Despite being well into production, The Pixar Blog is reporting that Newt has been canceled.

Newt was the story of the last two blue-footed newts on earth, Newt and Brooke, who are forced to mate in order to save their species for extinction.

The film was to be Gary Rydstrom’s feature debut, after having directed Lifted, the short that was attached to Ratatouille. At first, I wasn’t too keen on the story, but once Ain’t It Cool News got some more details back in April 2008, the film became the upcoming Pixar film I was most looking forward to:

“Newt, our lead, has been in captivity since he was a tadpole. He’s lonely. His only friend is a lifeless sock puppet. He can see the mating ritual chart from his cage and practices day in and day out, getting ready for scientists to capture him a girlfriend. “And who can’t relate to that?” asks Rydstrom.

Brooke is the name of the last female Blue-Footed Newt. She is in the wild and has no idea she’s the last female of her species. She escapes all sorts of dangers in her day-to-day life, including being evasive of these crazy biologists who are always chasing her. Rydstrom describes her evasive capabilities as making her an “amphibious Errol Flynn”.

One day they catch her and bring her back to the lab and present her to Newt. They have “the world’s worst first date” before through circumstance they both end up in the wild. Newt is worthless out here, but Brooke gets him through the trials. They meet a character named Eddie, a giant Hellbender Salamander, who is a ladies’ man and passes along his incredibly shallow ideas of love to Newt. Predictably, they  don’t work. “Newt is a movie about how finding a mate never goes as you expect even, make that especially, if you only have one choice.”

Also mentioned was a 9-step mating ritual that Newt tries desperately to learn, but can’t see the final step because Mr. Coffee in the way.

Dave Smith, an archivist at the Walt Disney Company, has confirmed that “Newt is canceled.” This is very unfortunate news in and of itself. The movie was shaping up to be another unique, charming feature from Pixar. What’s worse, however, is why it was canceled. Now, there could very well have been problems with the production, but it seems like Newt was taken out of the pipeline to make room for Cars 2 (Summer 2011), Brave (Summer 2012, formerly The Bear and the Bow), and Monsters, Inc. 2 (November 2012).

Originally, Newt was scheduled for a Summer 2011 release, but was pushed back to 2012, at which point the Cars sequel took its place. I’m guessing that the film was running behind schedule, for whatever reason, and, with two movies scheduled for 2012, simply could not fit into Pixar’s upcoming slate. That being said, I still am really disappointed that Pixar would dump an original story down the drain in order to develop several sequels. It’s unfortunate, but I guess that’s how business is done, and Pixar is no exception.

Now, we may still see this film eventually, but definitely not in the next couple of years.

Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures are actually moving ahead with the sequel to mixed-reviewed Clash of the Titans, which could be expected as early as spring 2012.

Louis Leterrie will not direct this time, instead sitting in the Executive Producer’s chair. Most critics blamed Leterrie for the problems in the first film (there’s a reason it’s only scored a 30% on Rotten Tomatoes), so this seems to be for the best. Greg Berlanti (creator of tv series Everwood and Eli Stone) is working on the story line, and studio execs are looking for writers and directors to hone the project.

Sam Worthington is slated to return, as is every character who happened to still be alive at the end of the first film. Plans are to start filming before Worthington is busy with Avatar 2.

The plot for the sequel remains unknown.

DreamWorks Animation has announced that a sequel to the smash hit How to Train Your Dragon has been planned for release in 2013. There is no word yet on whether or not the sequel will be in 3-D, but that will probably be the case.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, says How to Train Your Dragon has become the company’s next franchise, bringing in almost $375 million dollars worldwide so far at the box office. It even took the top spot in the box office during its fifth weekend in theaters, which is not something that is seen very often.

DreamWorks is in need of a new franchise, as the final chapter of the Shrek franchise, Shrek: Forever After is released in theaters next month.

How to Train Your Dragon may have brought audiences into theaters by jumping onto the 3-D bandwagon, but it seems to have worked. It also excelled in the box office because the movie is actually good, receiving great reviews including an unheard of score of 98% at Rotten Tomatoes.

