"I am being cast in The Hobbit. We're currently in negotiations - there are two of us under consideration. It's not the Bilbo role, but could be bigger."

That was Sylvester McCoy speaking at Cowal Games in his hometown of Dunoon.

Rumours have been rife around the internet that the former Dr Who was in the running for Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit. Sadly those aren't true, but the actor has confirmed that he's almost made it into the ensemble.

Who could he be playing? Well, TheOneRing.net has suggested he's possibly up for Radagast the Brown. One of Gandalf's wizarding folks, the role has supposedly been embiggened from the book to create a more substantial character.

That said, there's still no film for McCoy to appear in - Warner Bros. and Peter Jackson are gradually sorting out MGM's financial mess before a director or production date gets locked in. Until then, fans can get more exciting Cowal Games news from the Dunoon Observer's next edition. They have a special pullout and everything.

With only weeks to go before shooting starts, Matthew Vaughn is still cramming his cast list full of top talents. The latest to join X-Men's First Class club? Rose Byrne and Jason Flemyng. And Oliver Platt.

Byrne is hammering out the fine print before she signs on to play Moira McTaggert, a genetics specialist. A Scottish scientist? Yes, that's right, she'll be the one doing the naughty with James McAvoy's Professor X while he founds his school for gifted youngsters (hopefully forming a highly intelligent love triangle with Michael Fassbender's Magneto). After her turns in Knowing and Sunshine, she's got a good track in science and weird crap. Plus she can act, which helps.

Flemyng is down to play Azazel - Nightcrawler's pappy. Confirming his role at Empire's Movie-Con, the actor (who has appeared in each of Matthew Vaughn's films) is getting ready for some serious make-up work: "They said, 'Don’t worry, we’ll add the tail in post'".

A teleporting mutant from another dimension, Azazel spends his time trying to get freaky with human women so his bright red, long-tailed, pointy-eared genes can thrive and give him a long-term link to this world. One successful attempt later and out pops bright blue offspring Nightcrawler, complete with ears and tail. And, if you're wondering how he teleports, Empire describe Flemyng's technique as something like "a cross between a flamenco dancer and a Bollywood star". Sexy.

And, just when you thought this was enough talent to fill Professor X's school register, Oliver Platt has been announced as another actor who's hopped onboard the mutant wagon. No, he's not a mutant: he's playing The Man in Black. Now, Platt doesn't look a lot like Johnny Cash, so he's probably just your average shady government type, chasing down X-Men (or at least looking at them in a suspicious manner).

Vaughn's superhero prequel now boasts the combined skills of McAvoy, Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Nicholas Hoult, Alice Eve and Jennifer Lawrence. And Byrne, Flemyng and Platt, of course. X-Men: First Class starts shooting at the end of this month, and will tell the world how Magneto and Professor X began their lifelong feud. Probably over a lost Johnny Cash album.

He's a tricksy Hobbit, that Peter Jackson. After bringing in his pal in Guillermo Del Toro, he watched in dismay as William of Bull ran away from Middle Earth when MGM's financial breakdown stalled the whole production. But now the Lord of the Rings director has been sorting out the cast himself. Jackson's been in talks to park his bum back in the director's chair but nothing's official yet. Still, his hunt for Hobbit folks definitely comes under the heading of Good News.

Who has he met with? Nobody knows. But he's doing it on the quiet like, taking in London, New York and LA this past week trying to gather a group of actors for a project that doesn't exist yet. The world is waiting for Warner Bros. to fund the whole thing themselves (needing just a signature from MGM) but Jackson, it seems, is sick of waiting. 

The Kiwi has said before that he wants to do The Hobbit, but only if it gets into cinemas by 2012. If he can get an ensemble cast together ready for Christmas, then this just might be the first hairy footsteps towards a green light.

Jeremy Renner, Oscar nominated star of The Hurt Locker, has been a busy boy on the awards circuit. But now, after gaining some well-deserved attention for his role in Kathryn Bigelow's intense war film, Renner's been raking in offers non-stop.

First up is The Raven, from Ninja Assassin's director James McTeigue, which is an attempt to mash up Edgar Allen Poe's life (that'll be fiction, then) with a murder-mystery. That has Ewan McGregor lined up for it too.

The second is Peter Berg's Battleship, which would be a fairly high profile blockbuster turn. The sci-fi action flick, based of course on the board game, will no doubt involve ships battling it out against aliens in some kind of battle of ships. That'll be turning up in 2012.

But the most intriguing offering is a third, unknown project, which Renner isn't revealing. All we know is he's had 5 meetings about it, and that it will most likely clash with Battleship. No word on what it is yet. But I'm still hoping it might be Captain America...

Two weeks, people. That's what Joe Johnston has confirmed. On the rounds for Wolfman, Johnston told Sci-Fi Wire that the super-solider would be definitely cast within the next two weeks and that we should expect an announcement.

He said: "We have a very short list, but we're still juggling actors here. I'd say within the next couple of weeks we'll have ourselves a Captain America, I hope."

So who should play the strong American? It better not be Sam Worthington. Aaron Eckhart's a popular favourite - he certainly has the muscles down pat - but with all the Oscar buzz floating around at the moment, I'd like to pop one name in there: Jeremy. Renner. Bet that won't happen...

Ah, Woody Allen, hated by many and loved by me. Don't get me wrong: Match Point and Cassandra's Dream had a lot of bad points, but it's still nice to know that he's returning to London for his next project. But now this project has a title. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger follows his brief stop in New York with Whatever Works, and will be funded by the same people who backed Vicky Cristina Barcelona (i.e. the Spanish).

Who has he selected to star this time round? You may remember some of the casting announcements, but to recap: Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto and Naomi Watts. Out of all of those, the only tall dark one is Banderas, but with no real plot details (the Hollywood Reporter says it "revolves around different members of a family"), it's anyone's guess. It's certainly not Woody, though.