I imagine most writers dream of being the star of their novel or screenplay — unless the lead is  some kind of unrepentant serial killer, and even then I suspect it’s still a sleazy kind of catharsis. But unless your name is Jason Segel, your dreams of headlining the poster and getting the girl will never be fulfilled.

But don’t be too bitter. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Segel didn’t nab that sexy of a lead.  He’ll be starring in the untitled Muppet movie he penned for Disney, so the only girls he might get will be made of felt. Not much is known about the film, which will be directed by James Bobin, except that it centers on a man (Segel) who seeks to reunite the Muppets so that they can save their studio.

We can laugh that he penned himself into the leading role, but he does love the Muppets,  so it’s only natural.   I know I dreamed of being of in a Muppet movie. In my heart of hearts, I probably still do.

Then again, he did write and star in Forgetting Sarah Marshall too. Look what that got him.  A posh Hawaiian shoot. Beautiful actresses.  Cool costars. Fame. Fortune. A Muppet movie.  He’s going to have an enviable habit of this, isn’t he?

Oh well.   Again, let’s not begrudge him.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to finish that script about a entertainment reporter who has to choose between  Hugh Jackman, Gerard Butler, and Viggo Mortensen before nabbing the female lead in a remake of The Outlaw Josey Wales ….

Now that the trailer has hit for the third Twilight installment, Eclipse, Summit has begun the hunt for the lucky soul to sit in the director’s chair for the final dose of Twilight: Breaking Dawn. According to Entertainment Weekly, they’re aiming high and want no less than someone with an Oscar nomination or two under their belt.

Summit has reportedly approached Sofia Coppola, Gus Van Sant, and Bill Condon with offers.   It’s still very hush hush, however, as only Van Sant’s representatives would confirm first contact. Summit declined to comment.   Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg’s script outline is due next week, so it’s unlikely any serious offers can be made until  everyone knows how the iffy bits are going to be handled.

Stephanie Meyer will also have to weigh in, as she has approval over every hire Summit makes.  Any Twilighters know whether she prefers Marie Antoinette to Dreamgirls? What does she think of Good Will Hunting?

Of course, it may end up being none of these fine people. When Chris Weitz dropped out of the series after helming New Moon, the list of possible Eclipse directors was long and interesting:  Drew Barrymore, Juan Antonio Bayona, Paul Weitz, and James Mangold were all name dropped before David Slade climbed on board.

With that in mind, do you think we can convince David Cronenberg consider the gig?  If so, Breaking Dawn would officially be the first Twilight film I’d be camped out to see.

As I was watching the new Eclipse trailer, out of sheer boredom and a hint of curiosity, I found myself wondering why in the world two super-powered boys would fight it out over a girl clad in American Apparel who’s a hell of a downer.

How is there an entire film series devoted to one girl’s delusional obsessions of a fairy tale ending with a born-again killer? Sparkely vampires want to kill you, strapping werewolf shape-shifters want to keep you safe.

Do these Edward fans have a death wish and a yearning for abandonment? Is Bella Swan so heavily marketed as mesmerizing that it erases the history of the brazen blonde that came before her?

A long time ago, otherwise known as the 90’s, there was a series called Buffy the Vampire Slayer where a feisty girl from the southland slayed Urban Outfitted demons. This legendary show paved the way for multi-tasking girls who cheer by day, slay by night, and every once in a while hook-up with a tormented blood sucker.

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It’s a grab bag of items on the radar this week. Wolverine and Sabretooth have dinner together, Bruno himself could be the next Man in Black, and in honor of The Flickcast crew attending SXSW some Predators love (of which they may get a taste).

Predators get dark and scary…finally!

Robert Rodriquez’s Predator reboot, Predators, is starting to get some buzz.  While the first film of the series was a great sci-fi/action hybrid subsequent films have been less than stellar.  Predators star, Alice Braga talked a little about the new film and what we can expect:

“The new Predators are dark. They are really, really scary. So I think the fans are really going to be happy with it. I hope so. The director Nimród Antal, he’s a fan of the Predator films. So it’s like a fan directing this, [it was] like a kid on set, and having that energy was very special. I wish I could tell you more.”

Here’s hoping “dark” and “scary” means an R-rated film and not a watered down PG-13 movie.

Conan will square off against Avatar villain

As an update to our last ‘On The Radar’ article, it has now been confirmed that actor Stephen Lang will indeed play Conan’s villain, Khalar Singh.  Speaking with MTV, Lang stated:

“I have no idea how I’m going to do it,” Lang laughed. “First I’m going to find out how I’m going to sound. I’m going to get back on a Mongolian pony and ride like the wind. I’m going to flash my scimitar. I’m going to cut the nuts off Conan and his father.”

That last threat may seem really out there, but after seeing Lang’s bad ass side in Avatar I have no doubt he can make good on it.

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There’s a lot of interesting stuff on the radar this week. An Avatar alumni could face off against Conan, Modern Warfare developers bring a fight to Activision, and director Guy Ritchie may be breathing new life into the heroes of Camelot.

Fox finds its shadow for $1 million and David Slade may be the man

Fans of the comic book series The Shadow rejoice as it seems the reboot continues to move forward.  While it was thought Sony and director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Army of Darkness) would bring a new version of the character to the big screen things have changed somewhat.

After Raimi began shopping the property around Fox decided to purchase the rights. Sadly, it sounds like Raimi may no longer direct, possibly replaced by David Slade.  Slade directed the vampire film Thirty Days of Night which, unfortunately, felt just that long in the theater. Here’s hoping he can put a little more adrenaline into The Shadow.