Many other projects are in the works, including a live arena show similar to Walking with Dinosaurs, a TV series in development, and an online virtual world based on the location of the movie.

Cressida Cowell, the Scottish author who wrote the book the movie is based on, says that DreamWorks bought the rights to all ten books within the series before the first movie was released in theaters.

Tomorrow, on Earth Day, Avatar will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray. However, you still have a chance to see the film on the big screen. In an interview with the LA Times, James Cameron revealed his plans for an Avatar re-release as well as a sequel.

First, Cameron said that Weta is working on an additional six minutes, which will be added to the movie for a theatrical re-release this August. He added:

“It’ll be interesting because it’ll be on DVD by then, but I think “Avatar” is kind of a unique category where people are enjoying the unique theatrical experience even though they may have seen it on the small screen. They want to have that immersive, transportive experience.”

He went on to compare the film to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is a little pretentious, but I understand his point. The number of movies that could be successful during a second run in this economy is very low, but I think Avatar has a lot of potential, both from people that somehow missed the movie the first time around, as well as those of us who want to return to the experience again.

Cameron also discussed his ideas for Avatar 2: “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.”

The director said that production should run much more smoothly the second time around, so we will be back on Pandora sometime in the near future. However, being a science fiction fan, I’m more excited to see more of the space setting that was established at the very beginning of Avatar. Well, Cameron stated that the third film will focus more on the Alpha Centauri AB System that includes Pandora.

In any case, I don’t see the need for an Avatar sequel. I’ve always believed that a movie should stand alone, unless the story calls for a continuation. However, I understand that a series is inevitable after such an enormous success and I trust Cameron will do it his way and make another breathtaking movie.

The Hangover is easily the biggest surprise hit of 2009. The R-rated comedy, with a 35-million-dollar budget, was loved by audiences and, all-told, raked in almost $500 million at the box office, as well as over $150 million on home video. The film also won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy. After such a success, a sequel is guaranteed, right? It’s not that easy.

Although Warner Bros. had already commissioned a script for a sequel before the first was released, getting the cast to come back was not easy. After being paid roughly $300,000 each for the original, stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis made sure they were going to be well compensated for the next movie. Warner Bros. originally offered $3 million each, plus 1% of the gross, but the actors stood firm.

After six months of negotiations, Deadline reports that all three stars, as well as director Todd Phillips have signed on for the sequel. The actors will get around $5 million each, in addition to 4% of the gross, while the director will receive $10 million plus 10%, as well as a guarantee that he will earn at least as much as he did for the first – $50 million and still counting.

Principal photography is set to start November 1st, although it must work around both Helms’ “Office” and Cooper’s films’ schedules.

Right now, details are scarce, but, in an interview with Collider, Phillips denied rumors that the sequel would take place in Mexico or Thailand. He also said about the sequel that:

Sometimes movies do well but it’s just this huge flood of people go see them and then you know… this movie just kept going because people kept going back. That tells me that they love those characters and that tells me, not that the movie’s going to financially do better, but just that there’s love out there for these four guys. We can now put them through a whole new set of paces and people will want to see it. So for me, it’s really exciting.

Do you think The Hangover 2 can have the success of its predecessor? I’m sure many will go simply because they loved the first, but can the sequel really compare with the original? Most of The Hangover‘s success was people spreading the word, and going back to the theater with their friends. It will be successful, of course, but I don’t think that it can come to meet such a high precedent.

Remakes. Sequels. Prequels. Screen adaptations of books, cartoons, comics, and TV shows. It can’t be denied that the film industry is starting to run rampant with movies based on something that has already been done. What’s shocking, though, is just how few original ideas Hollywood is really seeing.

Wikipedia recently posted a list of the highest grossing films of the past decade. In the top 20, only one film wasn’t based off of any other previous idea. One.

