Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis have been offered the lead roles in the Lana and Andy Wachowki directed Jupiter Ascending. The Warner Bros project’s plot has been kept under tight wraps.

This is the first major science fiction film franchise that the Wachowkis have been involved in since The Matrix. Just like The Matrix trilogy, Jupiter Ascending is an original creation by the duo.

Channing Tatum is becoming a formidable leading man, particularly with his back-to-back box office successes The Vow and 21 Jump Street. Mila Kunis is also a strong draw as she is coming off of Black Swan and Friends With Benefits. She is also set to star in two much anticipated films in the Seth MacFarlane directed comedy Ted and  the Sam Raimi directed Oz: The Great And Powerful.

The Wachowskis have just finished production of the film Cloud Atlas. The Wachowskis hadn’t directed a film since the craptastic 2008 film Speed Racer. The duo were trying to find financiers for a different film script last spring. It was for a hard-R drama they wanted to direct about a gay relationship between a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi. Unfortunately for them, they had no luck finding the funding. There is speculation that the Wachowskis are doing this project for the purpose of funding this other project.

The Wachowskis are using the billions of dollars that the Matrix trilogy pulled in to get Warner Bros excited about this new project . The film is on track to start production later this year.

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Just because they seem to be running out of ideas that aren’t hand-delivered to them by either Marvel or Pixar, Disney is now working on a feature length film based on their Matterhorn ride. Let’s hope this one doesn’t spawn as many sequels as Pirates.

• Both No Strings Attached starring Ashton Kutcher and Friends With Benefits starring Mila Kunis are eerily similar. How similar? Here’s a mashup trailer to prove it.

• Diablo Cody is stepping away from her hamburger-shaped typewriter and behind her hamburger-shaped camera as she takes on directing Lamb of God.

• In honor of his newest masterpiece hitting theaters, here is the premise to every Michael Bay film in under 60 seconds.

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You have got to hand it to the India film industry. They mostly turn out movies we will never understand which feature lots of dancing. However, occasionally they come up with a gem that’s just so blatantly absurd it turns out to be awesome.

I’m talking about, of course, the amazing film Endhiran (aka Robot) which has the distinction of being the most expensive movie ever made in India. Check out the compilation video we’ve got after the jump and see this movie that’s an amazing combination of I, Robot, The Matrix, The Terminator and pretty much most other popular sci-fi movies you can think of.

And yes, there’s also dancing. Come on, did you really think there wouldn’t be? Check out the video after the jump.

As an added bonus, we’ve also got another trailer for you to enjoy of a film we fondly remember as the first time the Indian film industry decided to make an homage to American films. Yes, it’s the trailer for the Indian Reservoir Dogs/Usual Suspects called Kaante. Enjoy and you’re welcome.

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With Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX coming up in mere weeks, we’re going to be getting more and more info about the fest and the great programming offered during it. We’ve already been bringing you some info and now we’ve got a really cool bit of news to share with you today.

Acclaimed action master and director Yuen Woo-Ping will be honored by the fest with a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition for his vast achievements in cinematic action and direction.With credits ranging from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Drunken Master, Fist of Legend, Iron Monkey to Kill Bill Vol. 1 and II and The Matrix, Woo-Ping has proven time and again that he is, indeed, a master.

This is a well-deserved award indeed. For the full scoop on the award and all that’s associated with it, check out the full press release from the fine folks at Fantastic Fest.

FANTASTIC FEST HONORS DIRECTOR YUEN WOO-PING WITH
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Lifetime Achievement Award Will Be Presented at the
Gala Screening of “True Legend”

Austin, TX—Tuesday, August 31, 2010— The 6th annual Fantastic Fest will honor director and master fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the world premiere of his new martial arts fantasy True Legend, starring Vincent Zhao (Fong Sai Yuk, Dragon Gets Angry) Zhou Xun (The Emperor and the Assassin, Suzhou River) with Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and the late David Carradine (Kill Bill), on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX. The film will play as part of a double feature with Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Yuen Woo-Ping’s directorial debut and the film that put action legend Jackie Chan on the map. Fantastic Fest will play host to Yuen Woo-Ping’s first U.S. festival appearance.

If you’ve ever walked out of a movie theatre after watching a martial arts film and left your jaw on the floor, your eyes were probably dazzled by the fight choreography of filmmaker, Yuen Woo-Ping. Gods of kung fu — Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, Jet Li, Donny Yen and Michelle Yeoh — have all had their impressive abilities molded into a cinematic language of fist-pounding aerial artistry at the hands of Yuen Woo-Ping. His work headlines the top fight sequence lists of all time from films like The Matrix trilogy, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Iron Monkey, Drunken Master, Once Upon a Time in China, Fist of Legend and Kung Fu Hustle.

