One of most fun-looking martial arts movies to come along in awhile is Ninja Assassin. It stars Korean mega pop star, Rain (in his first leading action role) and comes to us from director James McTeigue as well as The Wachowski brothers, the team who brought us the excellent comic book adaptation, V For Vendetta.

Ninja Assassin is about a ninja who defects from the orphanage where he was trained, only to be hunted by his ninja clan brethren whose very existence is considered a myth. But, as with a lot of these types of movies, the plot doesn’t really matter – all that matters is that the action is kick-ass and that certainly looks to be the case with this film.

At the end of July, Robert Sanchez at IESB broke the news that Warner Brothers were looking at James McTeigue to possibly direct a new Superman feature film that would act as a franchise reboot.

A few weeks later, McTeigue sat with MTV and while not confirming or denying any involvement, he did relay his idea of a reboot for Superman should he land the gig. His plan would take the Man of Steel in a different direction and skip through the overdone origins of Clark growing up into the hero we know him as.

Things were looking good for our favorite Kryptonian, up until Diane Nelson, the head of the newly formed DC Entertainment, explained that they do not have another Superman film as part of their current plans.

A bunch of new clips and TV spots have appeared online recently for five highly-anticipated movies: the sci-fi/horror flick, Pandorum, the zombie action-comedy, Zombieland, the martial arts action flick, Ninja Assassin, the teen horror/comedy, Jennifer’s Body, and the all-star comedy, The Men Who Stare at Goats.

And we have all of them here for your viewing pleasure!

As the days become shorter, and the nights become cooler, there is one thing on the horizon that all of us are quickly becoming aware of – the arrival of a slew of exciting 2009 Fall Movies. What’s always been great about this time of year is that it’s not just about “horror films” or movies that are made to touch the holiday hearts that burgeon each year as turkey, Santa and New Year’s Eve stretch into the new year and beyond.

The menu is varied, wide open and we hope – satisfying. While we couldn’t list them all, please join us as we quickly chronicle what lies ahead in Screen Rant’s 2009 Fall Movie Preview!

Two new clips have appeared online for two upcoming films: Ninja Assassin and Survival of the Dead. Assassin hit theaters before the end of the year, while Survival is supposed to hit sometime this year, so thankfully there’s not that long left to wait until we get to see them. And Screen Rant has the two new clips to wet your appetite for both movies.

NINJA ASSASSIN

This is one of those action movies that looks to fall back and rely on its kick-ass action (fighting) sequences to carry it when other elements may not be as strong (acting, for example). But that’s sometimes okay, if the action is good enough, that is. And going by this clip, as well as the official trailer, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem in the slightest. Check out the badass Ninja Assassin clip below:

Since 2005’s V for Vendetta, director James McTeigue has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand directors. Besides recently completing filming on his amazing looking martial arts film Ninja Assassin, McTeigue has long been tied to rumors about the upcoming Superman reboot and was even in consideration for the Conan remake (before eventually losing out to Marcus Nispel). Recently, Peter Sciretta from /Film had the chance to sit down with McTeigue to talk about some of his future projects.

Latino Review has grabbed an exclusive scoop from a “confirmed source” that Ninja Assassin star and Korean pop star, Rain, is set to star in a remake of the 1973 Bruce Lee classic, Enter The Dragon. Screen Rant reported on this “sort of” remake almost two years ago, and much of the details remain the same:

Awaken The Dragon will be about a lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk to get him to participate in the world of underground fight clubs. Warner Bros. is hoping for the FBI agent to be played by an already established American actor, and the monk to be played by a “fight star.” And Latino Review’s scoop says that fight star will be Rain.

James McTeigue’s upcoming high-paced action fest, Ninja Assassin, is one of sleeper films for this year that I’ve been eagerly awaiting for quite some time. Produced by the Wachowski brothers, Ninja Assassin follows Korean pop star, Rain, playing a ninja named Raizo on a mission of vengeance.

There hasn’t been too much released yet for the movie in terms of marketing but this week the first official trailer was released and we have it here for you:

The first officially released promotional item for the upcoming action movie Ninja Assassin has finally been made available online. In the poster we see the protagonist, Raizo (played by Korean pop star, Rain) sporting two nifty weapons that we’ll no doubt see plenty of in the film.

Ninja Assassin is the story of one of the world’s best assassins, Raizo,  who was trained to kill by a secret organization that later executes his best friend. Naturally, Raizo must avenge his friend’s death and the blood bath ensues.

[UPDATE: Just as we suspected (and noted below) this was nothing more than rumor and has been debunked by /Film]

A “reliable” source for Ain’t It Cool News has provided them with some interesting information regarding the future of the Superman franchise as well as an update on the current status of Ninja Assassin.

This source, while in Berlin, caught an interview James McTeigue (who’s directing Ninja Assassin) and in the interview McTeigue revealed that the Wachowski Brothers have been approached about rebooting the Superman franchise as a trilogy.

Here’s the juicy parts of the message he sent:

This is a must watch if you have any interest at all in action films, martial arts, sword combat or parkour. /Film got a hold of a behind-the-scenes video of the fight choreography training for the upcoming Ninja Assassin movie.

The video features the infamous 87 Eleven stunt performing/coordination and martial arts training group who also worked on hit action movies 300, the Bourne films and this year’s Watchmen (hopefully this year). They do amazing work and are becoming more and more involved in some of the biggest action films around.

Welcome to another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up, This has been a pretty slow week movie news wise, so there hasn’t been a great deal that we’ve missed – even though we haven’t posted a great amount of stories this week. However that said, I’m here to dig up the bones of what we may have missed. Be warned though, it’s a pretty B-list offering!

This week we feature:
Ninja Assassin, Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko …really, Ouija board – the movie and Val Kilmer in The Thaw.