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The Rock has signed up to star in Phil Joanou's action drama Faster, according to Variety.

The former WWE star, real name Dwayne Johnson, will play an ex-con who is determined to avenge the death of his brother, who was killed in a heist ten years earlier.

Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray, who worked with Johnson on The Game Plan and upcoming movie Tooth Fairy, will co-produce.

The project begins shooting in August.

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Warner Bros has delayed the release of its sci-fi action movie Green Lantern by six months.

The comic book adaptation had initially been handed a December 17, 2010 release date, but the studio has now pushed it back to June 17, 2011.

Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) will direct the film in Australia later this year from script by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim.

Bradley Cooper is the latest actor to emerge as a contender for the coveted role. He can next be seen in comedy The Hangover, released in the UK on June 12.

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Katie Holmes has signed up to star in Miramx thriller Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, reports Variety.

The project, scripted by Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins, centres on a girl who moves into a new home with her father and his girlfriend only to discover that the house is inhabited by evil creatures. It is based on a TV movie that aired on ABC in 1973.

Comic book artist and del Toro protégé Troy Nixey will make his directorial debut on the project, which is scheduled to film in Melbourne this summer. It is Holmes's first big screen role since last year's Mad Money.

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark will be released as 'A Guillermo del Toro Presentation'.

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Nine people have reportedly been injured in the second accident to occur near the set of Nicolas Cage's new movie in three days.

According to reports. the incident happened after a sports car crashed into a parked vehicle near where The Sorcerer's Apprentice was being filmed in New York at around 3.30am yesterday.

The driver of the car later told officials that she had swerved to avoid a taxi, but that the two vehicles had jumped the curb and hit a group of people who were sitting under a marquee.

All those involved, which included some of the movie's crew members, are reported to have received treatment for minor injuries at nearby hospitals.

Earlier this week, two onlookers were hurt after a stunt driver lost control of his car while filming a chase scene in Times Square. A lawyer for one of the victims has reportedly confirmed that she will sue for damages.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice, based on the sequence from Fantasia, stars Cage as a sorcerer who takes a young student under his wing. It is scheduled for release on July 16, 2010.

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Lost actor Matthew Fox has been tapped for the lead role in thriller Billy Smoke.

The project, based on an upcoming Oni Press comic book, focuses on an assassin who quits his profession to rid the world of all contract killers.

Jeffrey Nachmanoff will write and direct the project for Warner Bros. He made his directorial debut on this year's Traitor.

Nachmanoff has been working on the script for Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, while Fox recently appeared in the films Speed Racer and Vantage Point.

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Jerry O'Connell has joined the cast of Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3-D, reports Entertainment Weekly.

The project is a remake of Joe Dante's cult 1978 original which saw flesh-eating fish accidentally released into a river running through a small town.

Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Ving Rhames and Jessica Szohr are already on board for the horror film. Richard Dreyfuss will make a brief cameo appearance in an homage to his role in Jaws.

Piranha 3-D begins production next week in Arizona. It will be released on March 19, 2010 through The Weinstein Company.

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Steve Coogan and Rosario Dawson have been added to the star-studded cast of Percy Jackson.

The Chris Columbus-directed project, adaptated from Rick Riordan's children's book The Lightning Thief, involves Percy, the half-human son of Poseidon who attempts to prevent a war erupting between the gods in present-day America.

Coogan has been cast as Hades, ruler of the underworld, while Dawson will portray his imprisoned wife, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean and Kevin McKidd have already been cast as Greek gods in the Fox 2000 fantasy. They will be joined by teen actors Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson.

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J.J. Abrams has said that he never felt that the original Star Trek TV series gave him "a way in" to the programme.

The director of the new prequel movie told The Guardian that he was a much bigger fan of The Twilight Zone when he was younger.

Abrams said: "Star Trek always felt like a silly, campy thing. I remember appreciating it, but feeling like I didn't get it. I felt it didn't give me a way in.

"There was a captain, there was this first officer, they were talking a lot about adventures and not having them as much as I would've liked. Maybe I wasn't smart enough, maybe I wasn't old enough."

He claimed that his previously mentioned limited knowledge of the show and its movies could have been an asset when making the new picture.

Abrams said: "I didn't want to become a student of Star Trek. I felt that was actually one of the few advantages I had. I was trying to make a movie, not trying to make a Trek movie."

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Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer have been added to the cast of mob drama The Irishman.

Jonathan Hensleigh, who previously worked with Stevenson on The Punisher, will pen the screenplay and direct.

The Irishman is based on real-life mobster Danny Greene (Stevenson), who ruled Cleveland's criminal underworld in the 1970s. Walken is cast as notorious loan shark Shondor Birns, while Kilmer will play a cop who becomes close friends with Greene.

The film is based on Rick Porrello's bestseller To Kill The Irishman: The War That Crippled The Mafia.

According to Variety, shooting on Code Entertainment's new project begins on May 19 in Detroit.

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Danny Boyle has said that Nic Roeg's Walkabout and Don't Look Now are the films that changed his life.

The Oscar-winning director of Slumdog Millionare told The Independent that Roeg had inspired him during his own career.

Boyle said: "Nic Roeg has been a real inspiration as a director. Finding out that he was a British filmmaker astounded me.

"I watched his movies, including Don't Look Now, Walkabout and The Man Who Fell To Earth and it was wonderful to feel that someone from our own country had made those films."

He added: "The thing about Hollywood is that it always feels so far away, so distant, so glamorous, so out of reach. But it isn't."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the newspaper that the movie that changed his life was Chariots of Fire "because it's all about the potential of young people being realised", while Sir Alan Sugar opted for The Shawshank Redemption.

