Fox Is To Remove Special Features From Rental DVDs

According to VideoBusiness, 20th Century Fox has announced that, in an attempt to increase DVD sales, they are pulling most, if not all, special features from rental versions of DVDs. Retail DVDs will still have all of their special features. It will start taking effect March 31st, which means movies such as Marley and Me, Slumdog Millionaire, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Wrestler, and Notorious will be subject to this policy.

Upcoming Marvel Movies Get New Release Dates

Marvel Studios has announced new release dates for a few of their upcoming films.

Thor, which was originally scheduled for a July 16, 2010 release date has now been moved to June 17, 2011.

The Captain America movie moves a few weeks back from May 6, 2011 to July 22, 2011.
The Avengers film will be released almost a year later than originally announced, moving from July 15, 2011 to May 4, 2012.

In addition, the studio also confirmed that Sony’s Spider-Man 4 will be released on May 6, 2011.

Iron Man 2’s original release date of May 7, 2010 remains intact. So, overall, it looks like 2011 will be an huge year of comic-book superhero films.

This is all leading up to a 2012 release date of The Avengers.

Stephen King's "It" set to rise again as a movie

Warner Bros. is bringing horror novelist Stephen King's It to life again on the big screen. Screenwriter Dave Kajganich is set to adapt the story. The story follows a group of kids called "The Loser Club". They encounter the creature called "It", which preys on children, and whose favorite form is the sadistic clown, "Pennywise". When the kids are later adults, they are called back to regroup, and once again take Pennywise down. The novel is set in 1958 and 1985, but the film will be set in present day.

It was a best-selling book of 1986, and was turned into a T.V. series in 1990. The series starred John Ritter , Harry Anderson , Tim Reid, Annette O'Toole and Richard Thomas, with Tim Curry playing Pennywise.

Scarlett Johansson is Confirmed to Replace Emily Blunt as Black Widow

Nikki Finke has confirmed that Scarlett Johansson will replace Emily Blunt as Natasha Romanoff (aka the Black Widow) in Iron Man 2, The Avengers, and other connected Marvel adaptations. Scarlett had already screen-tested for the role, but lost it to Blunt. But not too long ago, it was revealed that Blunt might have to step down from playing Black Widow due to a schedule conflict with Gulliver's Travels. Eliza Dushku had since then tossed her name up for consideration, but apparently Jon Favreau and Marvel want bigger names for this part. Blunt's reps are still trying to get the schedule under alignment, but Iron Man 2 still doesn't have a start date or schedule.

Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" Gets Limited Release in November, and Wide Release in December

For those of you waiting to see The Princess and the Frog, which goes back to the traditional hand-drawn films done by Disney, you won't have to wait as long as you thought. Disney is now moving up the film’s wide opening date and staggering its release, with a limited run in New York and LA starting on November 25th, followed by a wide release on December 11th. This makes the wide release come available two weeks before its original Christmas Day opening.