Josh Trank In Talks to Wrangle Venom

Sony wants the Chronicle directorBefore found footage superhero thriller Chronicle even touched down in cinemas, there were rumblings that director Josh Trank might be in the frame to tackle 20th Century Fox's Fantastic Four reboot. But in a twist worthy of a four-colour comic book page, he is now negotiating to take on an iconic Marvel title, but not at Fox and not the Foursome. He's been targeted for Venom.According to the LA Times, Sony has swooped in and begun talks with Trank to take on the nasty, oozing, lizard-like alien symbiotic creature who last (dis)graced screens in 2007's Spider-Man 3. Back then, it wasn't exactly Sam Raimi's favourite character, and got shoved to the sidelines in an overstuffed film with Topher Grace as the unfortunate bloke who becomes infected.Ever since, the studio has been looking for a way to focus on the freaky, drooling one, who has a hefty fan following, even if most have concerns about whether it can carry an entire film. Jacob Estes wrote the first draft before Zombieland's Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese were called into re-write that. Then Hunger Games writer/director Gary Ross took a stab at the idea in 2009, pitching Mr Venom as more of an antihero who defends the innocent. That didn't seem to spark much love, and now we're back to square one with Sony searching for a new writer.Right now, it's still hovering in the rumour zone, but if Trank does sign on, there's a chance he might try to recruit Chronicle co-writer and pal Max Landis, as the pair worked well together last time...

Eric Near To Co-Star In Nashville, Two Other ABC Aircraft pilots Increase Casts

With No Trace alum Eric Close continues to be cast in Basic steps drama pilot Nashville. Compiled by Callie Khouri, directed by R.J. Cutler and created by Lionsgate and ABC Galleries, Nashville is referred to like a family cleaning soap about love, new bands, family, politics and sex, set from the backdrop from the Nashville music scene. It focuses on 40-year-old Nashville celebrity Rayna James who's stunned to locate that her star is diminishing and her label requires her to synergy with teen sensation Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) on tour - otherwise face losing her very own tour and also the labels promotion of her latest record, whose sales happen to be underwhelming. Gersh-repped Close will have Rayna’s husband who's now living on his wife’s salary. Jessy Schram continues to be put into the cast on ABC’s drama pilot Last Measure, concerning the crew of the U.S. nuclear submarine who, after disregarding a questionable to fire nuclear missiles, escape to some NATO outpost where they declare themselves to become the planet’s littlest nuclear nation. Schram will have Mike’s (Scott Speedman) dutiful wife whose persistence for his return keeps growing thin. The actress, that has been recurring on Falling Skies and Not So Long Ago, is repped by Mitchell Gossett who lately left UTA and came back to CESD, and KLWGN Danielle Nicolet continues to be cast in ABC’s comedy pilot Whitened Guy Van, about Tony (Kyle Bornheimer), who's instructed to put his dreams on hold to be able to dominate the household renovator business from his father. Nicolet, repped by APA and KLWGN, will have the sister of 1 of Tony’s co-employees.

Hub to unveil live-action series, characters at upfront

'Kaijudo: Rise from the Duel Masters'Kidvid cabler the Hub is adding three new toon series to the programming selection, in addition to reruns of vintage sitcoms "The Details of Existence," "Mork & Mindy" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch."At its upfront presentation on Thursday, the Hub, a partnership of Discovery Communications and Hasbro, will even unveil the live-action series "Spooksville," in line with the popular tween book series from author Christopher Pike. Jane Startz is placed to create.InchCelebration of 5Inch thesp Scott Wolf will lend his voice to animated series "Kaijudo: Rise from the Duel Masters," from Hasbro Galleries. Set to produce within the summer time, "Kaijudo" is really a fantasy series that follows the adventures of the youthful hero having the ability to befriend and duel fantastical animals from the parallel dimension.Other original toon series coming this season are "Care Bears: Thanks for visiting Care-a-Lot" and "Smallest Pet Shop.""We are creating a slate of programs for that 2012-13 season that continues our means of showing series according to well-known names and beloved qualities," stated Hub prexy Margaret Loesch. "We are confident this selection will further define us because the entertainment place to go for kids as well as their families."Searching to broaden its live-action slate, Hub will offer you repeats of family-friendly sitcoms "The Details of Existence," "Mork & Mindy" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" within the second quarter of the season.Altogether, internet has nine series and special offers coming back, incorporated its top-ranked "Transformers Prime" and "My Little Pony Friendship Is Miracle."The Hub, which bowed in October 2010, still faces a constant climb in competing against dominant kidvid shops Disney Funnel and Nickelodeon. Rankings for that Hub increased 10% this year in comparison to 2010 among kids 2-11 for total programming day, however it still averaged only 33,000 audiences. Contact Stuart Levine at stuart.levine@variety.com

