Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) plays Kirk, an average Joe who happens across Molly, played by Alice Eve (Big Nothing, Starter for 10). They end up dating, and Kirk has no idea what to do with himself.

The plot doesn’t sound all that inspired (Hello, Knocked Up), but the trailer does it a bit more justice, showing off some of today’s up-and-coming character actors in the comedy world. Nate Torrence (Get Smart’s Bruce And Lloyd Out of Control), T.J. Miller (Cloverfield) and a few others join Baruchel and Eve.

Check out the trailer for She’s Out of My League after the jump, which hits theaters on March 12th.

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DreamWorks Studios, with plans for a Fright Night remake, have signed Mad Men writer-producer Marti Noxon to write the script about a horror-obsessed teen who thinks his neighbor means something altogether different when sipping some red.

Noxon, no stranger to vampires herself since she was a writer-producer for both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it’s spin-off Angel, will keep the comedy/horror vibe the original had when it was released in 1985, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film went on to be a surprise box office hit, trailing only A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge in the horror department that summer.

Producers Michael De Luca, Michael Gaeta and Alison Rosenzweig had signed onto the project back in May of this year, while overseeing the project for DreamWorks will be co-president of production Mark Sourian. No word on a potential release date or casting as of yet, but we’ll keep you posted.

The recent economic downturn has had a ripple effect across the economy and now it’s threatening two of our favorite film prospects: The Hobbit and James Bond. In a conference call to bondholders studio Metro Goldywn Meyer sought funding to shore up the rest of the year and get projects on track. As money dwindles from MGM, management made a desperate plea to creditors:

“…with a request, or forebearance, to waive interest payments on MGM’s $3.5 billion killer debt until February 2010. Because if MGM doesn’t have to make those interest payments, then the studio can afford to use that money instead to fund the production slate.”

Just how bad is MGM at the moment? It needs, “$20M in short-term cash flow to cover overhead, and an additional $150 million to get through the end of year and continue funding its projects, and to start Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit.” Bondholders did not take the news well at all. In fact, reports indicate that they would sooner let the studio go bankrupt as they would be the first creditors to get paid back as assets were liquidated.

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Between voicing the lead in Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and playing a “jedi warrior” in The Men Who Stare At Goats, George Clooney has been back on the rise as of late. Now we get to see him in a bit more dramatic light now that the first trailer for Up in the Air has hit the ‘net.

Directed by Juno’s Jason Reitman, Up in the Air is about the life of a corporate downsizing expert who’s life on the road becomes more interesting when he comes across the woman of his dreams. The film is based on the novel by Walter Kim, who also wrote the novel-turned-film Thumbsucker back in 2005.

Like Thumbsucker, this film brings in a laundry list of cameos, from Zach Galifianakis to J.K. Simmons to Jason Bateman to Danny McBride. The cast list looks to be a regular “who’s who” of independent comedies. Check out the first trailer after the break. Up in the Air hits theaters December 4th.

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Sometimes with all the things going on in the world of movies, tv, comics, games and all things geek (See what I did there?) we sometimes miss out on a few bits of news here and there. Case in point is the recent news that Steven Spielberg is sailing away to 17th century Jamaica for a new adventure. USA Today reports that DreamWorks has bought the rights to Michael Crichton’s posthumous novel, Pirate Latitudes, and has hired screenwriter David Koepp to adapt it.

Spielberg is producing, but plans on directing, though nothing has been scheduled until the script is completed. While it’s unfortunate that Crighton can’t be around to work with long time collaborator Spielberg, according to the article, the timelessness of this deal is pure coincidence, according to DreamWorks’ co-chair and CEO Stacey Snider.

“Anything that Michael wrote, Steven would be keenly interested to read. But without Michael knowing it, or even me knowing it, it turns out Steven always wanted to direct his own pirate film.” Mmm, I guess Hook doesn’t count, right?

Spielberg, of course, is already gung ho for the project. “Michael wrote a real page-turner that already seems suited for the big screen. Michael and I have had almost two decades of solid collaborations. Whenever I made a film from a Michael Crichton book or screenplay, I knew I was in good hands. Michael felt the same, and we like to think he still does.”

Pirate Latitudes the novel hits store shelves on November 24 and Spielberg plans of making it his next film. So, expect to see his big screen version sometime in 2011.

DreamWorks Animation’s Oobermind has enlisted three new superheroes, with Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill  lending their voices to the animated comedy. Variety reports that Ferrell is replacing Robert Downey Jr. in the title role of a supervillain whose dastardly dreams come true after defeating good-guy rival Metro Man (Pitt). Finding life boring without an adversary, Oobermind creates Titan (Hill), a superhero who also wants to be a villain, forcing Oobermind to switch sides.

The three actors join the already signed Tina Fey, who voices the reporter tasked with keeping track of the city’s confusing superhero situation. Oobermind will be directed by Tom McGrath, co-helmer of the popular Madagascar franchise. The project would have marked the first major animation role for Downey, Jr., who exited due to scheduling conflicts.

Oobermind will be released in Fall 2010 and will be distributed in stereoscopic 3-D.