How I Met your…Smurf?

Neil Patrick Harris will be venturing to the land of blue, three apples tall creatures in Smurfs: The Movie.  The How I Met Your Mother star won’t be playing a Smurf though.  As this film will be a mix of live action and animation, Harris will be playing the lead live action character.  Too bad, I would have liked to know just which Smurf he’d play.  ”Awesome” Smurf maybe?  Let us know your picks in the comments.

‘Wolverine 2′ starts shooting next January

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was pretty good, but it was missing one thing: ninjas!  Hopefully that will be rectified in the sequel which is set to begin shooting next January.  Delving into Wolvie’s Japanese mythos the script follows stories penned by two pretty big names:

“Based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress, I am told. ‘It’s a beautiful story,’ says a source, ‘and will be very different than the first film.’”

Okay, I’m not really sold on the “love story” angle but considering the number of women that went to see Wolverine (pretty much for mutant hunk, Hugh Jackman) at least this will be one you can take your girlfriends to.

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When writer David Goyer left his post as showrunner for TV’s Flashforward there were rumblings about what he was up to. At the time the most obvious answer  was that he was helping director Christopher Nolan with the third Batman script. At the same time, DC had confirmed Nolan would be helping to get the Superman franchise back on track.

Well, today all the pieces are falling into place as we learn Goyer has been hired to write the next Superman movie.  A source confirmed the news to Latino Review and gave a little indication of what we can expect:

“I can tell you that Goyer’s story involves Luthor and Brainiac.  It is NOT an origin and assumes audiences already know about Lois, Clark, Jimmy and Perry.  I know the Daily Planet is struggling due to the internet.  And I know it sets up a huge Kryptonian mythology.”

Some other points of interest are that Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh will probably not return. Also, the film may be called The Man of Steel instead of Superman: The Man of Steel.  Contrary to prior rumors Mark Millar will not be involved  from the sounds of it.

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While attending the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to promote The Vampire Diaries, writer Kevin Williamson gave us some updates and the current status of Scream 4:

“I’m almost done with the first draft of Scream 4. I’m trying to get that together for Wes Craven. We’ve got to get going on that, during the hiatus. We have Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and Dave Arquette. I was always holding out hope because the pitch was about those three characters. I didn’t want to have to re-route the whole story. We don’t have to do that. I can do it exactly the way I want wanted. The story is going to be told the way I originally conceived it.”

The immediate good news for fans of Scream are that all the principals are back, hopefully this will mean Wes Craven will return to direct. Films like this do best when you can bring back that core creative element. Of course, few of the other characters survived the first three films to return anyway.

Some may wonder if jumping back into the world of Scream is a good or bad idea. The horror genre has changed considerably since the first Scream movie came out in 1996. Scream 3 alone is ten years old. The big money makers these days are franchise films like Saw and unexpected indie hits like Paranormal Activity. The closest films to what Scream was would be the recent Halloween reboots, and even that’s a stretch.

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Ghostbusters is one of those films that’s simply timeless. Sure, the special effects are a little iffy these days but the story and comedic beats are still perfect. On the other hand  Ghostbusters 2 didn’t quite hit the mark for most people. That being the case, it’s hard to decide which way a third film may fall.  Would it live up to the original or become a parody of itself like the sequel?

It’s hard to imagine anything being as good as the original. However, I think some sort of transition film, in which a younger Ghostbuster team takes the place of the originals, could work. Original Ghostbuster Harold Ramis thinks so too:

“Something’s going to happen. Dan [Aykroyd] did write a spec GB3 screenplay a few years ago, but no one was motivated to pursue it. Now, 25 years after the original, there seems to be some willingness to proceed and apparently a substantial public appetite for a sequel. We’ll introduce some new young Ghostbusters, and all the old guys will be in it, too. Think Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future … GB3 is progressing with plans to shoot next summer and release in 2011. . . “

So there you have it, right from Egon’s mouth.  Ghostbusters 3 is on track to production and will probably set up a new franchise. The original spec script by Dan Aykroyd Ramis referred to was Ghostbusters Go To Hell which probably wouldn’t work to well. As such, co-executive producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky from The Office TV series have been tasked with writing a new script.

Hmm, Ghostbusters meets Dunder-Mifflin?  Sounds crazy, but it may just work.

While James Bond gets a lot of attention on the big screen there’s another pseudo-spy that’s just as good in my opinion.  I’m talking about Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Clancy’s novels have been the basis for four films to date with various actors taking on the Ryan role.

Way back in 1990 The Hunt for Red October started it all with Alec Baldwin as the first Jack Ryan. When Baldwin left, Harrison Ford took over for two films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The series faltered somewhat thereafter until Ben Affleck arrived in The Sum of all Fears.

As diverse as the actors have been the series overall has held together pretty well in my opinion. While Ford was probably the closest to what Ryan was like in the novels bringing Affleck in was necessary to reboot the franchise with a younger star. Sadly, that never seemed to work out.

Fortunately, producer Mace Neufeld, who has been with the series since the very beginning, is still planning a fresh start.  Chris Pine (Star Trek) will take Affleck’s place as Jack Ryan and word is the fifth film may not be based on a Clancy novel as the other films have been:

“We ran out of books,” says Nuefeld. “Red Rabbit was the last one, and we just couldn’t seem to get a script out of it.” Red Rabbit is one of only two novels, alongside The Cardinal of the Kremlin, in which Ryan is young enough for Pine’s portrayal to be book-faithful.”

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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.