That's good news if you loved him as Jacob in Twilight, anyway. If you didn't, well, I guess it sucks to be you, because he ain't going anywhere.

Taylor Lautner was one of the youngest Twilight cast members, not quite 16 years old when the film was shot (he turns 17 next month), making him essentially the same age as his character -- a rarity in teen films. His character, Jacob Black, is the Native American boy whose forefathers' anti-vampire streak, coupled with his own fondness for Bella (Kristen Stewart), made him wary of dreamy teenpire Edward (Robert Pattinson), and while Jacob played only a minor part in Twilight's story, he becomes much more important in the sequel, New Moon. I haven't read it, but evidently (and this is no spoiler) he goes through some physical transformations befitting a lad of his werewolfy ancestry.

Lautner's youth and baby-facedness made some people question whether he'd be the right choice to continue playing a beefed up Jacob. At 5'9", Lautner is taller than lots of Hollywood leading men -- but most Hollywood leading men aren't required to play 6'7" lycanthropes. Rumors swirled that he would be replaced, and a representative for New Moon director Chris Weitz confirmed back in December that "the casting decision in regards to the character Jacob Black has yet to be made." Actor Michael Copon, a 26-year-old Lautner lookalike, was being considered at one point, going so far as to say on his Facebook page that he had been locked to take over the role.

I think its time that John Waters gets a phone tree going, lassos in his worldwide band of freaks and friends, and introduce Adam Shankman to a different sort of life. He needs to get wild. Besides tackling Bye Bye Birdie, there's more Hairspray sequel news, courtesy of MTV, that has its quirky perks and boring pitfalls.

The sequel will be titled Hairspray 2: White Lipstick -- which just so happened to be Waters' original title for the 1988 film (without, of course, the "Hairspray 2" part). And it does have some Waters zaniness, according to Shankman: "[The treatment] is amazing, but it's crazy. There are things in there that I was like 'Can we do that?' It's real John Waters-y stuff, and it was more like a sequel to his movie than to our movie. Which I love, because then that becomes re-interpreted."

But don't expect too much quirk -- this is Shankman, so his crazy scale definitely isn't equivalent to your run of the mill Waters fan. Sadly, one of the things to go is Zac Efron taking acid and having "trippy conversations with acne on his forehead." (Wussy!) Things from the treatment he'll probably keep: Edna's addiction to diet pills, a new villain -- which means that Michelle Pfeiffer and Brittany Snow are most likely out, and lastly, someone (other than Link) will get drafted for Vietnam.

Any guesses? Any hopes for this White sequel?

Zack Snyder isn't a director that lets a little legal drama bring him down, and currently he's busy at work on Guardians of Ga'Hoole, the Lord of the Rings of owl stories. (Two young friends of mine have since assured me it's a really good series; I should drop hints until they lend it to me.)

Sydney's Daily Telegraph is reporting that Aussie up-and-comer Ryan Kwanten has joined the voice cast of Ga'Hoole, along with fellow Aussies Hugh Jackman and Hugo Weaving.

While their involvement hasn't been confirmed anywhere else, this certainly could be the "schedule conflict" alluded to in Jackman dropping out of Cleo -- but would Snyder really reuse two memorable parts of the Happy Feet voice cast? Then again, why wouldn't he? Weaving is The Voice of All Voices, and Jackman did a pretty memorable job in Happy Feet and Flushed Away. Plus, they're Australian, which is where most of the Ga'Hoole work will be done. You might as well save on the production costs by using the local talent, right?

Going by Wiki's character list (don't read it, it's chock full of spoilers), I can hazard a guess as to which Aussie will be playing what owl -- Kwanten is probably going to be the young hero, Soren. Jackman sounds rather perfect for Twilight, "a confident and boastful owl who is always singing songs about himself." There's far too many wise and kingly owls to assign one to Weaving, so we'll have to wait and see on that one. I'm really very curious about this film -- an epic about owls sounds a lot more promising than half the stuff that gets optioned, anyway. At least there will be no question as to who owns the rights to this Snyder film.