Think it gets better looking at a larger sample size? Think again. In the top 30, only two films were based on original ideas, and in the top 50 a total of nine were considered original.

The interesting thing about the nine original concepts is that all but two were animated films, and of those seven animated films five were from Pixar, with Finding Nemo being the only one in the top 20.

Joining Finding Nemo in the ‘original concept’ category were Kung Fu Panda, The Incredibles, Hancock, Ratatouille, The Day After Tomorrow, Madagascar, Monsters, Inc., and Wall-E.

Now, I know it’s easy to fall into the mindset that ‘if it worked once, why not make it work again and capitalize on it?’, but it’s sad to see how few movies aren’t based on something else.

The fact that the majority of ‘original’ movies were animated films targeted for a young audience seems to say that writers and studios are more willing to go out on a limb to create something unique for kids, and willing to be complacent with what they release for  adults.

It makes sense if you think about it: Kids are young, curious, and have short attention spans that are always looking for something new to entertain them. If you give them the same thing over and over, they get bored. Thus, it proves to be profitable to make something original for them.

If the list of top grossing films is any indicator, older audiences seem to favor the familiar, so reworking the same ideas over and over appears to be the way to go.

However, as Hollywood continues to move forward with franchises, sequels, and films based off pretty much anything, the film industry runs the risk of losing originality completely. If presented with both a new idea and a takeoff on something that’s been done before, why pick the new when the old is almost guaranteed to see success?

2010 already has numerous sequels, adaptations, and remakes on the horizon, but hopefully a move will be made back to original stories taking the forefront in Hollywood.

If you’re a fan of the Shrek movies, then you already know that a fourth film, Shrek Forever After, is set to hit theaters in May of next year. What you may not know is that the Shrek franchise has its first spin-off film in the works.

The new film, Puss in Boots, wil focus on–you guessed it–Puss in Boots, the would-be assassin turned sidekick introduced in Shrek II. The movie about the little orange cat will follow Puss’s adventures prior to his meeting Shrek and Donkey.

Antonio Banderas will reprise his role as Puss in Boots, with Salma Hayek starring alongside him as the voice of “Kitty.” As the film moves forward, negotiations are taking place for the casting of other characters in the film.

Currently, Zach Galifianakis, who played the lovable but slightly-off Alan in this summer’s The Hangover, is in talks to voice the role of Humpty Dumpty.

Puss in Boots is being written by Tom Wheeler, with Shrek the Third co-writer/co-director Chris Miller at the helm.

Despite the film still being in theaters, Paramount Pictures is already hoping to capitalize on the unexpected success of Paranormal Activity after the film’s run is over.

Paramount’s chairman has announced the company has acquired the rights to a potential Paranormal Activity 2, and is looking for a plot that would make sense as a sequel to the hit of this fall.

In just a month at theaters, Paranormal Activity has grossed $62.5 million–not bad for a movie that was made for only $15,000. In addition to being made on a low-budget, Paramount also bought the movie for a fairly low price, and has spent less than the usual amount on marketing for the movie as well.

With those factors in play, plus the continued box office success of the film, Paranormal Activity could easily end up being one of the most profitable films in Paramount’s history. Thus, it’s no surprise that Paramount would want to continue bringing in that kind of profit with a sequel.

However, making sequels in general is a risky move, particularly when the precursor has been successful. With a flick like Paranormal Activity, whose success came out of nowhere, trying to match the appeal that brought that success is even more difficult than usual.

Paranormal Activity has continuously been compared to 1999′s The Blair Witch Project which was, like Paranormal Activity, a low-budget horror film that saw unexpected success. A sequel to the film was attempted the following year and brought in less than $30 million–a drastically lower take than the $140 million seen by the first film. The same type of box office drop could easily happen with a follow-up to Paranormal Activity.

It’s not set in stone that Paramount will go ahead with a Paranormal Activity sequel, just that they own the rights to do so. For now, we can expect to see Paranormal Activity continue to thrive at the box office, now with the possibility of a follow-up on the horizon.