MGM’s money woes (the studio is up for sale) continues to delay production on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. As a result, director/writer Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) has now officially departed from the project.

del Toro tells theonering.net:

In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit, I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien’s Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.

I remain grateful to Peter, Fran and Philippa Boyens, New Line and Warner Brothers and to all my crew in New Zealand. I’ve been privileged to work in one of the greatest countries on earth with some of the best people ever in our craft and my life will be forever changed.

The blessings have been plenty, but the mounting pressures of conflicting schedules have overwhelmed the time slot originally allocated for the project. Both as a co-writer and as a director, I wish the production nothing but the very best of luck and I will be first in line to see the finished product. I remain an ally to it and its makers, present and future, and fully support a smooth transition to a new director.

The Hobbit, which will be released as two separate films, was scheduled to begin production in the summer with part one tentatively slated for a December 2012 release.

If you’ve been holding your breath till your blue in the face in hopes that producer/director/asshole James Cameron would shoot a sequel to his blockbuster hit Avatar, go ahead and breathe. Cameron has announced plans to turn the film into a trilogy, beginning with a sequel set in Pandora’s ocean.

He tells the LA Times:

We created a broad canvas for the environment of film. That’s not just on Pandora, but throughout the Alpha Centauri AB system. And we expand out across that system and incorporate more into the story – not necessarily in the second film, but more toward a third film.

I’ve already announced this, so I might as well say it: Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora. And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.

Cameron also discussed plans for a theatrical re-release of Avatar in August, citing a loss of potential income due to limited  IMAX theater availability during the film’s initial run as motivation.

He explains:

We’re working on finishing an additional six minutes of the film — which includes a lot of Weta work — for a theatrical re-release in August. We were sold out of our Imax performances right up to the moment until they were contractually obligated to switch to “Alice in Wonderland,” so we know we left money on the table there.

And the 3-D really helped “Avatar” right up until the moment that it hurt it. And it hurt it at the moment “Alice” and then “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Clash of the Titans” came in and sucked up all the 3-D screens. We went from declining 8% a week to declining 50%.

Clearly, it wasn’t market forces directly; it was the availability of theaters. So we’re going to wait until there’s a time to come back in, inject the new footage into the mix and see if we can interest people in the “Avatar” experience in theaters.

Avatar is the highest earning film of all time and sparked the 3-D craze that has given theater owners the gall to raise prices on 3-D showings. Personally, I recommend picking up the Avatar bootleg.

Disney has cast 23-year-old French actress Astrid Berges-Frisbey as the mermaid Syrena for their upcoming sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Frisbey joins Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane as the franchise’s new faces.

Stranger Tides marks Frisbey’s first American production. The actress made her feature film debut in the French pic Un Barrage Contre Le Pacifique (The Sea Wall).

In a casting-sheet leaked last month, it was discovered that Disney would only hire actresses with natural breasts for roles in the film (a jiggle test would be required during auditions). Looks like Frisbey easily fit that bill:

It's always creepier when the casting agent is wearing mouse ears.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides finds Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) mixing things up with the notorious pirate Blackbeard (McShane) while on a quest to find the Fountain of Youth. The film is directed by Rob Marshall, the man behind such lavish productions as Memoirs of a Geisha, Nine, and the Oscar-winning musical Chicago.

Shooting begins in June.

Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova serves as a reference model for director Louis Leterrier’s CGI-produced Medusa in Warner Bros.’ upcoming remake of the 1981 fantasy-adventure classic Clash of the Titans.

While the idea of using a hot babe in such a manner may seem odd, it should be noted that fifth century artists often portrayed the gorgon as both beautiful and frightening.

What you see here are scans from Empire magazine’s Clash of the Titans photo spread featuring Medusa’s transformation to snake woman. Admit it, you’d totally hit that.

Clash of the Titans stars Sam Worthington (Avatar) as Perseus, Liam Neeson (After.Life) as Zeus, and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter) as Hades, lord of the underworld. The film arrives in theaters on April 2.

To see a trailer, click here.

Looks like Captain Jack Sparrow may be Jacob’s newest candidate.

Sparrow’s vessel The Black Pearl has been docked on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, the same location where ABC has filmed its Emmy award-winning series “LOST” for the past six years. The fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is set to begin shooting in the summer. Already on board for the movie are Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz.

Hmm. Well, if Sparrow loses his ship again, maybe he can find The Black Rock and get it back into shape. Both the Pirate movies and “LOST” are owned by Disney. So, here’s hoping for a cameo.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides arrives in theaters on May 20, 2011.

