Sci-Fi Storm

Warner Brothers is eyeing a more faithful adaptation of Conan the Barbarian, with Boaz Yakin (Fresh) to write and possibly direct. Of course, they’ve previously tried with the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix Trilogy) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City).

Early numbers show that the latest Disney/Pixar venture, Cars, took in $62.8 million on the weekend, shaping up to be the third-best Disney/Pixar opening, beating out Monsters, Inc.. Last week’s winner, The Break Up, still managed $20.5 million, with X-Men: The Last Stand, $15.5M; The Omem, $15.45M; Over the Hedge, $10.3M. Update 6/13: Disney actually downgraded the weekend take due to a weak Sunday to $60.1M.

Bryan Singer told SCI FI Wire that he cut a rather interesting scene from Superman Returns because it didn’t fit the movie – but isn’t sure where the scene may show up. The scene features Superman returning to his home planet of Krypton – to find it destroyed. For whatever reason, Singer doesn’t think it will end up on a DVD – but perhaps in 3D IMAX: “I think it would be coolest in 3-D, because of just stuff that’s flying around.”

Got this in email: Len Wiseman, creator/producer/director of the Underworld movies, gave an interview to iFMagazine where he mentions he will be directing Die Hard 4, and will NOT be directing the next Underworld movie but will write and produce.

The latest installment of the X-Men franchise set two records this weekend – the best 4-day Memorial Weekend take at $120.1 million, and the 4th best 3-day opening ever at $103.1 million. The Da Vinci Code placed second ($43 million for the 4 days), and animated Over the Hedge came in third ($35.3M). Mission: Impossible III continues to fade, earning only $8.6 million.

Bryan Burk, executive producer on Lost, has signed on to work on Star Trek XI with Lost co-workers Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams. Speaking at the fan-run charity event “Destination: L.A. 2”, he also spoke about the rumored plot, which SCI FI Wire says he “dismissed”, but the quote indicates only that reports leaked “prematurely” and that “…no formal statement made from any of us.” Maybe there’s hope…

Disney has announced that they have pushed back the release of the second Narnia movie Prince Caspian from Christmas 2007 to Summer 2008, in order to avoid problems with Colombia’s release of children’s fantasy tale The Water Horse the week before. In other news, Darren Aronofsky’s oft-delayed The Fountain is finally nearing release (not announced but expected in the fall), and star Hugh Jackman says the movie will surprise people, and calls Aronofsky “genius” and a “modern-day Kubrick”. Jackman’s character is a man shown at three different points over 1,000 years, following a love story between him and Rachel Weisz’ (The Mummy) character.

Bryan Singer’s schedule is filling fast. So fast, it seems, that he may not have time to direct the planned Logan’s Run remake. Warner Brothers and producer Joel Silver want the project to get moving this fall – but Singer already has plans for a sequel to this summers Superman Returns.

A new seven minute trailer for X-Men: The Last Stand will go live tonight at midnight EDT (04:00 GMT) over at Dell. Also there is a chance to win a special “XPS X-Men: The Last Stand Collector?s Edition computer system” worth about $10k, for the hardcore extreme gamer. Sweepstakes entries can be made thourggh June 18th.

Thinking they can do better than previous attempts at bringing a sword-and-sorcery game to the big screen, Legendary Pictures (part of Warner Brothers) obtained the rights to the massively-multiplayer adventure game World of Warcraft, and will produce it in conjuction with Blizzard Entertainment. So, how long before Sony announces a fast-tracked Everquest movie to beat them to the punch?