Robert Downey Jr, star of the upcoming Ironman 2, looks set to take on the 3D science fiction space thriller Gravity, directed by Children of Men's Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron wrote Gravity’s script with his son, Jonas. According to Deadline Hollywood, Downey is a big fan of Alfonso Cuaron's work and has wanted to team up with him for some time. Shooting is set to take place in London in July, just in time for Downey to begin work on the Sherlock Holmes sequel with director Guy Ritchie and Jude Law (also filming in London).

Cuarón is the director behind the post apocalyptic Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (one of the best Harry Potter films), as well as Y tu mamá también. Gravity was originally set to feature Angelina Jolie in the lead, but she pulled out recently when Warner Bros. took the project over from Universal.

There have been a lot of ape productions over the last 40 years, none as powerful as the first Planet of the Apes film in 1968 that starred Charlton Heston and featured the unforgettable final scene of The Statue of Liberty rising from the sand and waves (watch a clip of the final scene on YouTube at the end of this article). Based on the Planet of the Apes novel by Pierre Boulle, first published in 1963, apart from the Heston classic, we’ve had Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1970, Escape from the Planet of the Apes in 1971, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes in 1972, Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973 and the television series’ Planet of the Apes in 1974 and an animated Return to the Planet of the Apes in 1975 (there is even a series of Planet of the Ape comics). You may also remember the less than average Planet of the Apes remake directed by Tim Burton and starring Mark Wahlberg in 2001 (personally I’m trying to forget the whole thing).

Producer Robert Rodriguez has previewed the first footage from a new Predators movie starring Adrien Brody and Laurence Fishburne at the South by Southwest Film Festival and Conference in Austin, Texas. There’s no Arnold Schwarzenegger, star of the first Predator film, but the excellent new acting additions of Brody and Fishbourne may help Predators rise above the B-Grade level of its sequel and tie–in predecessors, which include Predator 2 (1990) and the two Alien crossover films Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).

If you wanted further evidence that science fiction authors and film makers are outcasts of the cinematic and literary establishment (as we argued in Why Science Fiction authors just can't win) recent quotes I stumbled across in USA Today from one of Avatar's stars, Sigourney Weaver, highlight this point yet again:

"Jim was telling someone about how sci-fi had always gotten a bad rap, and that maybe now that would change," Weaver said. "And I thought, 'Science fiction? Really? Is that what this movie is?' Because to me it's just a great story that happens to take place in another time."

Science fiction films obviously can't have great stories, can they? I wasn't overjoyed with Avatar's story, but reacting as if it was something else simply because "it's good" seems crazy, and illustrates the uphill battle creators of genre fiction and film face. Perhaps though, Sigourney was simply highlighting this point, trying to downplay the science fiction tag to try and give it a better chance at this year's Academy Awards.  Later in the article, when asked whether Avatar has a chance, she appeared to be pessimistic about Avatar's chances of landing some of the big awards:

Duncan Jones is the director responsible for one of the standout films of 2009, a well crafted science fiction thriller called Moon. If you're a fan (which I definitely am), you'll be glad to hear that he plans to return to the same universe with a new film called Mute Witness. Jones told SFX magazine that Mute Witness bears some notable similarities:

"It takes place in the same timeline as Moon," Jones said. "In fact, Sam Rockwell's character makes a cameo appearance in the plot. I have asked Sam to reprise the part, and he seems happy about that."

"Like Moon it is a very human story - and one of the big reasons I like SF is because it allows you to do that while offering audiences the chance of escapism," he said.

MTV reports that Roland Emmerich, director of the upcoming adaptation of Isaac Asimov's epic Foundation trilogy, will film the three movies in 3-D, using technology similar to the CG motion-capture techniques James Cameron used in Avatar.

When asked if Asimov's Foundation trilogy would be in 3-D and in motion capture, Emmerich replied, "Yes."

He added that:

"Probably now all big movies have to be 3-D. It's not only the effect of 3-D, [Avatar has] just shown that if you do a movie in 3-D, you can ask for more money and that's the trick. I think now everybody who does bigger movies has to shoot them in 3-D. I think there's no way around it. I was on the set of Avatar and I saw how it worked and I really thought, 'That's the ultimate way of making movies.'"

It’s ten years since we first encountered Richard B. Riddick in the monochrome SF horror, Pitch Black. And six years since we were treated to its sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, in which writer/director David Twohy opened up the vista onto an immense and vivid universe barely hinted at in the first movie. Rumours of a third movie have been doing the rounds for years, chiefly fuelled by The Riddick himself, Vin Diesel. The actor’s commitment to the project is understandable as the surly, gravelly-voiced Riddick is one of only a handful of memorable anti-heroes in recent SF cinema.

After two long years without a word, there's finally some news about the troubled remake of Escape From New York, John Carpenter's 1981 SF classic. According to Vulture (The New York Magazine) New Line Cinema has finally got a script that it's happy with and is prepared to move forward quickly with production.

Given this project's history, I'm not holding my breath. When we last had anything to say about this remake we reported that Len Wiseman had been replaced by Brett Ratner as director and that Ratner had promptly pulled out (much to the relief of many); Gerard Butler had landed the role of the iconic Snake Plissken (immortalised by Kurt Russell) and then he too dropped out; and the screenplay by Ken Nolan was itself dropped and Jonathan Mostow (director of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) was brought on board to rewrite it, with an option to direct. Clearly that went nowhere and a new writer, Allan Loeb, was appointed.

In the history of cinema it's hard to top the utter disappointment felt when watching George Lucas' follow ups to the original Star Wars movies. From the horror of Jar Jar Binks (a completely humourless animated character introduced in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace) to the victory of special effects over substance, the style and sense of wonder present in the original three movies was nowhere to be found. With this level of disappointment, it's great to read an interview in Total Film Magazine where George Lucas reveals that he wants his new live action Star Wars TV series to be more like the original movies.

Production of the new Dune movie is becoming as epic as Frank Herbert's Dune series itself, and they are nowhere near the filming stage yet. Now that director Peter Berg appears to have been sacked and has moved on to direct a film version of a board game called Battleship (I didn't make that bit up!), IGN reports that new director Pierre Morel has decided to throw out Peter Berg's script entirely, starting afresh with his own ideas and vision.

"We're starting from scratch," said Morel. "Peter had an approach which was not mine at all, and we're starting over again. I don't think we're going to keep any elements of the Peter Berg script. It was good, actually. It was interesting. It was just not our vision. I can't tell you right now [who's writing it with me], it's going to be official next week. The deals are not done!"