He-Man Returns, Plus Castings & Movie News

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ruled the seven seas with a record $139.8 million domestically over the long Memorial Day weekend, lifting its worldwide total to $404 million.
The third “Pirates” film starring Johnny Depp as boozy buccaneer Jack Sparrow surpassed the four-day mark of $122.9 million for last year’s “X-Men: The Last Stand,” the previous record-holder for a Memorial Day weekend.

————–

Warner Bros. and producer Joel Silver are revving up a new version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe for the big screen. A script is being created for the action figure-turned-animated-hero, but He-Man’s original creator Mattel Toys will have final approval over the script. In the past, Mattel has said no to another proposed film version of their franchise.

The idea this time is to make He-Man in the style of the recent Warner Bros. smash 300, rather than hewing in any way to the 1987 Dolph Lundgren starring flop. That’s something to watch out for…

————

In 2003 actor Christopher Lee’s character Saruman was cut from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Redemption but was eventually found via Jackson’s Extended DVD version.

Now, Playbill Magazine is reporting that several ghost characters added into Tim Burton’s film version of the musical Sweeney Todd have been cut out, including a Gentleman Ghost to have been played by Lee. No hard feelings, though, as this time the erstwhile Dracula hasn’t filmed his scenes yet.

————–

Joan Cusack, Chris O’Donnell and Julia Ormond are on board Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery, the first movie based on the popular American Girl line of dolls with Abigail Breslin in the title role.

“Kit Kittredge” tells the story of a clever, resourceful 10-year-old who helps her mother (Ormond) run a Cincinnati boardinghouse when her father (O’Donnell) loses his job. Cusack will play a nurse who moves into the boardinghouse. Patricia Rozema will direct and Julia Roberts is an executive producer.

Tags: Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp, Julia Roberts, Chris O’Donnell