You'd think that Guillermo Del Toro would be happy enough with the news that his pet project was going ahead. But now he's finally able to adapt H.P Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, Del Toro's at loggerheads with Universal over who should star in it: James McAvoy or Tom Cruise.

Set in the 1930s, Lovecraft's novel sees geologist William Dyer uncover unspeakable and horrific things at the South Pole on an Antarctic expedition. A role that Chris Pine was also considered for, Del Toro seems keen on Cruise since they discussed the idea of a new version of Van Helsing.

Universal, meanwhile, want James McAvoy to take the lead, providing a younger face for the fantasy film. McAvoy is about to start filming with Matthew Vaughn as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class. Cruise is soon to shoot Mission Impossible 4 (which will probably end up called something like Mission 4mpossible). Crucially, both actors would be available come May 2011, when Del Toro's production will kick off.

At the Mountains of Madness is being produced by James Cameron and will be shot in 3D. Expect him to weigh in at some point with his opinion and "blast" one of the actors. He seems to like blasting at the moment.

When Warner Bros booked next February up for production on their Clash of the Titans sequel, rumour had it that Jonathan Liebesman was on the studio's shortlist for possible directors. Now it's official: Liebesman will be making sure Titans Will Clash once again for the (over-)paying public.

Ever since that pinnacle of modern cinema dazzled the world with its lazy post-conversion 3D and epic crapness, Warner Bros have been desperate to make a sequel. Box office takings of $491 million tend to have that effect. But when Louis Leterrier dropped out - happy to stop work after ruining the 1981 original - the studio started hunting for a replacement.

Liebesman will be heading to the project fresh from Battle: Los Angeles, the alien invasion flick that impressed the world (as well as Warners) at Comic-Con. The Black Hawk Down-style visuals, coupled with the intense visual effects, convinced execs that he was up to the task of helming a Titans follow up.

Sam Worthington and Gemma Arterton are expected to return to the franchise's second outing, which is already being scibbled by Greg Berlanti, Dan Mazeau and David Leslie Johnson.

The good news? It will definitely be shot in 3D. Because that makes us all feel better about the whole thing.

Following his happy reaction to Piranha 3D's box office performance and plans for a sequel, producer Mark Canton has found himself in bloody waters. Not due to killer fish or Kelly Brook, but thanks to Pandora's chief 3D spokesman, James Cameron.

The Avatar director, who previously slammed Clash of the Titans and Alice in Wonderland for their sloppy post-conversion work, turned his powers of the dark side onto Piranha 3D during his Avatar press tour.

He told Vanity Fair: "It's exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3D horror films from the '70s and '80s, like Friday The 13th 3D."

Outraged by Cameron's derogatory comments, Canton retorted by citing Piranha 3D's 82% Rotten Tomatoes rating and the fun experience audiences are having in the cinemas - including filmmakers such as JJ Abrams. 

"Mr. Cameron, who singles himself out to be a visionary of movie-making, seems to have a small vision regarding any motion pictures that are not his own," the producer wrote to journalists. "It is amazing that in the movie-making process - which is certainly a team sport - Cameron consistently celebrates himself as though he is a team of one."

Cameron, who started his career with a brief directorial stint on 1981's Piranha Part 2: The Spawning, reiterated his belief in the current "renaissance" of 3D cinema. Referring to both Disney's Tron and Martin Scorsese's 3D project, he dismissed Piranha 3D as "bottom of the barrel".

Canton concluded by describing Cameron's comments as "ridiculous, self-serving and insulting to those of us who are not caught up in serving his ego and his rhetoric."

Avatar (Special Edition) was re-released in UK cinemas in 3D last week and contains eight additional minutes of new footage.

It's official: Dwayne Johnson is the new Brendan Fraser. Or, at least, that's what New Line are hoping as they cast Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the sequel to Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island sees Josh Hutcherson return as Sam Anderson, the young wannabe explorer. Johnson will be his mum's new fella, who Sam must take with him when he travels to the mysterious titular island to try and find his missing granddad.

Written by Richard Outten, Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn, the sequel is again from another Jules Verne novel. This one's called The Mysterious Island. Duh.

Cats & Dogs 2 director Brad Peyton has picked up the megaphone, with the movie looking once again down the 3D lens. Or lenses. Depending on how accurate you like your metaphors to be.

Fraser dropped out due to conflict over starting dates - a shame, because his likeable presence made Journey to the Centre of the Earth quite a lot of fun. It even had the genuine novelty impact of 3D before it took over and ruined modern cinema. Here's hoping some of that charm can also be found in family-friendly Dwayne. He'll next be seen shooting people and looking angry in revenge flick Faster.

5nal Destination. The movie title you love to misread as Anal Destination. But the retarded name hasn't put off some. In fact, the fifth in the Final Destination franchise (Final Destination 5, for those can speak English) has already rounded up its victims. Top of the bill? David Koechner.

Yes, the balding legend that we all know from Anchorman, Thank You for Smoking and Snakes on a Plane, will be providing laughs to the power of 5. Or l5ughs.

