Happy Friday everyone! For the last Friday of October before Halloween weekend, we’ve again gathered the latest posters to come out for this week’s poster round-up.

Screen Rant’s wall this week now includes new one-sheets for Nowhere Man, Séraphine, Cabin Fever 2, Invictus, Collapse, House of the Devil, Late Fee, Jennifer’s Body, Zombieland, Everybody’s Fine, The Fouth Kind, The Road, Kniga Masterov (Book of Masters), The Bleeding, Gentlemen Broncos and Youth in Revolt.

In addition to that, we have a little somethin’ somethin’ for Disney’s A Christmas Carol and Heavy Metal.

Let’s get to it.

To start, here’s a poster for the John Lennon biopic, titled Nowhere Boy which stars Aaron Johnson as legendary Beatle.

Nowhere Man opens in the UK on December 25 and is directed by Sam Taylor Wood.

Source: The Playlist

Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, recently added jet fuel to the Heavy Metal fire when he told Film School Rejects that none other than upcoming Avatar director James Cameron has signed on as Co-Executive producer and will also direct a segment of the film.

Peter Sciretta at /Film speculates that “Cameron’s involvement is also notable because it pretty much guarantees that the film will be 3D.” Heavy Metal in 3D and produced by Cameron would surely be fantastic to watch!

Eastman also said that Jack Black would be involved in the comedy section of the movie (to be directed by Kung-Fu Panda helmer Mark Osborne), though it’s not known what role Black would have. Halloween director Rob Zombie is reportedly in talks to direct a segment of the film as well. Eastman added he has three other directors in the wings waiting to sign on; we can assume that Zombie is one of them, and that all three directors “are equally as jaw-dropping.”

The Original Heavy Metal is still a cult classic.

Recently I was very harsh of Rob Zombie’s upcoming Halloween 2 “requel“, but I think he would excel greatly in this particular type of movie. If he does truly get confirmed to Heavy Metal, then I would actually look forward to watching his segment. I don’t think the man is a no talent hack, but I do think his work up to now has been lackluster at best. It would be cliché, but I could see him doing a five minute animated sequence to one of his songs and it being totally kick ass.

I have yet to read a name attached to this project that would give me pause for concern (Zombie included). Snyder (300) , Fincher (Fight Club), Osborne (Kung Fu Panda), Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Cameron (The Terminator); we’ve gotten great movies from these great directors. If they bring even one iota of their visionary talent that they used in the aforementioned movies to this project, then Heavy Metal will be nothing short of a success.

Kevin Eastman really NEEDS to put a team like this together if he wants this new Heavy Metal to be as successful as the 1981 original, which was directed by Gerald Potterman and produced by Ivan Reitman. Because of the graphic violence, nudity and sexuality, the film received some not-so-favorable reviews. Thos reviews didn’t stop Heavy Metal from rising to Rocky Horror Picture Show-level cult status (it even got its own South Park spoof!). Theaters would show midnight viewings of the adult cartoon and would be packed almost every time. In fact, if you happen to stumble across a showing now, I would recommend getting there early for a seat.

I confess that it has been years since I watched Heavy Metal. I was only six when it came out, but thirteen years later when I was in college, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The seven animated stories set to rock music from the late 70’s had me entranced; the animation was very good for its time, and, really, still holds up today. Bands like Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Sammy Hagar, and Grand Funk Railroad helped to push the action and story along with the kind of heavy guitar-driven rock music that was so popular at the time

In fact, the music is big a part of what makes Heavy Metal awesome, along with the fact that it’s animated. I look forward to seeing what bands are announced to produce new music for this project. I would like to hear something from Wolfmother, Dream Theater or Liquid Tension Experiment.

Have you ever watched the original Heavy Metal and are you interested in seeing the new version? What band(s) would you like to hear and what other directors would you like to see involved?

Heavy Metal is still being developed and currently slated for a 2010 release.

Source: /Film & Film School Rejects

“We’re still trying to get that made…”

Good to know, David…

It’s not just Fincher’s inclusion that’s exciting though – on-board is 300 and Watchmen director Zack Snyder and Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski. The film will be a series of animated segments. Each, presumably done by a different director.

