Movies

By Jeff Sneider LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Sam Taylor-Johnson has signed on to direct "Fifty Shades of Grey" for Universal Pictures and Focus Features, TheWrap has learned. Taylor-Johnson is the wife of "Kick-Ass" star Aaron Taylor-Johnson who starred as a young John Lennon in her directorial debut "Nowhere Boy." Sam Taylor-Johnson's hiring immediately prompts speculation that her husband will be considered for the role of Christian Grey. Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti are producing with "50 Shades" author E.L. James. Deadline broke the news.

By Tony Maglio LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Iron Man 3" broke the $400 million mark at the domestic box office on Tuesday, according to Disney. The amount was not unexpected but is still impressive, with "Man of Steel" taking most of the superhero movie buzz away over the weekend. The number means that third installment of the "Iron Man" franchise has earned $1.2 billion worldwide, making it the fifth highest-grossing film ever. In doing so, it eclipsed another Disney film, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," now ranked sixth worldwide. To break down the math for you: That's $803. ...

By Jeff Sneider and Greg Gilman LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Although Shailene Woodley shot scenes as Mary Jane Watson for "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," she will not be joining Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone after all, TheWrap has learned. Director Marc Webb has decided to streamline the story and introduce Mary Jane in "The Amazing Spider-Man 3." However, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap that Woodley will likely be busy with the sequels to her upcoming sci-fi movie "Divergent" and may not be available, so the role may have to be recast. ...

By Greg Gilman LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Alcon Entertainment is developing a sequel to the 2011 family film, "Dolphin Tale," co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson announced on Tuesday. The entire original cast, including Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman and Kris Kristofferson, is in negotiations to reunite with director Charles Martin Smith for the sequel. It has not yet officially greenlit, but Warner Bros. has set aside a September 19 release date in 2014. ...

By Steve Pond LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Filmmaking could not exist in Europe without the support of governments, veteran director Costa-Gavras told an audience at the Los Angeles Film Festival on Monday night. At the same time, the Greek director of such politically-charged films as "Missing" and the Oscar-winning "Z," said that he supports French exclusionary laws that limit the amount of American television that can be shown on the air. ...

By Jeff Sneider LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Universal Pictures and Red Granite have rescued the Farrelly brothers' sequel "Dumb and Dumber To" out of turnaround from Warner Bros. and New Line. Red Granite will finance the $35 million comedy and handle foreign sales, while Universal will distribute in the U.S.. "Dumb and Dumber" stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels will return to reprise their roles as dim-witted best friends Lloyd and Harry, respectively. ...

By Jeff Sneider LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Cooper. Susan Cooper," may be a line of dialogue heading to a theater near you. With "The Heat" hitting the big screen on June 28, director Paul Feig is ramping up development on a female spy movie titled "Susan Cooper" that he hopes will become a franchise for 20th Century Fox, TheWrap has learned. "Bridesmaids" director Feig is currently searching for a leading lady to star in "Susan Cooper," which will be a realistic comedy about a female James Bond, rather than a parody along the lines of "Get Smart" or "Johnny English. ...

Stephen Amell has revealed what turned him off to playing sexy billionaire Christian Grey in the upcoming film version of "Fifty Shades of Grey" - and it has nothing to do with the story's rampant sex scenes or nudity.

By Greg Gilman LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Production on Richard LaGravenese's musical adaptation of "The Last 5 Years," starring Anna Kendrick and "Smash" star Jeremy Jordan, begins this week in New York, Lucky Monkey Pictures and Sh-K-Boom Records said Wednesday. LaGravenese("Beautiful Creatures") wrote and is directing the adaptation of Jason Robert Brown's musical of the same name, which is a deconstruction of the love affair and marriage of Cathy Hiatt (Kendrick), a struggling actress, and Jamie Wellerstein (Jordan), a rising novelist. ...