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Christian Bale has revealed that he refused to watch television coverage regarding the death of Heath Ledger.

Fox News reports that The Dark Knight actor would not focus on what he felt was a "voyeuristic outlook" the news media had provided on the death of his co-star.

"I paid no attention to it. I knew him, I knew the family and why the hell would I sit there listening to idiots who don’t know anything at all?" Bale told Esquire UK. "I literally didn’t read anything, didn’t watch anything [after he died]."

Bale added that Ledger was a close friend, adding: "He was a good guy. There’s not a lot of actors who I stay in touch with. But Heath was one of them."

His next film Terminator: Salvation is released in the US on May 21 and in the UK on June 5.

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Star Trek’s opening domestic gross has been predicted to be in the region of $50 to $60 million, reports say.

According to Variety, advance tickets for the film directed by J.J. Abrams have seen a surge in purchases since Tuesday, with 87 IMAX theatre showings already sold out.

Paramount studios have also launched an international publicity campaign, while the movie will open in every major territory except Mexico and Japan.

"The publicity campaign is the most sustained and the most in-depth that I can ever remember," Paramount international distribution executive Andrew Cripps said. "We've had incredibly supportive filmmakers who understand that they need to get the word out."

Star Trek opens on May 8.

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Robert De Niro and Edward Norton have signed up to star in indie thriller Stone, reports say.

The story revolves around a correctional officer (De Niro) who is seduced by the spouse of a convicted arsonist (Norton) up for parole, according to Variety.

The Painted Veil director John Curran will helm the movie, while Angus MacLachlan (Junebug) wrote the screenplay.

Stone will be the debut film from Mimran Schur Pictures, which was set up earlier this year by private investor David Mimran and former Geffen Records president Jordan Schur.

De Niro has also been confirmed to return in comedy sequel Meet The Little Fockers.

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Rob Lowe and Lauren Holly have been cast in the upcoming film Too Late To Say Goodbye.

The flick, a Lifetime Movie Network original, is adapted from Ann Rule's best-selling novel of the same name.

The story centres on Jenn and Bobby Corbin (Lowe), who have a seemingly perfect marriage until it emerges that Bobby has had an affair.

Jenn then embarks on a relationship with a mystery man on the internet though is later found dead. Holly will play her sister, Heather, who sets out to investigate what she believes was a murder.

The script is penned by Adam Till, Fabrizio Filippo and Donald Martin, while Norma Bailey will direct.

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Keanu Reeves has signed up to star in Universal's modern retelling of The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Revolutionary Road writer Justin Haythe will pen the script, while Nicolas Winding Refn is currently in talks about directing the project.

The original classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson told the story of a doctor who develops an evil self. Plot details about the latest movie adaptation have not been revealed.

Universal is also working on a version of the famous story with Guillermo Del Toro. However, due to his commitments with The Hobbit, the Hellboy director's version is unlikely to be released in the near future.

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Samuel L. Jackson will star in a movie about Andrew Mwangura, the man who acted as a negotiator between pirates and ship owners during the recent hijacking off the coast of Africa.

According to Variety, Jackson and H20 Motion Pictures have acquired the movie rights to Mwangura's life story with a view to the Snakes On A Plane star taking on the lead role.

Mwangura is a freelance journalist and runs humanitarian organisation the Seafarers' Assistance Programme. He secured the freedom of the V.S. Faina crew for $3.4 million, taking no fee for his work.

"Andrew has the trust of the pirates and the ship owners, and his loyalty is to the kidnapped crews that get caught in the middle of these episodes," said H20's Andras Hamori.

Jackson is currently working on Iron Man 2, reprising his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury, and will next star in Unthinkable with Michael Sheen.

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Minka Kelly has joined the cast of Leighton Meester's thriller The Roommate.

Friday Night Lights star Kelly will play Sara, a college student who becomes the object of obsession for her freshman roommate Rebecca (Meester), says The Hollywood Reporter.

Aly Michalka and Matt Lanter have also boarded the cast for the Screen Gems project, which will feature Twilight's Cam Gigandet.

Christian E. Christiansen is directing The Roommate from a script by Sonny Mallhi.

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Vin Diesel has signed up for the lead role in Paramount Pictures video game adaptation The Wheelman, according to Variety.

2 Fast 2 Furious director John Singleton will helm the live-action adaptation of the Ubisoft game, which was released last month and features Vin Diesel as the main character.

Diesel's character in the film will be an "expert driver who comes out of retirement to protect a woman from his past".

Rich Wilkes, Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell have written the screenplay.

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Zachary Quinto had such a hard time training his hand to make the Vulcan salute for the new Star Trek movie director J.J. Abrams had to glue his fingers together.

Quinto plays a younger version of Leonard Nimoy's original Spock in the new sci-fi movie, but couldn't train his digits to separate for the "live long and prosper" Vulcan salute.

The actor was so desperate to get the V-shaped hand gesture right he even tried binding his fingers with rubber bands - but it didn't work, forcing Abrams to reach for the glue pot.

A source tells the New York Post a fed-up Abrams "glued Zachary's fingers together during filming" to finally get the shot.

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Hugh Jackman has thanked Wolverine fans for giving him and his new movie a $175 million (£117 million) opening week around the world.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine stormed to the top of box office charts all over the globe following its release last week (ends01May09) and the Aussie star is extremely grateful to fans who turned out in droves to see it at the cinema.

He says, "I was blown away... (and) so grateful to the fans and to everybody who came out in force and seemed to love the movie.

"I just want to say thank you to them... I love my job. I feel like the luckiest guy."

And he admits the 'fan-demonium' means there will be a sequel.

He adds, "The fans have been very vocal about the story they want to hear and that’s the samurai story set in Japan."