'Iron' perf proves Streep's mettle

StreepWith her Oscar win for "The Iron Lady," Meryl Streep has became a member of a decidedly elite club, becoming just the fifth actor to win three Academy awards. Katharine Hepburn won four, and Walter Brennan, Ingrid Bergman and Jack Nicholson have three each. Streep made an appearance stunned when her named was known as Sunday. Viola Davis have been seen by many people because the likely champion for "The Assistance.Inch "After I heard my title, I possibly could hear 1 / 2 of America going, 'Oh, no! Not again! Her!' But whatever!" Streep stated in the stage. Strep thanked her longtime makeup artist J. Roy Helland, who won the makeup Oscar with Mark Coulier for "The Iron Lady," after which have a large laugh by saying, "I am not going to be up here again!" Streep received her first Oscar nom for "The Deer Hunter" and won her first Oscar annually later for "Kramer versus. Kramer." She was nominated almost 30 years ago for "In France They Lieutenant's Lady," then won the following year for "Sophie's Choice." Streep then tallied up twelve more nominations within the next 30 years without winning before you take the trophy Sunday on her portrayal of former British Pm Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady," both like a retired person beset by senility so that as formidable politician who peaked using the 1982 Falklands war against Argentina. The 17 Oscar nods for Streep, 62, would be the nearly any artist continues to be nominated through the Academy, including "Silkwood," "From Africa," "A Cry at nighttime,Inch "The Bridges of Madison County," "Adaptation," "The Manchurian Candidate" and "The Demon Wears Prada." She received her 16th nom in '09 for "Julie & Julia." Besides Davis, Streep bested Glenn Close for "Albert Nobbs," Rooney Mara for "The Lady Using The Dragon Tattoo" and Michelle Williams for "My Week With Marilyn." Streep had won her eighth Golden Globe along with a BAFTA Award earlier. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

The Actor-brad Pitt Joins Edgar Wright For 'Night Stalker'