Koechner joins the already-cast Nicholas D’Agosto, PJ Byrne and Ellen Wroe, which sees a load of people escape death via suspension bridge, only for the grim reaper to come back and collect his dues. They'll be playing such timeless archetypes as "a guy who doesn't make fast decisions", "an obnoxious kleptomaniac" and "the daughter of a company executive". Great work from Eric Heisserer's script there.

Heading up the cast of colourful characters is Miles Fisher, but the most exciting part of all? Tony Todd will return as Mr Bludworth - also known as Creepy Black Man. Steven Quale will direct them all when filming starts next month.

Expect lots of silly, bloody, drawn-out deaths. In 3D.

Right after Adrien Brody got fingered for Mr Fantastic, Fox continue to push their franchise reboot forward with a hunt for a director. First out the gates is David Yates.

The Brit helmer, who just finished off Harry Potter for Warner Bros, has proven experience with fantasy franchises, and knows how to balance effects and character. But Yates is also in competition with two other candidates: Joe Carnahan and James McTeigue.

McTeigue, who's currently working on The Raven, is best known as the Wachowski Brothers' protege who directed V for Vendetta. Carnahan, meanwhile, followed up early thriller Narc with the blockbuster fun of The A-Team.

Both have the balls for some hefty action, especially now Marvel are bringing the 3D to everything, but it's hard not to root for Yates. Especially because he gave the world State of Play. Not that anyone at Fox will have seen the original BBC TV series - they're too busy sorting out rumour from fact. And throwing money at whoever will touch Fantastic Four after that Rise of the Silver Surfer malarkey.

After the fast-paced bloodbath of Centurion, Neil Marshall is going in a different direction with his latest project. And by different I mean something involving lots of blood, violence and gore.

Marshall has picked up David Cohen's script Underground to direct. It's a thriller about an underground series of seedy dinner clubs.

Unearthed by a young chef who finds himself sinking into the meaty depths of society, the film will no doubt involve lots of messy butchering. And the odd human body or twelve.

Following on from Burst 3D, his grossout horror produced by Sam Raimi, Marshall is setting a trend for helming other people's projects. After the lacklustre Doomsday, that's still a reassuring career decision; as Centurion showed, Marshall definitely knows how to crank up the pace behind camera.

There's nothing like watching killer fish tear humans to bits in 3D. Especially if those humans have boobs. Which is why Piranha 3D got such a good response from critics and will now have a sequel.

Piranha 3D 2 (6D?) will no doubt have the same complex combination of fish, blood and Kelly Brook - a formula which notched up $10m in its US opening weekend. It's not a bad figure for a movie which cost around $24m, especially in the comedy horror genre, which never reaps a massive amount in cinemas.

The figure puts it way below Snakes on a Plane's $25m opening and The Expendable's continued box office run, but above Jennifer Aniston's $8.4m for her rom-com The Switch.

Most importantly, Dimension Films are pleased with what they've seen: "After earning rave reviews from top critics, wild cheers from audiences around the country, and $10 million in its opening weekend box office, Dimension Films is pleased to announce that Piranha 3D: The Sequel is in the works."

The studio's statement also quoted Producer Mark Canton, who added that "it’s fantastic that so many critics are really getting the movie and recommending it." You may not believe that statement, but check out Rotten Tomatoes. Piranha 3D has 83%.

All in all, it's great news for Alexandre Aja, who also directed Switchblade Romance, Mirrors and that remake of The Hills Have Eyes. Maybe his career path can follow that of James Cameron, who started his road to Avatar with Piranha 2: The Spawning. If Aja's sequel sees Kelly Brook fighting off flying killer fish, we'll know where the idea came from.

Director: Jeff Tremaine
Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera
Certificate: TBC
Release Date: Friday 15th October

Johnny Knoxville and his buddies are back, and they're still up to their daredevil comic antics. But this time, all the crazy stunts and dangerous stupidity comes right at you in mind-blowing (probably literally) 3D.

With Avatar Special Edition edging ever closer, we've now got ourselves a second trailer to get our juices flowing. Including the original trailers, this is probably close to our 20th video preview of Pandora, but here's some news to really get you turned on: the Na'avi sex scene will be included.

Not in the trailer, you understand, but in the extended footage reintroduced into the movie - Avatar's re-release promises fans an extra eight minutes of "never-before-seen" material. A very tiny fragment of those minutes will see Jake and Neytiri getting their blue freak on.

"It's been restored, every last frame of it," Cameron told MTV recently. "Seriously. I would say, just so that we correctly manage people's expectations, it does not change our rating at all. I would call it more of an alien foreplay scene. It's not like they're ripping their clothes off and going at it."

Cameron originally commented: "Audiences repeatedly told me they wanted more of Pandora, and wished they could have stayed there longer. So we’re making that possible."

Now audiences can stay there longer and also see digital 3D foreplay. Will you be going back to cinemas to see Pandora on the big screen again? Check out the new trailer below and let us know your thoughts.

Avatar Special Edition is released on Friday 27th August.