By Katharina Urban-Oberberg LONDON (Reuters) - He may now be a doting dad marketing a range of jams and jellies, but Steve Carell's Gru character in the sequel to the animated supervillain children's comedy "Despicable Me" still longs for a little bit of the old criminal fun. Gru's redemption, in the form of his love for adopted daughters Margo, Agnes and Edith, hasn't spoiled his taste for gadgetry and plotting in "Despicable Me 2", due out next month, U.S. comedy actor Carell told Reuters Television on Wednesday. ...

A director has been chosen to helm "Fifty Shades of Grey."

By Tony Maglio LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Multi-hyphenate James Franco has more jobs (and hobbies) then one can count, but it's his latest piece of work that's buzzing around the web. Franco wrote a critical take about "Man of Steel" for Vice, but much of the attention on the piece is actually based on what he said about Spider-Man, not Superman. Franco, who attended the "Man of Steel" premiere incognito because he believes Henry Cavill does not like him based on their history filming "Tristan and Isolde," says he really enjoyed "Man of Steel. ...

By Jeff Sneider LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The sun won't come out tomorrow after all for Sandra Bullock. The actress won't be joining the cast of Sony's "Annie" reboot after a second attempt to get her in the cast fell through, according to an individual familiar with the dealmaking process. Bullock was in line to play Miss Hannigan, who runs the orphanage where Annie (Quvenzhane Wallis) and her friends live. She had initially passed on the role before coming back to the negotiating table, though her representatives at CAA were unable to strike a deal with Sony. ...

By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - British actor Daniel Radcliffe won plaudits this week for a new stage role as a bullied Irish cripple that takes him a critical step further away from his days as boy wizard Harry Potter. In his third foray onto the stage in six years, Radcliffe adopts an Irish accent to play Billy, the bullied 17-year-old title character in "The Cripple of Inishmaan", a politically incorrect black comedy by Martin McDonagh. ...

By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - British actress Gemma Arterton does not need to worry about typecasting with roles ranging from a fairy tale character and literary heroines to MI6 agent Strawberry Fields in the 2008 James Bond film "Quantum of Solace." In "Unfinished Song," a comedy-drama that opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, Arterton, 27, stars as Elizabeth, a music teacher in a boys' school. She also directs a choir for seniors, which includes Marion, played by Vanessa Redgrave, and forges a special friendship with her cantankerous retired husband, played by Terence Stamp. ...

By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Juan Antonio Bayona, director of "The Orphanage" and "The Impossible," has been tapped to direct the first two episodes of "Penny Dreadful," the Sam Mendes-produced drama series coming to Showtime. The eight-episode series, which re-teams Mendes with "Skyfall" writer John Logan - who created, wrote and is executive producing the series - is billed as "a psychosexual horror series" featuring some of literature's most iconic figures. Production on the series, which Mendes is also executive producing (as is Pippa Harris) begins in London this fall. ...

By Brent Lang LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Arthur Newman" made headlines when it debuted last spring, but it wasn't for the film's onscreen coupling of Oscar-winner Colin Firth and rising star Emily Blunt. The media attention instead centered on an innovative marketing campaign driven by an odd couple pairing of a Hollywood studio and BitTorrent. The film flopped, racking up roughly $200,000 in limited box-office release, but BitTorrent is claiming that its efforts in raising awareness of "Arthur Newman" were a rousing success. ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — 'Terminator 2' star Edward Furlong has been charged with assault after a May 21 incident in which his girlfriend called police and reported he attacked her.

By Lucas Shaw NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Sony will produce and release two more sequels to "The Amazing Spider-Man," the studio announced on Monday. The studio is already production on "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," which will open in theaters May 2 of next year. The third "Spider-Man" film will open June 10, 2016 while the fourth will open May 4, 2018. The first film in the reboot of the comic book franchise grossed more than $750 million worldwide last year and propelled Sony to more than $4 billion overall at the box office in 2012. ...

By Todd Cunningham LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - 28 Entertainment has begun work on a movie about iconic country music singer George Jones and his wife Nancy, the company announced Tuesday. It has acquired the rights to the project, written by Dennis L. Baxter and produced by Baxter and 28 Entertainment's Jay Hoffman and Brian A. Hoffman, which depicts George's life as a country music legend while battling his personal demons. Nancy Jones will executive produce and consult on the project. ...