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It’s no secret that we’re all pretty big fans of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World around the Flickcast offices. We proved that with our review of the film, handful of clips we presented, and disappointment we showed in it’s performance at the box office. Now we’re taking solace in other fans like us taking to the internets with creativity and ingenuity.

The running theme with fan films as of late has been a so-called trailer “mash-up” where the audio from one trailer overlays the visuals from another, making it into a cool new concoction of geek and hilarity. This, of course, shouldn’t be confused with the brand of “trailer mash-ups” that swept the web a few years ago which brought us some gems like Scary Poppins or the immortal Shining trailer. These new mash-ups are a bit less imaginative, and slightly more lazy, until now.

Enter YouTube user AEmovieguy, who has taken that style of mash-up to a new level by matching up the visuals to the audio and getting the actors to actually look like they’re speaking the lines. It doesn’t sound as impressive as it looks, but we assure you, it’s pretty amazing.

Check out what he did with a few minutes of footage from all three Matrix films and the audio from the Scott Pilgrim trailer after the jump. You won’t be disappointed.

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Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• The Fantastic Four reboot is still happening, and now with a completely CG Thing.

• We can’t wait for Stone’s Social Network, but these parody posters are pretty damned entertaining as well.

• Because we love lists, Adult Swim brings us a list of the Most Invasive Surgeries on the network. Mind you, this is before Children’s Hospital aired.

• Leonardo DiCaprio has passed on Mel Gibson’s viking picture. We can only imagine what that phone call sounded like.

• Want do get women like Don Draper? The Mad Men School of Seduction can help.

• The second half of Caprica‘s first season gets a trailer, and it looks pretty cool.

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When the statement “think Willy Wonka, The Matrix, and Avatar rolled into one” is used, and not referring to a drug-induced coma, you can understand why a studio like Warner Bros. would greenlight the project. Not only did the studio become interested after that description, but it won in a bidding war for the project against other studios such as Paramount.

The film is based on a book that hasn’t even been released yet about a teenage boy who escapes his bleak reality into a virtual one, uncovering an epic adventure along the way. Ernie Cline (Fanboys) is penning the script with Green Lantern producer Donald De Line stepping in to produce.

The description actually feels more like Reboot meets It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, but we can understand why they went with the appeal of Avatar. Check out the logline, courtesy of Heat Vision, and judge for yourself.

In the near future, outcast teenager Wade Watts escapes from his bleak surroundings by logging in to the Oasis, a globally networked virtual utopia where users can lead idyllic alternate lives. When the eccentric billionaire who created the Oasis dies, he offers up his vast fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt.

Along with gamers from around the world Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first. Think Willy Wonka, The Matrix, and Avatar all rolled into one.

No word on when we can see more from this project, but with Warners ramping up their Comic-Con presentation for next month, you can be sure we’ll see at least a little bit from Ready Player One at the show.

Though it was rumored months ago, Marvel Studios has officially announced that actor Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in The Matrix, among others) has been cast as the main antagonist, the Red Skull, in Joe Johnston’s upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger.

The news doesn’t come as much of a shock, even without the rumors. Weaving has made himself known as one of the top character actors to play a marketable villain since his work in The Matrix, and has even reprrised his badassery in Michael Bay’s Transformers films as Megatron. Also, director Johnston just finished and released The Wolfman for Universal, which cast Weaving as one of the main characters.

In the film, the character is said to be an updated version of the villain we know from the comics. In this incarnation, Johann Schmidt is drafted into the Third Reich and given the codename “The Red Skull.” In the comics, Schmidt is given the name due to an accident that caused his head to be…a red skull. Whether or not they will actually put Weaving in tons of makeup has yet to be announced.

The film also stars Sebastian Stan (Hot Tub Time Machine) as Bucky Barnes, Hayley Atwell (The Prisoner) as Peggy Carter, and Chris Evans as the titular Captain America. Captain America: The First Avenger is currently set to hit theaters on July 22, 2011.

Sometimes a video needs an explanation so you can better understand its significance or its substance. Other times, a video needs no introduction and can stand on its own. This video is one of those second ones. But I’m still gonna give it one anyway.

Containing what could arguably be called some of the cheesiest movie lines of all time, the video captures what’s best and worst about the movies we love and helps us remember, at least in some small way, why we love them.

Movies, like life, are often imperfect. But that doesn’t stop them from being a hell of a lot of fun most of the time.

Click through to enjoy this video from YouTube user hh edits, which was first featured at Pajiba. I know I did.

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