And Alien. My goodness. That film is as compelling, horrifying and inspiring as it was influential. Entire sub-genres of the film business owe themselves entirely to that flick's success. It's The Godfather of sci-fi horror cinema; Cameron's Aliens is its Godfather II.

Will Smith will star in a modern day adaptation of Daniel Keyes' classic science fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon. The novel tells the moving story of Charlie, a man with an abnormally low IQ who undergoes experimental surgery to boost his intelligence. Charlie narrates his tale in a series of progress reports to the doctors who have performed the procedure, documenting and reflecting on his transformation from someone with a low IQ to genius level and beyond.

J.Michael Straczynski, famous for creating the Babylon 5 science fiction TV series, has been working hard at getting a screenplay ready for Warner Bros.' upcoming Forbidden Planet remake (which we reported on back in January). Unfortunately though, in a recent post he added to a Babylon 5 forum, he revealed he's had to scrap the current draft because details of the storyline had leaked on the Internet.

Sony has officially confirmed Men in Black 3 and filming could start early 2010, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog. Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen is writing the script and Barry Sonnenfeld (director of the first two Men in Black films) may be back to direct. No news on whether Tommy Lee Jones or Will Smith will return. The first Men in Black film was released in 1997 and the second in 2002.

The first movie had some great moments, and apparently was one reason why a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie took so long to get off the ground. Studios felt the whole comedy science fiction angle had already been covered too well after the film was released. It was a massive box office success at the time.

According to Pajiba.com, Peter Berg is no longer directing the movie based on Frank Herbert's science fiction classic Dune. Paramount, the studio behind the new adaptation, has begun the tough search to find a replacement. According to Pajiba's contacts the search has run into two issues:

"1) they're looking for a director who can put the movie together for under $175 million, which sounds manageable, but they don't want anything resembling the crap effects of the '84 film, and 2) they want a director who already has a pre-existing passion for the novel and is enthusiastic about the project."

As we reported earlier, director Ridley Scott is on board to direct a new Alien movie, a prequel to his 1979 science fiction classic starring Sigourney Weaver. The director recently spoke to Empire Magazine and revealed a tiny bit more about what he has in mind. He was in the UK for the London Film Festival.