Welcome to the first Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up ever!

Due to the mighty success of “The Weekend Wrap Up” Screen Rant has now introduced a news segment to furnish you with even more news during the week! Hollywood is a busy place and now Screen Rant readers have the opportunity of getting even more movie news.

News this week:

We debunk Cher as Catwoman in Batman 3, look at the trouble behind Babylon AD; discuss the chances of a third Riddick movie, let you know how you could be apart of Spider-Man 4 and Woody Harrelson fights Zombies in Zombieland.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter. Thank you for visiting and we look forward to reading your comments!

Want to ask us a question? Contact us directly.

Despite the fact that this belongs in the “Well, duh!” category, it’s still news nonetheless.

Deals have now been finalized (with the ink barely dry) for the Lord of the Rings writing trio of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (who successfully adapted the Tolkien trilogy into a multi-billion dollar grossing franchise and a ton of Academy Awards) to perform scripting duties for its prequel The Hobbit and the currently untitled “bridge” film.

MGM has the largest back-catalog of movies in Hollywood - musicals, James Bond, Ben-Hur - you name it, MGM has it stashed in a vault somewhere. They have over 4,000 movies. Just imagine the amount of DVDs they could release and re-release and… you see what I’m getting at.

In the past several years they haven’t been too lucky: They were bought out by Sony and became a little more than a distribution company… but recently they’ve been getting back into the producing sector.

They have Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie in the pipeline, but hey - who needs an original idea when you can remake an old film or bleed a franchise dry.

MGM has set its sights on RoboCop and Fame remakes as well as more Bond, more Pink Panther films, and maybe more than two Hobbit films and possibly, possibly - another Rocky!

Yes you read that correctly.

Another Rocky film.

Now that Guillermo del Toro has been officially unveiled as the director of The Hobbit, fans are now asking, “Which Lord of the Rings actors will return, good Sir?”

Fair enough question.

In regards to Gandalf the Grey (i.e. Sir Ian McKellan), he tells Empire Online:

“I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf.”

Millions of geeks across of the world must now change their pants…

Guillermo del Toro (currently in post-production on this summer’s HellBoy II: The Golden Army) has officially signed on to direct The Hobbit and its sequel - i.e. the untitled Lord of the Rings “bridge” film.

This announcement comes after months and months (and months!) of speculation, rumor and flat-out Internet BS.

When it comes to these mega-budget blockbuster tentpoles, the actors generally tend to be the last to know anything.

Nonetheless, it’s always nice to get an update from one of them. The latest example comes from Sir Ian “I’m also Magneto” McKellen regarding The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings “bridge” film; scheduled for Christmas 2010 and 2011 releases.

When asked about his participation in said films, he tells us:

“Yes I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor.”

Has Sir Ian even been approached about any additional Middle-Earth outings to begin with? According to him:

The OneRing.Net, the Tolkien-centric site that said back in January that Guillermo del Toro (the director behind Pan’s Labyrinth) was “99 percent certain” to helm The Hobbit as well as an untitled Lord of the Rings “bridge” film, has an update for us.

The HellBoy helmer had this to say:

“At this stage anything I say is of no consequence for I am not yet signed to do ‘The Hobbit.’ Negotiations advance but are still ongoing.”

But it doesn’t end there - he also adds:

“All I can say is that I am diligently going through all Tolkien material related to Middle-earth but only as a way of bridging a gap in my reading. I still respond the strongest to ‘The Hobbit,’ but as an avid reader of Mythology I find a lot of his other writings fascinating. A perfect Cosmology forged from very eclectic sources.”

It seemed, for a brief moment at least, Hollywood was a place of joy following the writers strike. The writers, the studios and even the agents all seemed to be getting along at last. However, it couldn’t stay like that for long. Suddenly there has been a wave of high profile disagreements over contracts, profits and film rights.

Lawsuits have now begun to fly around like cocaine at a party held by the late Don Simpson (allegedly).

First up; the Tolkien Estate have called in the lawyers to see where their profit participation went on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Secondly, Benedict Fitzgerald, co-writer of The Passion of the Christ sues Mel Gibson over his (alleged) fair share of that films profits.
Finally, 20th Century Fox have (allegedly) decided that they own the film rights to comic book Watchmen and they’ve called in the lawyers to stop Warner Bros moving ahead with the project.

Sheesh, what a week - allegedly

Well, word came down that Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, will only be producing The Hobbit and its sequel, which may either be The Hobbit broken up into two films, or what’s been rumored, which is a prequel to LotR.

At any rate, does Sam Raimi turning down Spider-Man 4 mean he’s in a position to direct The Hobbit and the sequel?

This is BIG news on multiple levels if it turns out to be true. Marketsaw.com, a blog about 3D movies says the not only have New Line and Peter Jackson apparently worked out their differences, but that the Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit will be not one, but two movies. Not only that, but they will be shot in 3D!

Peter Jackson will indeed DIRECT The Hobbit! This is my second source telling me this. You can be 100% SURE that this is happening. The story will be split into two separate movies as was previously thought with the second relating much more to Lord of the Rings than the first. Wait, as if that wasn’t enough: Here is the kicker people: The Hobbit will be in 3D.

The sources of this info are the same ones that originated the recent Avatar alien image.

But wait, there’s more…