Guillermo del Toro (pictured) is in talks to direct back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Del Toro, of course, has built up goodwill in the geek world through such films as the Oscar-nominated Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Blade 2 and The Devil's Backbone.

Due to other commitments that included The Lovely Bones and Tintin, The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson could not take on writing and directing roles, opting instead to become an executive producer with approval over creative elements of the pair of films.

Principal photography for the films, which will be shot simultaneously, is tentatively set for 2009. The production budget is estimated at $150 million per film. The release of the first film is slated for 2010 and the second in 2011.

The Hobbit is centered on Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf who go on a quest to find the treasure of a dragon named Smaug.

This is probably all we need to say about the upcoming comedy Step Brothers: it stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

In case that somehow isn't enough to inspire you to see the film, here's a synopsis:

Ferrell plays Brennan Huff, a sporadically employed thirty-nine-year-old who lives with his mother, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen). Reilly plays Dale Doback, a terminally unemployed forty-year-old who lives with his father, Robert (Richard Jenkins).

When Robert and Nancy marry and move in together, Brennan and Dale are forced to live with each other as step brothers. As their narcissism and laziness threaten to tear the family apart, the two middle-aged, immature, overgrown boys will orchestrate an insane, elaborate plan to bring their parents back together.

To pull it off, they must form an unlikely bond that maybe, just maybe, will finally get them out of the house.

Step Brothers opens on July 25.

Dennis Quaid has joined the cast of GI Joe: The Movie.

The 53-year-old veteran actor will portray General Hawk, the commander of the G.I. Joe team. Yesterday, it was announced that Channing Tatum will be playing Duke, a field commander and second-in-command of the G.I. Joe Team after Hawk.

Arnold Vosloo also has signed on to play Zartan, a mercenary who works with Destro and Cobra. GI Joe: The Movie comes out on August 7, 2009.

Smart People star a handful of stars: Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Dennis Quaid and Thomas Hayden Church. It comes out on April 11.

Check out the trailer for it now:

IGN recently conducted an interview with Michael G. Wilson, producer of Quantum of Solace. Here are highlights:

How do you find your villains in the modern world?
Michael G. Wilson: There are plenty of villains to go around. With the last one, we were thinking about terrorism in the sense of people who finance it. So we dealt with it a bit there. Basically, an hour after the last film ended, this film starts, and it continues where that left off, with Bond's story.

Was it easier to find villains in the days of the Cold War?
Wilson: Well there might have been bad Russians, but they weren't representative of the Russian people. Cubby was always careful not to take on those political issues because I think they foresaw the day when we could release in Russia, and Russia's becoming one of our big markets now. I think if you're in the entertainment industry, you aren't out to make any enemies.

Can you talk a little bit about where you will be shooting?
Wilson: We go from London to Panama, Peru, Northern Chile, Italy and Austria, then we are back here again. So we have the travelling circus going a lot of places this time.

Read the full interview with Wilson now.

Julia Roberts, who most recently appeared on the big screen opposite Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War, has chosen a new project.

The actress will produce and star in a film version of Margot Berwin's upcoming novel Hothouse Flowers for Sony's Columbia Pictures.

The book - and planned movie - tells the story of a newly divorced woman who is dissatisfied with her job at a Manhattan ad agency and heads off on an adventure. Roberts, naturally, will play the divorcee. No release date has been set.

Due to Heath Ledger's tragic passing, The Dark Knight is receiving even more attention than before. If that's even possible.

With that in mind, a new poster for the film has been released. Here's a look:

Here are a couple of new Nim's Island movie picture featuring Jodie Foster and Abigai Breslin (Gerard Butler also stars).

Thanks to Wiki for this plot summary of the film: Nim (Breslin) is a young girl who imagines an island to be magical, basing its mystic nature on the experiences of her favorite fictional character, Alex Rover (Butler).

When Nim's father (also played by Butler) goes missing on the island, Nim teams up with Alexandra (Foster), the author of the Alex Rover books and Rover himself.

Nim's Island hits theaters on Friday, April 4.

Check out a futuristic-looking Will Smith in Hancock.

In the movie, the actor portrays an alcoholic superhero who has seen better days. A publicist (Jason Bateman) helps rehabilitate him, but the character eventually begins an affair with the publicist's wife (Charlize Theron). Follow all that?

Hancock rolls out in theaters on July 2.

Channing Tatum has landed the lead role of Duke in the upcoming G.I. Joe movie, which is st for release on August 7, 2009.

Tatum will be joining Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Rachel Nichols, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Said Taghmaoui, Marlon Wayans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the cast for the film.

The movie, based on the Hasbro property, is set to start shooting next month in Los Angeles.