The water surrounding Edge of Darkness was already rather tepid -- I'm going by the comments here on Cinematical, and the dutiful, but unenthusiastic reporting it's attracted. Were it 1996, and Mel Gibson was still everyone's favorite action star, the buzz would be something else.

But now, the rumors might really start flying. Variety reports that Robert DeNiro has abruptly left the production, which has been shooting since August 18th, though this was his first week on set. The only word came from his spokesperson, and it was good and curt. "Sometimes things don't work out; it's called creative differences." The Boston Herald has a little gossipy tidbit about DeNiro shooting a golf scene, which hardly seems big enough to have led to such unworkable tension. Was it the delay caused by excavating the sand pit? (I'm being sarcastic, of course, because I hate not knowing the truth behind a dry label like "creative differences.") We can speculate all day as to why -- is it actually worse than Analyze That, or what?

Shooting will continue, obviously filming around scenes of DeNiro's character as they run around recasting. Frankly, this could work out for the best -- many last minute casting changes do. But this film hardly needs the hint of scandal, not when the beleaguered Gibson is involved.

Though nothing has been made official yet, Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood says the deal is done to bring both Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi back for Spider-Man 4 and 5. Not only that, but Finke also claims the exclusive on a story we broke right here at Cinematical months ago (thanks for the credit Nikki) -- that Sony plans to shoot both films back to back, not just because it's cheaper, but also because we were informed that James Vanderbilt's (Zodiac) script included a story arc that encompassed two films, not one.

As far as Kirsten Dunst goes, she currently does not have a deal, but Finke claims her character will return and Sony is not interested in recasting her. Villains? While there's been no announcement yet, a source claims that "once you find out who the villain is, you'll know who's playing him." Naturally, that leads everyone to believe that Dylan Baker will reprise his role and ultimately become The Lizard. Should they continue along the same path Spider-Man 3 went down, one imagines another villain (or two) will show up, perhaps as a way to tease us into the fifth film. I'm sure more will arrive online soon, so until then ... are you happy about Maguire and Raimi returning to the franchise?

Spider-Man 4 is currently scheduled to arrive in May, 2011.

Look, I'm thinking the same thing you are: Here comes Hollywood to screw up another one of our beloved franchises by re-imagining it for this new, hip generation. Whenever they try to mess with nostalgia, it always comes back to bite them in the ass -- but could things be different with a franchise like Ghostbusters, which gave us two films ... and, let's admit it, only one real classic? Here are five ways to make a cool Ghostbusters sequel ...

1. Get the Apatow crew involved

When you look back at the original Ghostbusters, you see names like Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis and Ivan Reitman. Back in 1984, these were the folks who made us really laugh. These were the young-ish voices of the time; the guys you wanted to pay money to see because you knew they'd be worth it. Today, the same can be said for guys like Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Steve Carell, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Craig Robinson. At least a few of those names should show up in the sequel in order for it to have a really good shot of succeeding with fans.

2. Get a director who understands the franchise (ie: Harold Ramis or Ivan Reitman)

While there's a very good chance we'll end up seeing Judd Apatow's name tossed around as producer (no way he's directing this), the best way to hold on to what we love about Ghostbusters is to bring on a man who was there for the first two and knows what, exactly, makes this franchise work. Ramis has been working with the Apatow clan a lot lately (directing Year One, appeared in both Knocked Up and Walk Hard), and is perfectly capable of directing and acting in a film (Hello Egon cameo!). He'd by my choice for this, and, I'm sure, will also lend his voice to the script.

Gerard Butler may have once sported the greatest eight-pack in the history of mankind, but his punishment for it (besides all the puking and crying I assume happened in the shaping of it) will be to answer questions about a 300 spin-off until the end of his career.

While at the Toronto Film Festival, where many of my lucky colleagues are, Butler was asked again about the franchise potential of 299 dead Spartans by Superhero Hype. "I've heard some backroom chatter, but nothing more, so I don't know if it would be a sequel or a prequel. I don't want say anymore than that, because I really don't know. I haven't read anything. I can't see it myself -- sequel for me absolutely not, but I just mean the idea generally, I'm really not sure which way they would go with that."

He was asked this same question at RocknRolla's ComicCon junket, and his answer then suggested he'd actually been approached with a more solid idea. "No. They mentioned it, and we'll leave it at that. It's a very interesting idea, I have to say."