Here's the first good news of 2009! Variety reports that Hugh Jackman is now off the official wishlist for Cleo, the Steven Soderbergh musical that will reportedly star Catherine Zeta-Jones as the legendary Egyptian queen, and feature the music penned by Guided by Voices.

Jackman has apparently left talks not because of the concept, but due to a scheduling conflict. (Maybe it's Drive, since everything else has vanished from his IMDB page.) Ray Winstone remains in discussion to play Julius Caesar, and Zeta-Jones is still rumored to be Cleopatra herself.

I may be one of the few celebrating the news. I know Soderbergh is a master of taking preposterous concepts and turning them into cinematic brilliance, but a Cleopatra rock musical just sounds like a spectacularly bad idea. Jackman is a wonderful stage performer, and I've been dying to see him in a movie musical for years. (If you've never seen his pre-Wolverine turn in Oklahoma!, do yourself a favor and rent it now.) But not this one -- Soderbergh or not, it just sounds too campy to be believed.

Since Variety is stumped as to what caused the schedule conflict, I'll make a New Year's wish and hope his production shingle has decided to really get moving on that remake of Carousel. Jackman has had the rights to it for awhile, and to see him singing and dancing in that is ten times better than seeing him as a rocking Mark Antony.

It's been cooking for over a year, and while you might have wished for the project to slip into development hell and never escape, Scream 4 is still on the way. According to HorrorMovies.ca, a community member has shared the latest about the sequel, which is said to reboot the horror movie-loving franchise.

If the source is right, 4 will jump into production early this year, "re-starting" the franchise, but adding in some old characters. It seems that Jamie Kennedy told iFMagazine that he might reprise his role, and that "the rest of the cast would be a mixture of new characters with 'old faces that you wouldn't believe,' and that the film will only go ahead with the involvement of director Wes Craven." As of December 13, writer Michael T. Kennedy was still waiting to hear from the Weinsteins about whether his script was a Go.

I'm not quite sure how you reboot the franchise, include the original characters, yet focus on new ones. Was there another killer out there while Billy and Stu sliced and diced their friends? Is Sidney not the only girl in Woodsboro to attract vengeful murderers? What faces will return? I've always wished for a Scream franchise where Randy and Tatum were the ones who got to live, but I think that ship has sailed.

*Note: The attached photo is a fake.

If you thought the delayed release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was too much to bear, what about never ever getting to see how things wrap up on the big screen? In the wake of news that Disney had dumped Narnia, The Independent reports that Harry Potter could be next.

Now it's not a completely out of left-field thought created for the article. It seems that screenwriter Steve Kloves "said recently that Warner Bros was worried about the prospects for the last three films in the series, since JK Rowling is no longer driving anticipation for the titles by producing new books." I guess Warner Brothers didn't hear the world-wide sighs and cries of pain after delaying Half-Blood.

While it's natural for a studio to entertain movie-cutting ideas when money is tight, it would be utterly ridiculous to end the Potter franchise with one left to go. Yes, The Subtle Knife won't follow The Golden Compass, and there's a good chance we won't get more Narnia, but there's a difference between almost flops and the most successful franchise ever. And if this rationale is true, that's just silly. The mere act of adapting books for the big screen means that the books have to wrap up before the movies do.

It's no secret that Martin Scorsese likes his gangster flicks -- and judging from box office numbers, best-of lists and Academy Awards shoveled out, something tells me moviegoers like them just as much. Ever since The Departed won Oscars, folks questioned whether Scorsese and his crew would ever attempt either a prequel or a sequel (especially since the film it's based on, Infernal Affairs, was part of a trilogy). While that's looking less and less likely, word out of Boston is Marty might want to return to the city to once again adapt the true-life story of a dangerous mobster for the big screen.

