While I’m as excited for Rob Marshall’s Nine as any other film on the horizon (and I’ll give you one reason for that: Daniel Day-Lewis), the new trailer that has popped up online won’t sell anyone on the film unless they’re already aware of what it is.

Nine is director Rob Marshall’s (Chicago) attempt at delivering a musical inspired by Fellini’s film 8 1/2. /Film’s press coverage for the film gives a pretty succinct explanation of what we have in store:

“The musical tells the story of world famous film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he prepares his latest picture and balances the numerous women in his life including his wife (Marion Cotillard), a producer, a mistress (Penelope Cruz), a film star muse (Nicole Kidman), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Fergie), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), and his deceased mother (Sophia Loren).”

I’m wondering if Judi Dench will get her own sexy solo, and if Fergie is pleased with that brief assessment of her role.

With that plot description in mind, check out the trailer below. It’s certainly a good looking film, and will be released on Christmas Day.

You might remember hearing up-and-coming (actually unproven) director Carl Erik Rinsch’s name being tossed about in discussions of Ridley Scott’s planned Alien prequel or reboot. However, Scott took Rinsch off the project to see over it himself, leading the man to head in another direction: that of 47 Ronin.

In a logline that reads like someone didn’t quite understand why The Last Samurai didn’t work, 47 Ronin will be an “epic period samurai swordsmen tale that will star Keanu Reeves” which will tell “the famous fact-based story of a band of samurai swordsmen who avenge the death of their master in 18th century Japan.”

You heard me right. Keanu Reeves. Samurai. I know the guy’s half Asian — that doesn’t stop him from having the acting chops of a bump on a log. Rinsch, who cut his teeth on car commercials, will direct the film from a script by Chris Morgan, the man who wrote Wanted. This film is quickly getting the chips stacked against it, but I’ll reserve judgment for when I see the final product. Who knows — maybe we’ll have a Neil Blomkamp-esque success on our hands that completely exceeds my expectations.

Whether you love or hate Just Friends (an inconsequential little comedy that came out a few years ago), you have to admit that Ryan Reynolds and Anna Faris shared a great deal of comic chemistry. This is largely due to the fact that Reynolds is incapable of being anything but charming, while Faris is unstoppably cute and has mastered the “smart chick in the guise of dumb blonde” routine.

It looks like we’ll be seeing a reunion of the two actors in Universal Pictures’ TMI, scripted by Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith (10 Things I Hate About You) and Marc Klein (Serendipity, A Good Year).

The pitch for the film is that “while honesty is the best policy for a relationship, ‘too much information’ might not be the best thing.” That says nothing.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing an edgy comedy in which Reynolds and Faris can really thrive, but regardless, I’m looking forward to it.

Life is not looking good for Terminator Salvation director McG.

Disney has decided to indefinitely can the Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea project (surely to be a 3D CGI adventure-fest) and McG has stepped away from the film, which was slated to begin production in a little over two months from now. There has still been no big casting news for the film, which could have been a reason why Nemo has been canned.

Disney is looking for big tentpole films to fill the Pirates of the Caribbean vacuum with Prince of Persia, Tron Legacy and Nemo, but it’s likely that the only success they’ll achieve in that endeavor will be the inevitable fourth entry into the Pirates franchise, which Rob Marshall will direct in May.

Meanwhile, McG’s other project, Terminator 5, is also in limbo until the rights to the film are properly settled.

Is this all a blessing or a curse? Let us know in the comments!

If there’s one thing I’m just not buying into yet about Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, it has to be the actor I was certain I’d be the most confident about: Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Don’t get me wrong: he looks mad, indeed. But his character design is so off-putting it might take me a while to warm up to him.

Which begs the question — how closely will Burton stick to the pacing of the original book or Disney film? Will we linger with Depp for a while, or will his appearance essentially equate to ten minutes of screentime before moving on to the next spectacle?

Regardless, here’s the third and final character poster for Alice in Wonderland, which is due on March 5, 2010.

Director Tom Hooper (John Adams, The Damned United) has been working on a period drama that focuses on the father of Queen Elizabeth II, King George VI.

The film will follow George as “he reluctantly assumes the throne after his brother, Edward, abdicates. Considered unfit to rule and cursed with a nervous stammer, the unprepared monarch turns to an unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Logue. The two men form an unlikely friendship as King George finds his voice and leads the country into war against the Nazis.”

Currently filming for a 2010 release, The King’s Speech has been written by David Seidler, who has scripted a range of things, from Tucker: The Man and His Dream to The King and I.

Colin Firth has already signed onto the cast as King George VI, along with Geoffrey Rush, who will play Logue. Now being added to the cast are Helena Bonham Carter (Alice in Wonderland, Fight Club) as Queen Elizabeth, alongside Jennifer Ehle, Guy Pearce, Derek Jacobi, Timothy Spall and Michael Gambon.

Let’s hope The Weinstein Co. doesn’t ruin the release of this film, as the cast has plenty of potential under a director like Hooper.

Oh boy. Any hope you may have of Roland Emmerich either disappearing off the face of the earth or directing a film that doesn’t obliterate society has probably been shattered. 2012 has made some serious bank: $225 million worldwide, which Variety calls the fifth best international opening of all time.

This is sort of surprising, considering the buzz for 2012 wasn’t huge or anything. The biggest star power in the film is John Cusack, who is talented as all get out, make no mistake, but apparently is still quite a box office draw. That, or the explosions. The film was budgeted at around $200 million, so they’re in good shape.

In other news, Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox has already gathered up $12.6 million in the UK where it has been released for a month. It’ll surely make its money back when it is released here on November 25.

Sadly, Focus Features’ Pirate Radio only scraped together $2.9 million in its limited release, while (not so sadly) Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol fell in profit by 26%, giving the film a total gross of only $63.3 million.

Jon Turteltaub, the director behind the National Treasure films as well as the upcoming The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, is in talks to direct a film based on the origins of the Greenpeace movement in the 1970s and 1980s — specifically, its founders, Bob Hunter and Rex Weyler.

I’m actually a little surprised that no one has attempted to put this story on film before, because the rise of this organization was quite an impressive feat from an unlikely alliance of teachers, pacifists and ecologists, who “attempted — often successfully — to disrupt American and French nuclear bomb tests, Japanese and Russian whaling ships and Norwegian infant harp seal hunters. In the process, they inadvertently started a movement that is still going strong nearly four decades later.”

The film will draw source material from two books: Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World (written by Weyler) and Bob Hunter’s Warriors of the Rainbow: A Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement. Though it isn’t confirmed yet, producers have been communicating with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) to handle script duties.

One of the producers, Janet Zucker, had this to say about the project:

“We want to look at these unlikely heroes who became activists in spite of themselves,” said Janet Zucker, who envisions the film as large-canvas pic but with an environmental message. “Jon likes to make a big adventure movies. And we’ve found that the best way to reach people’s hearts and minds is through entertainment.”