Hollywood’s infatuation with the 80’s doesn’t look like it is going to end any time soon.  AWN reports that MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE will be the next Saturday morning staple to join the live-action remake bandwagon.  John Stevenson, co-director of KUNG-FU PANDA, is spearheading the project and is planing to make a more real, and epic, rendition of the material than the live-action version made in 1987.

We’re trying to make it LORD OF THE RINGS scale, [a] very serious, adult take on that material. And the mythology that underpins the toy line and the animated series, if you take it seriously, is strong enough and rich enough to handle that. So we’re working on trying to develop that as great big action/adventure movie with a boatload of [visual] effects and a unique world you’ve never seen before, but anchor it with the really strong human story, and make it completely real and credible and dark.”

To bolster the remake, Warner Bros. is working with Mattel, the owner of the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE toy line, to work hand-in-hand on the project.

Variety reports that 20th Century Fox has picked up the 3rd title in the NARNIA series after Disney pulled funding last month.  THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER will be a join venture for Fox and Walden Media; and they are trying to get back to the magic of the NARNIA book series than the battling PRINCE CASPIAN.

Fox and Walden will split production and P&A costs for “Dawn Treader,” which is projected to go into production at a $140 million budget. That’s considerably less than the $215 million or so spent on last year’s “Prince Caspian,” which was considered something of a box office disappointment as compared with the first “Narnia” pic, 2005’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” ($419 million vs. $745 million worldwide, respectively).

Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley are reprising their roles as Caspian, Edmund and Lucy, respectively. New to the production is Will Poulter (”Son of Rambo”), who will portray Eustace Clarence Scrubb. Pic is being directed by Michael Apted, with Mark Johnson and Andrew Adamson producing. 

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is slated to be released in the holiday season of 2010.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. are in development for a new TOMB RAIDER movie.  Producer Dan Lin is re-imagining the famous adventuring archaeologist, and taking a new look at her character origins. 

Lin will produce the project via his Lin Pictures banner while Stephen Gilchrist will co-produce; Ian Livingstone of Eidos will exec produce. Matt Reilly is overseeing for Warners. Lin is the producer behind Warners’ upcoming Guy Ritchie-directed update of “Sherlock Holmes” and the adventure film “Jonny Quest.”

 It is still unclear who will be cast as the iconic Lara Croft, especially after Angelina Jolie’s performances in LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER and LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE.

As an open-writing assignment, the project is still in its nascent stages. An actress who could play the role Angelina Jolie made famous would likely come on after a writer and director are attached. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Lasseter will be awarded The Venice Film Festival’s 2009 Golden Lion Award.  This lifetime achievement award is to honor Lasseter’s work as director, producer, and co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and it’s consecutive stream of successful and entertaining projects.

“Lasseter has not only contributed in a fundamental manner to bringing animation cinema to new heights … but (he) has also become one of the symbols of the most precious, vital and inventive tradition of the great Hollywood cinema,” Venice artistic director Marco Mueller said Monday.

The 66th Venice Film Festival will take place September 2 - 12.  Several of Pixar’s veterans will be at the event to celebrate Lasseter’s honor as well.

Protests are popping up all over the internet due to M. Night Shyamalan’s casting of the live action version of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.  AWN reports that fans are concerned that Paramount and Nickelodeon are “whitewashing” the film, casting all white actors in a conspicuously Asian world.  On the blog CARTOON BREW, the comic artist Derek Kirk Kim wrote,

“…Imagine if someone had made a “fantasy” movie in which the entire world was built around African culture. Everyone is wearing ancient African clothes, African hats, eating traditional African food, writing in an African language, living in African homes, all encompassed in an African landscape…but everyone is white. How offensive, insulting, and disrespectful would that be toward Africans and African Americans? How much more offensive would it be if only the heroes were white and all the villians [sic] and background characters were African American? (I wince in fear thinking about THE LAST AIRBENDER suffering from the latter dynamic — which it probably will.)”

Currently M. Night Shyamalan has offered the leading roles to Noah Ringer, Jackson Rathbone, Nicola Peltz, and Jessee McCartney.