Fincher has said:

“I’m ready to bat clean-up. I’m ready to do whatever story no one else wants to do. We have like twenty-four stories and artwork for it. Zack Snyder is picking one and I think Verbinski has one that he likes. We’re seeing where it ends up. I have time to do one or two and I have dibs on eight or nine, so somewhere in there we’ll figure it out if we can ever get the money together.”

It’s intriguing seeing that these guys have such an array of different animated stories to base each of their respective segments on. At least there’s a lot of material to provide (hopefully) a quality piece of work. It’s also great to see such vastly different directors come together to work on what is, let’s face it, a pretty odd project. Imagine Seven meets Pirates of the Caribbean with a dose of 300, all mixed together with a bit of Mad Max and Death Race 2000.

Now that’s quite a motion picture, indeed.

If and when the film gets made it will be the second animated feature to be based on the classic 80’s magazine. The first one was done back in 1981 and while it was pretty cool, it was also uneven, with some stories far better than others.

Fincher commented on the influence of the magazine:

“There’s no ‘Blade Runner’ without ‘Heavy Metal.’ There’s probably no ‘Alien.’ It was such a fertile breeding ground,” explained the director, noting the magazine’s influence on today’s digital animators. “Wherever you go in the world you go to any computer animation company and there lying around is ‘Heavy Metal’ magazine.”

It’s Fincher’s name alone that catches my interest, I will literally see anything he makes. What are your thoughts on the project? Interested or couldn’t care less?

Source: MTV Movies Blog and Geek Tyrant

That’s enough about me though, I know that you don’t read this item to discover my social calender so I’ll cut to the chase and give you your movie news fix from the past week.

This week we have news on : Mad Max: Fury Road, George Lucas’ Red Tails, The Punisher : War Zone, Wolfgan Petersen’s Uprising and a new version of Heavy Metal.

1. Newsweek spoke with George Miller about the fourth Mad Max film: Fury Road. He is quoted as saying:

Well, the first one will be a Mad Max game. Because what happened was, we were all ready to go, within eleven weeks of shooting the next Mad Max movie, Fury Road. This was way back when the war in Iraq started, and that really threw this out for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which was that the American dollar crashed against the Australian dollar. And apart from that, just insurances, getting vehicles and stuff there on container ships–all that slowed down around the world. So we had to move on to Happy Feet, because that was going to take a long time.

He also says that Mel Gibson was all but signed to the film six years ago, but that when he makes the film it will be without Gibson, as he is too old.

Now Miller wants to make a Mad Max video game before he puts the film into production. Miller says:

The movie was in a very highly advanced stage of preproduction when we stopped it. It’s all prepared, but now I want to stop and do the game and get those schedules in sync.. In other words, I’m delaying the movie in order to do a really good game. Normally what happens everyone’s scrambling to finish a game so it can coincide with the release of the movie.

My interest in this thing has just nose dived if Mel Gibson isn’t involved. Mad Mel is Mad Max!

2. George Lucas has said that the long in gestating Red Tails could be released by the end of the year and that he will then go on to ” do a Coppola” and direct art house style films. Lucas says:

We’re getting towards a script, and probably start shooting before the end of the year, and it should come out next year, maybe. That’s probably going to be the last movie I do, apart from my own movies, but my own movies are going to be more esoteric and probably will come and go in a week and be in one or two arthouses. It’s basically the same as what Francis is doing.

I don’t see Lucas getting behind a camera again to direct, but would have said that fifteen years ago about the chances of another Star Wars film. We will see.

3. The Punisher: War Zone website is now live. There’s not a great deal to see, but you can have a peek at a couple of stills. I’m looking forward to this.

4. Wolfgang Petersen will direct Uprising, a Sci-Fi thriller penned by Charles Leavitt. According to Variety :

(The) story revolves around the resistance efforts of some citizens after Earth has been occupied by a powerful alien race.

Sounds like it could be good. Sounds like it could be crap. Time will tell, but I’m quite a fan of Petersen’s work so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

5. Paramount Pictures will produce an animated film based on the magazine Heavy Metal. The film will be made up of different stories, each directed by a different director. David Fincher will direct one segment, while Tim Miller and Kevin Eastman will direct also. More directors will be added soon.

That’s it for now, see you next week!

Sources: Newsweek , Comingsoon , PunisherMovie.com , Variety