According to the Boston Herald, Scorsese secretly met with Winter Hill Gang hitman John Martorano while in town shooting Shutter Island, then had Departed producer Graham King acquire the hitman's life rights. That last part we already knew about, as it was reported in Variety earlier in the month, but we did not know that this all came about from a secret meeting with Scorsese. The Boston Herald says that most likely Departed screenwriter William Monahan will write the script, which will tell Martorano's story -- one that includes murdering 20 people before flipping for the feds after learning other members of his gang -- like James Bulger, who some say Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed was based on -- were government informants.

This, of course, wouldn't be the first time Scorsese took on the life story of a famous mob snitch -- not only was The Departed all about sniffing out "the rat," but the film Goodfellas told the real-life story of gangster Henry Hill, who eventually flipped on his guys and entered the witness protection program. No official word on whether Marty is involved with Martorano's story -- or if this would replace any Departed follow-up -- but I don't think any of us would be surprised.

It never sounded like it could really happen... Rabid television fans always try to push for spin-offs and big-screen movies, but it's usually futile, especially when the show has been canceled. But then news started to pour in that Arrested Development was actually going to charm audiences once again. We were going to get more of the Bluth family!

But it seems development has hit a snag. Fancast reports that ONE person is holding out. That's right -- eight have signed on to reprise their roles, but one hasn't jumped on-board yet. During a recent interview, creator Mitchell Hurwitz was asked about the rumors that Will Arnett and Michael Cera hadn't signed on yet. He said: "I don't want to talk about who is holding out right now because we might still work that out and I don't want to pressure anyone through the press. Although I will say that Will Arnett is gung-ho, so there's a big clue!"

The only way this statement makes sense is if Cera isn't the one who hasn't signed on yet, or if he really does want to pressure the young star into rejoining the cast. If Cera is the guy and won't sign on, and it's not for scheduling reasons, methinks it would be a big mistake. Now, when Arrested fans are finally getting more, is not the time to start worrying about typecasting. But what say you? Can the Bluths survive without George Michael?

Last Monday, yours truly was invited to help a friend of a friend out by offering to review Frost/Nixon on their podcast. As it turns out, it was the /Filmcast we were talking about, and it happened to be the same night that head honcho here Erik Davis was due to join in. Small world, eh?

So we tag-teamed our film chatter with the cool guys over at /Film -- David Chen, Adam Quigley, and Devindra Hardawar, to be specific -- and you can listen to that episode right about here. When Erik isn't twirling his hair around his finger and gushing about MTV's episodes of True Life, he and the gang manage to get around to discussing all the latest film news from Terminator: Salvation to the potential Suck Rogers with Frank Miller at the wheel.

I also took part in the /Film After Dark podcast and a recent year-end horror wrap-up extravaganza with just about everyone over at Bloody Disgusting, so with any luck and nearly no shame, we hope to share those as well. For those of you wishing to listen to David, Devindra and Adam record their next /Filmcast live, they'll be looking back on 2008 in film this coming Monday at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST.

I have the sneaking suspicion that Seth Rogen's The Green Hornet remake may go the way of its failed predecessors. Over the weekend, Monika reported that Stephen Chow was no longer directing the film -- now comes the news that Chow may not remain as Kato, either.

Chow told the AP that he had abandoned directing the film in order to make a superhero comedy starring Jack Black. "If I direct The Green Hornet, the superhero comedy will have to be delayed for two years," Chow said. "The timing might not be right for a superhero comedy in two years. And I want to make a movie based on an original idea."

Presumably, directing Black might also interfere with his Kato-playing duties -- something Chow confirms by saying that continuing in the role depends on his schedule. If you're a conspiracy theorist, you can speculate away about whether Chow's really passionate about Black and original superhero comedy, or whether it's those vague "creative differences" reported earlier.

Judging from the comments, Rogen's Hornet isn't too popular anyway. I was unsure about the comedic angle the project was taking, but Chow's casting was something to hang your hopes on, particularly if they reined in his slapstick style. But maybe that's precisely what the "differences" are. Maybe they just need to quit forcing this one, and let the Hornet sit for the unforeseeable future?