Batman, Lovecraft, and sequels, oh my!

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Movies

Batman, Lovecraft, and sequels, oh my!

Batman's 'Dark Knight Rises' is still awaiting a Bat foe. Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's, 'At the Mountain of Madness' is in slow gear. But many sequels are in the works, including Benji, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon.

Warner Bros. Pictures/ Stephen Vaughan/AP

Producers of The Dark Knight Rises are still looking for a foe to match Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker.

By Rich Clabaugh Staff

Dec. 04, 2010, 3:55 p.m. ET

We received some news this week about upcoming blockbusters, but mostly we are still awaiting casting and plot developments.

Case in point, the upcoming Batman movie 鈥�The Dark Knight Rises.鈥� We still don鈥檛 know much but this week a couple of big rumors were debunked.

Heath Ledger鈥檚 Joker (the rumor was to use unused footage from the last film) and Aaron Eckhart鈥檚 Two Face are ." So there鈥檚 still lots of speculation about the next Bat foe. Will it be the Riddler? Catwoman? Clayface? Hugo Strange? Stay tuned. The movie comes out July 20, 2012.

Guillermo del Toro's 3D adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft鈥檚 鈥�At the Mountains of Madness鈥� is still on with del Toro " - but no news of any casting as yet, other than a part for del Toro favorite, Ron 鈥楬ellboy鈥� Perlman. At least with James Cameron producing we know it will reach theaters eventually. Rumor is that filming, should start in June 2011.

Spider-Man 2012 cast

The new 鈥�Spider-Man鈥� movie cast is growing with Campbell Scott signed to play Peter Parker鈥檚 dad. He joins Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy), Rhys Ifans (Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard), Martin Sheen (Uncle Ben), and Denis Leary (Police Captain George Stacy). This reboot is due in theaters July 3, 2012.

Of movie announcements we did get this week, I just have to ask "Why?"

The old dog movie 鈥楤别苍箩颈鈥� is going to get a reboot. There is going to be an 鈥�American Pie 4鈥�. Sony pictures is going to do a 鈥楩谤补苍办别苍蝉迟别颈苍鈥� movie with a 鈥榗ontemporary鈥� take on the story. Fox is the current studio to take on the Farley brothers鈥� 鈥�Three Stooges鈥� movie with filming to begin in March.

Sequels, sequels, and more sequels

Dreamworks animation announced they are moving forward with two more Madagascars, two more How To Train Your Dragons, and five (yes, 5) more Kung Fu Pandas! And with the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie 鈥�On Stranger Tides鈥� not even out yet, Disney is already planning the next two! That might be hard with Johnny Depp booked to do both Dark Shadows (as vampire Barnabas Collins) and the Lone Ranger (as Tonto) next year.