Universal Pictures apparently wants to follow the enormous success of their ABBA musical Mamma Mia! by reviving Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s early hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar with (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb at the helm, this according to the Risky Biz Blog .

ComingSoon.net’s horror-related site ShockTillYouDrop.com attended the Comic-Con press conference for New Line’s upcoming relaunch of A Nightmare on Elm Street with Jackie Earle Haley taking on the role of Freddie Krueger. In attendance were Haley himself, director Samuel Bayer and producers Andrew Forma and Brad Fuller from Platinum Dunes:

Just one week after ComingSoon.net broke the news that Walt Disney Pictures is hoping to get the cameras rolling on the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie in April or May of next year, Variety is reporting that director Rob Marshall ( Chicago , Memoirs of a Geisha and the upcoming musical Nine ) is in talks with Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer to helm the fourth chapter in the adventures of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. It makes sense that Bruckheimer would be actively looking for a director if they plan to start shooting next spring, especially with Gore Verbinski still being noncommittal about possibly returning for the fourth go-round.

Having directed three movies based on existing properties—whether it’s the remake of Dawn of the Dead or the adaptation of two graphic novels—filmmaker Zack Snyder is getting a lot of interest for his next live action project Sucker Punch! , being that it’s his first movie based on an original idea of his own. It’s also his first movie featuring a predominantly female ensemble cast, and even more interest comes from his casting of Vanessa Hudgens, the co-star of Disney’s kid-friendly High School Musical franchise, in a true tough girl gun-wielding role. ComingSoon.net had a chance to catch up with Hudgens a couple weeks back and she talked briefly about the role and her excitement on working with Snyder.

After months of rumor and speculation, Variety confirms that 20th Century Fox plans to keep the Alien franchise alive with a prequel film that will be directed by original helmer Ridley Scott. The announcement that Fox has hired a writer comes just two months after the 30th Anniversary of Scott’s original sci-fi horror film which launched a series of movie sequels, a number of comic books, and two movies that pit the Aliens against Fox’s other creature franchise, the Predator. Screenwriter Jon Spaihts has been hired to write the prequel after the studio was impressed by his work on two space thrillers, both for Keanu Reeves, called Passengers and Shadow 19 .

Last year, Heather Newgen visited the Downey, California set of Stephen Sommer’s upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra , based on the popular Hasbro toys and subsequent comic books and cartoons. You can read the rest of the full report including interviews with Ray Park (Snake Eyes) and producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura over on Superhero Hype .

Michael and Peter Spierig, the Australian filmmakers behind the low-budget zombie flick Undead and the upcoming sci-fi vampire movie Daybreakers (released by Lionsgate on January 8, 2010) have been hired by Warner Bros. to write a new version of the 1935 pirate swashbuckler Captain Blood , updating the Errol Flynn classic about British doctor Peter Blood, who leaves his practice to becomes a pirate in the Caribbean. The brothers won a heated battle against other filmmakers and pitched their own take on the movie to Warner Bros. and producer Bill Gerber, which would take the story into outer space.

ShockTillYouDrop.com sits down with Korean visionary Park Chan-wook ( Old Boy , Lady Vengeance ) to talk about his new vampire movie Thirst .

Yahoo Movies! has debuted the first trailer for Wes Anderson’s stop motion animated film The Fantastic Mr. Fox , based on the children’s book by Roald Dahl and featuring the voices of George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Owen Wilson, Meryl Streep and Jason Schwartzman.

ComingSoon.net has learned that director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, creators of the Saw franchise, are developing a new film noir/action project titled X-Ray .