Mr. Plinkett over at Red Letter Media has shot an 18-minute video review of James Cameron’s record-breaking blockbuster Avatar. Now, if you’re like me, watching something for 18-minutes on the web, usually ends with a sticky keyboard, an overdrawn credit card, and a tremendous amount of shame (I’m sorry, Nana, I know you’re watching me from heaven).

Thankfully, there aren’t any young, petite Asian schoolgirls bathing with giant squids to be found in Plinkett’s review. What you will find is a brutally insightful, spot-on criticism of Avatar that will save you a few bucks and three hours of your time.

If you must see Avatar, do the right thing. Pass on the whole theater/Imax crap and, instead, help out your local bootlegger.

Avatar has now surpassed Titanic in domestic gross, earning $601.2 million in 47 days. Titanic docked at $600.8 million during its theatrical run over a decade ago. James Cameron has remained an asshole.

Though his next epic will most likely be categorized as a historically based action-drama, actor/director Mel Gibson scares enough people for me to cover his upcoming Viking project. And, besides, I’m like beyond 100% certain it’s going to be insanely awesome, especially in the hands of the guy who has given us Braveheart, The Passion, and Apocalypto.

The film is being written by William Monahan (The Departed) and will star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Gibson spoke about the film during a recent press tour for Martin Campbell’s revenge-thriller Edge of Darkness:

I want a Viking to scare you.  I don’t want a Viking to say, “I’m going to die with a sword in my hand.”  I don’t want to hear that.  It pulls the rug out from under you.  I want to see somebody who I have never seen before speaking low guttural German who scares the living shit out of me coming up to my house.  What is that like?  What would that have been like?

I think it’s going to be English—the English that would have been spoken back then—and Old Norse. Whatever the 9th century had to offer. I’m going to give you real.

Director Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park 3) has announced that there will be a fourth Jurassic Park movie and that it will most likely kickoff a new trilogy.

He tells Boxoffice:

There is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen. It breaks away from the first three—it’s essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It’s going to be done in a completely different way. That’s pretty much all I can tell you.

If they keep working—and if audiences keep going to them—there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don’t want to make sequel after sequel just because there’s a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories. You don’t want to just sell hamburger.

Johnston first hinted at the possibility of a fourth installment in Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur-adventure series last November when he expressed interest in directing the film. Universal Pictures has yet to officially confirm the project.

In the meantime, you can catch Johnston’s reboot of The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro and Emily Blunt, on Feb. 12.

James Cameron may have a billion dollar movie in his hands with Avatar, but he could have been king of the fetishists if he had kept a tentacle-heavy sex scene between Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Jake (Sam Worthington) in the theatrical cut of his sci-fi fantasy adventure. I don’t know if the scene was ever shot (perhaps for a director’s cut on Blu-ray), but you can use your imagination while reading the following excerpt from Cameron’s script, posted online by 20th Century Fox.

EXT. WILLOW GLADE

He puts his face close to hers. She rubs her cheek against his. He kisses her on the mouth. They explore each other.

Then she pulls back, eyes sparkling.

NEYTIRI
Kissing is very good. But we have something better.

She pulls him down until they are kneeling, facing each other on the faintly glowing moss.

Neytiri takes the end of her queue and raises it. Jake does the same, with trembling anticipation. The tendrils at the ends move with a life of their own, straining to be joined.

MACRO SHOT — The tendrils INTERTWINE with gentle undulations.

JAKE rocks with the direct contact between his nervous system and hers. The ultimate intimacy.

They come together into a kiss and sink down on the bed of moss, and ripples of light spread out around them.

THE WILLOWS sway, without wind, and the night is alive with pulsing energy as we DISSOLVE TO —

LATER. She is collapsed across his chest. Spent. He strokes her face tenderly.

JAKE
Neytiri, you know my real body is far away, sleeping.

She raises up, placing her fingertips to his chest —

NEYTIRI
This body is real.
(she touches his forehead)
This spirit is real.

Her eyes are luminous, honest, infinitely deep.

NEYTIRI
When I was first your teacher, I hated all Sky People. But you have also taught me.
(whispering)
Spirit is all that matters.

She lays her head down, against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

NEYTIRI
I am with you now, Jake. We are mated for life.

JAKE
We are?

NEYTIRI
Yes. It is our way.
(innocently)
Oh. I forgot to tell?

He rouses up, making her look at him.

JAKE
Really, we are?

NEYTIRI
We are.

JAKE
It’s cool. I’m there.

He lays his head down, and her arms enfold him, sheltering him as he sleeps.

James Cameron may not give a piss about the people that pay their hard earned money to watch his epic cinematic jerkoffs, but those bootlegging his films for a quick buck certainly do. Bootleggers everywhere have stepped up their game to give customers the best Avatar movie watching experience possible … without paying full price.

Take a look: