Movie P.I.

Walt Disney Pictures has brought online this first full clip from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, coming to 3D theaters and IMAX 3D on March 5th. The anticipated fantasy-adventure stars Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Mia Wasikowska, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Christopher Lee, Paul Whitehouse and Barbara Windsor.

The Los Angeles Times talked to Steven Spielberg about directing The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which was shot just like James Cameron’s Avatar. The big screen adaptation of the popular Hergé creation stars Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook.

Spielberg used the performance capture technique out of “my respect for the art of Hergé and wanting to get as close to that art as I could,” he said.

“Hergé wrote about fictional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe,” Spielberg added. “It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. It just seemed that live action would be too stylized for an audience to relate to. You’d have to have costumes that are a little outrageous when you see actors wearing them. The costumes seem to fit better when the medium chosen is a digital one.”

On the motion capture stage (called the volume), Spielberg could watch what the actors were doing — in real time — on a screen that showed them in the film universe.

“When Captain Haddock runs across the volume, the cameras capture all the information of his physical and emotional moves,” the director said. “So as Andy Serkis runs across the stage, there’s Captain Haddock on the monitor, in full anime, running along the streets of Belgium. Not only are the actors represented in real time, they enter into a three-dimensional world.”

More of the interview here. The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn is scheduled to hit theaters on December 23, 2011.

Leonardo DiCaprio is looking to play the lead role in Prisoners, a Warner Bros. Pictures suspense thriller that Antoine Fuqua was going to direct but has since dropped out of.

In the film, written by Aaron Guzikowski, a desperate father turns vigilante and abducts the man he suspects is behind the disappearance of his eight year old daughter and her best friend, after cops fail to find the little girls and release the suspect. The script made the most recent Black List of best unproduced screenplays.

Alcon Entertainment partners Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson are producing with Kira Davis and Adam Kohlbrenner.

DiCaprio can currently be seen in theaters in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and this July in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. The actor is also narrating Hubble 3D, opening March 19th. He will likely take another project first before doing Prisoners.

Lionsgate has brought online a new restricted trailer for director Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, starring Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, Lyndsy Fonseca, Mark Strong, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Moretz.

The film, opening April 16, tells the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski (Johnson), a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. As any good superhero would, he chooses a new name — Kick-Ass — assembles a suit and mask to wear, and gets to work fighting crime. There’s only one problem standing in his way: Kick-Ass has absolutely no superpowers.

His life is forever changed as he inspires a subculture of copy cats, is hunted by assorted violent and unpleasant characters, and meets up with a pair of crazed vigilantes, including an 11-year-old sword-wielding dynamo, Hit Girl (Moretz) and her father, Big Daddy (Cage).

Summit Entertainment announced today that the trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will hit theaters with the the studio’s own Remember Me, which also stars Robert Pattinson, on March 12th. The trailer is expected to be released online earlier that week.

In “Eclipse,” Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

Opening in conventional theaters and IMAX on June 30, the David Slade-directed sequel stars Kristen Stewart, Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone and Dakota Fanning.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Universal Pictures is looking to reboot the theatrical “American Pie” series by developing a new version. The third title in the franchise, American Wedding, hit theaters in 2003, and was followed by a slew of DVD titles that carried the “American Pie Presents” banner.

While Universal declined to comment on the report, the newspaper adds that at least some of the original cast is interested in coming back for the new film, though no deals are in place.

The original films, including 1999′s American Pie and 2001′s American Pie 2 starred such names as Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Seann William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Chris Klein, Shannon Elizabeth, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari and Eugene Levy, who also appeared in the DVD titles.

Overture Films has debuted a new Red Band clip from director Breck Eisner’s remake of George A. Romero’s classic The Crazies, hitting theaters on February 26. Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker and Joe Anderson star as four friends who find themselves trapped in their hometown. You can watch the clip using the player below.

Last week, Warner Bros. Pictures moved director Sylvain White’s The Losers from April 9 to June 4 in order to get it away from Clash of the Titans’ April 2 release and to fix some things from a recent test screening.

It sounds like the studio will be able to do this much quicker as they’ve now decided on an April 23 release date for the action-thriller, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Holt McCallany, Oscar Jaenada, Jason Patric and Peter Macdissi.

The other wide releases scheduled for April 23 are Universal’s MacGruber and 20th Century Fox’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Avatar producer John Landau revealed to MTV that Marc Webb, director of new untitled Spider-Man film, met with James Cameron last week to discuss shooting the movie in 3D. It was announced last week that the studio intends to go that route.

“Last [week] we met the director of [the next 'Spider-Man' film],” Landau said. “[Webb] wants to do the next one in 3D, which they’ve announced that they want to do. So, we want to try to support that as much as possible.”

Landau added that they want to support filmmakers who will shoot in 3D from the get-go.

“Other movies are turning to it now, some of which I agree with, some of which I don’t agree with. ‘Clash of The Titans’ is coming out in 3D; they’re converting it very hastily into 3D. I’m not in favor if that,” Landau explained. “If you want to shoot a 3D movie, shoot it in 3D.”

The NY Daily News caught up with Quentin Tarantino, who says he’s interested in making a Western, but one that is a little different.

“I’d like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with,” Tarantino said. “Let’s shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it ‘A Southern.’”

Tarantino has previously mentioned he’d still like to do a third Kill Bill movie as well.