The Hollywood Reporter was able to get the reactions of several film-makers and stars about the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards.  Ari Folman, director of WALTZ WITH BASHIR, spoke about the timelessness of his message of the hell of war despite the fact that the first Lebanon war happened 3 decades ago.

“When we were working on the film the war in Lebanon had just started, some people on my team had a little bit of concern about the timing; they were worried we’d be coming out too late,” Folman recalled. “And I told them, ‘Guys — you can count on our leaders that it will always be relevant. And now more than two years passed and with the war in Gaza, nothing’s changed, really.” While the film was nominated for foreign, it missed the cut on animated — but Folman said he was not disappointed. “I think that the animation nominee is about big studios and big money, and we’re not in that game. We had a budget that was exactly 1% of ‘WALL-E.’ “

Speaking for the WALL-E nomination for Pixar, Andrew Stanton tells of the risks of having not only a robot love-story, but one in which the main characters say next to nothing.

Stanton said he was afraid that because there was no dialogue in the first part of the movie, people would think “the script just fell into place.” “It was very hard writing it. There was no room for error because everything was interpretation when you watched it, and you had to be like an orchestrator. You just had to be in complete control in what the instruments were doing so that you didn’t give the wrong signals.”

While KUNG-FU PANDA Mike Osborne’s views are short and sweet.

Mark Osborne, co-director with John Stevenson on “Kung Fu Panda,” called their nomination in the best animated feature category “an amazing validation for the entire crew.”

The big news today is that the official nominations for the Oscars have been released.  While WALL-E didn’t hit the Best Picture nomination, it was a shoe-in for Best Animated Feature along with KUNG-FU PANDA and BOLT.  WALL-E also grabbed a nod for Best Original Screenplay, and Best Song.

This year the Best Animated Short category is lively with 5 nominations; LAVATORY LOVESTORY, PRESTO, OKTAPODI, LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES, and THIS WAY UP.  WALTZ OF BASHIR grabbed the nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

The nominations for Achievement in Visual Effects went to IRON MAN, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, and THE DARK KNIGHT.  And no real surprise that Heath Ledger is in the running for Best Supporting Actor for his creepy version of the Joker.  

And always last, but never least, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, FROST/NIXON, MILK, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, and THE READER are up for Best Picture.

For the whole list of nominations go to The Oscar’s 81st Academy List.

More bad news on the job front.  AWN reports that Warner Bros. is to cut 10% of its jobs worldwide, that means 800 more people to add to the unemployment count.  Despite Warner Bros. solid performance last year, the studio is taking the recession as an opportunity to create a meaner, leaner company.  Alan Horn and Barry Meyer of WB write:

“… The changing entertainment business landscape, shifting consumer demand and the overall state of the economy have affected companies around the world, and Warner Bros. is not immune to these factors.”

In order to keep up with the work-flow, WB will be outsource many of the cut jobs to third-party companies.

The recession has claimed another casualty in the world 3d animation and motion graphics.  Autodesk, the company that makes the industry software 3ds max, and Maya, just cut 10% of their work force. VFX World reports:

Carl Bass, president and CEO at Autodesk, said, “Global economic conditions continue to impact our end-user demand. Given the current uncertainty of the economic environment, the cost savings initiatives we are implementing are prudent. Autodesk has a strong cash position and leadership across multiple product sectors and geographies.”

This will not make the software harder to get since Autodesk resellers and online buying is going strong, but it might make effect Autodesk’s standard of having new versions of their software releasing each year.

Variety reports that the the fight between Warner Bros. and Fox over the rights to the film adaptation of the comic WATCHMEN has ended in settlement.  The one true winner is the fans,WATCHMEN is still scheduled for its March 6th release dates and the avid audience won’t have to wait for their fix.  As for the studios, Warner keeps the rights to release the film, and Fox will not have their name on it.  However, Fox will receive a sizable back-end chunk out of the gross worldwide, and an upfront $5 million to $10 million to cover court fees, and development when it was in Fox’s hands.

A joint statement said, “Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture “Watchmen” in a confidential settlement. Warner Bros. acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography.

Fox acknowledges that Warner Brothers acted in good faith in defending against those claims. Warner Bros. and Fox, like all “Watchmen” fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film’s March 6 release in theatres.”