It appears like The Actor-brad Pitt and Edgar Wright might be joining as much as search the supernatural in Disney's adaptation of two 1970's telepics and also the ABC series "Kolchak: The Evening Stalker." Deadline reviews that Depp would potentially star as Carl Kolchak in "The Evening Stalker." He's a hardboiled reporter who takes up tales that police force does not wish to touch. The majority of the cases within the original tales involved monstrous animals like vampires of the underworld and zombies, but Kolchak also investigated the dark realm of ghouls along with other occult mysteries. Using the "Rob from the Dead" director usually getting a submit the writing side of his projects, it would be great to determine Disney hands this responsibility to Wright. No scribe continues to be named yet, though. The cool stylings from the director and Depp ought to be fascinating to look at. In the end anticipate more news relating to this inspired collaboration, mind beyond the break for phone relaxation of the week's horror news. Popular Manga Tale 'Bleach' Getting American Adaptation Fans of Tite Kubo's manga/anime tale "Bleach" is going to be seeing a united states adaptation from Warner Bros. soon. The studio has acquired the privileges towards the story and it is setting "Wrath from the Leaders" scribe Serta Mazeau towards the task of revamping it. The film follows teen Ichigo who are able to see ghosts. A malevolent spirit referred to as a Hollow attacks his family, and also the youthful guy turns into a Hollow hunter investing his existence to safeguarding the innocent and helping tortured souls find peace within the afterlife. The most popular story continues to be modified for videogames, buying and selling cards, musicals, and much more. Can Warner Bros. find the correct mixture of the supernatural, action, and comedy to produce a worthy remake? Will the casting of that one be another "Akira?" The 'Demonologist' Fights Fiends from Hell "To the near futureInch director Robert Zemeckis finds his new creating project in "Demonologist." Universal grabbed in the story, which develops from a novel compiled by Andrew Pyper. The result is a professor that has been staring at the epic John Milton poem "Paradise Lost." He accepts a totally free visit to Italia, but while there a demonic spirit "seems to kill his daughter." The professor embarks on the dark journey in order to save her in the wicked organizations. Will the studio be cautious making this the following "Da Vinci Code," or can they cause the horror entirely pressure? Vampires of the underworld on the Plane in 'Night Wings' We have had "Snakes on the Plane," but prepare for vamps traveling the friendly skies. THR is confirming that the "Fright Evening-esque" story is in route from Ember Entertainment. The organization continues to be granted distribution privileges for "Evening Wings." Whenever a 12-year-old boy requires a redeye flight, he soon finds out that you will find bloodsucking vampires of the underworld throughout him. He attempts to convince the crew the vamps take presctiption-board from Romania, only one passenger thinks him. The man also is surely a mourning father, seeking revenge from the vamp clan. Syfy author Paul Birkett and visual effects producer Dusan Strugar are focusing on that one which hopefully means these vampires of the underworld will really constitute the terrifying variety and never the romantic version we have been getting lots of recently. Disney Constitutes a Creature Feature Disney and also the author behind fright movies like "The Ring" and "Scream 4" are joining up for any creature feature. The Donald Duck studio has wanted to produce a project connected using their amusement park ride, The Matterhorn. They are striving to have an adventure story and also have because of the job to first-time director John Beletic. Justin Springer ("Tron Legacy") is going to be creating. Five adventure searchers together with a travel guide, a cartographer, a getaway artist, a serious sports enthusiast, as well as an archeologist mind towards the Alps "for mysterious reasons" and face several yetis (think mountain dwelling Bigfoot animals) protecting a secret. Yetis make everything better, so here's wishing Disney enables its team to experience in the gnarly beastie position. Amanda Seyfried Evades Abductors in 'Gone' Yesterday we discovered that Red-colored Riding Hood actress Amanda Seyfried includes a taxidermy collection, which made us love her much more. Her new movie "Gone" opens tomorrow. Seyfried stars like a youthful women attempting to escape abduction, haunted through the kidnapping of her sister 2 yrs earlier. Getting evaded capture before, she thinks the mysterious abductor has return to complete the task, but nobody will believe her. Pay attention to the actress discuss the film on Dread Central. Inform us that which you think about this week's Horror Bites within the comments as well as on Twitter!

Walden Media makes book on 'Rex Libris'

'Rex Libris'Walden Media is moving ahead on progression of "Rex Libris," tapping Ben Zazove to evolve the humorous sci-fi graphic novel.Walden acquired feature rights to "Rex" a year ago, which follows the zombie-slaying adventures of librarian Rex Libris while he safeguards the books in the Middleton Public Library and pads our planet's literary treasures from numerous supernatural opponents. The graphic novel is written and attracted by James Turner, and launched quarterly by Slave Labor Graphics. Warner Bros. had introduced in 2007 that "Rex Libris" reaches development with Variety Media creating.Evan Turner and Michael Bostick are handling the job for Walden, with Brent Lilley handling for Slave Labor Graphics.Walden just released your family adventure "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" through Warner Bros.Zazove written "Tooth Fairy 2" for Walden and Fox Entertainment. He's repped by Kaplan-Perrone. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Who Knew? Something Called Dorothy and the Witches of Oz is Apparently Opening Friday

Can't wait for Sam Raimi's star-studded, mega-budget Oz: The Great and Powerful? How about a low-budget, modern-day twist on the L. Frank Baum classic featuring Dorothy as a children's book author (and Kansas transplant, natch) in Manhattan and co-starring Lance Henriksen, Billy Boyd and Christopher Lloyd? Oh. Well anyway, here's the latest on Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, the erstwhile little-seen mini-series that by all appearances this weekend should become a little-seen theatrical release. Writer-director Leigh Scott's film reportedly has one of the more roundabout broadcast/distribution records of any recent movie (save for Margaret, perhaps), but will finally come to theaters Friday. By "theaters," I mean "four venues in Arizona," with three more to follow Feb. 24 in Kansas and Kentucky. The film itself, meanwhile, appears pretty deeply NYC-centric -- because no one's ever imposed that twist on the Oz legend before: It does kind of look better than This Means War, right? And in "glorious 2D"! Well-played, team. Arizona, you are in luck! [via Big Hollywood]