By "interesting" idea, I keep imagining that the story involves King Leonidas being resurrected by a necromancer to fight an unspeakable evil. (That's actually going to be written into a spec, I just know it.) But honestly, it really must suck to be Butler sometimes. He's got his own production shingle, he's going to be directed by Frank Darabont any day now, and everyone just wants to know when Leonidas is going to be resurrected by a necromancer.

Why doesn't anyone direct the question to Frank Miller? He's supposed to be the one writing it.

(Thanks to MoviesOnline for their transcript of the RocknRolla junket -- I still curse my tape recorder.)

"One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble..."
-Murray Head

Don't ask me what happened to the real Nicolas Cage, because I don't know where he is.

I don't know what happened to the man who left Las Vegas, or the man who made Donald Kaufman into such an endearing figment of imagination, or the man who stole diapers as he stole hearts. All I've seen of late is a face, a name, a profile, a character, the artist formerly known as Nic Cage, an entity on auto-pilot and damn near self-parody that knows what he looks like and sounds like and makes do with that alone.

In Bangkok Dangerous, a remake by the Pang Brothers of their own 1999 thriller, Cage-Or-Something-Like-Him plays an assassin, perhaps the most laconic one this side of Forest Whitaker in '99's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and he is so reliably aloof throughout, so divorced from the proceedings that it almost becomes its own form of entertainment... which is certainly helpful once genuine entertainment refuses to show up to any other degree.

We've stayed away from all the Ghostbusters rumors these past couple days because last time we crossed this road, we were told nothing existed. Well, seems that's not at all true: Variety reports that Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (The Office, Year One) have been asked to write a script for a Ghostbusters sequel (reported earlier today by Pajiba.com) that may or may not "pass the torch to a new group of ghost chasers." Funnily enough -- and even though he flat out told us he had nothing to do with it -- this is totally in line with those early rumors that "The Apatow Clan" would be involved in some capacity; namely Seth Rogen. When we asked him about it during the Pineapple Express junket, however, the man denied knowing a thing. Then again, he's an actor ... and he's paid pretty damn well to pretend.

The Apatow connection is also there in that these two writers are behind the Apatow-produced Year One, which, ahem, is being directed by Harold Ramis -- who, in case you forgot, played Dr. Egon Spengler in both Ghostbuster movies. No word from Columbia Pictures on the project, and Variety is simply throwing out all the same fluff that's been reported on other sites for months now. Could we see a reunion and a torch passing? Will the Apatow folks take over the Ghostbusters franchise? I'd certainly be down for it.

You?

(And now we shall continue to run circles around this monster until someone finally caves ...)

It is no secret that horror maestro Clive Barker has not had good luck lately with feature films. But to his credit, it hasn't made him bitter about seeing his work translated for the big screen. In an interview with MTV, Barker got the chance to weigh in on the upcoming remake of Hellraiser for Dimension Films -- and judging from his comments, he seems to be in a good place with the project. Barker told MTV, "I never get tired of revisiting [characters] if there is a good story to be told." He seemed genuinely excited about what he has planned for the story of a puzzle box from another dimension and the 'human pin-cushion'.

Back in February, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton were hired to work on the re-write of the Barker-approved script. But the project had another setback when the French directing duo of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (À l'intérieur) left the project due to "creative differences." So for now it looks like Pin-Head and the Gang are without a director. Hopefully, Dimension can get the ball rolling on the remake, because I don't think Barker could take another disappointment at the box office.

After the jump...find out what Barker really thinks about PG-13 horror.

Dark Knight Spoiler Warning ...

No more speculation, no more talk of ret-con and false funerals -- Harvey Dent is officially 100% dead. It comes straight from the mouth of Aaron Eckhart, who revealed his character's fate in no uncertain terms to ComingSoon.net "He is dead as a door nail. He ain't coming back baby!"

And lest you doubt that he knows the mind of Christopher Nolan, well, Eckhart asked him whether Two-Face would ever be coming back. "I asked Chris [Nolan] that question and he goes, "You're dead" before I could even get the question out of my mouth. 'Hey Chris, am I?' 'You're dead!' 'Alright, cool.'" There's no chance it will be rewritten or retconned, as he was never even contracted for a third film. "No, I'm not coming back. I think unfortunately, Heath [Ledger] was supposed to go on and that didn't work out. I'm nobody. I'm a cog. I have no say over this sort of stuff. I'm sure that there's so many other characters that they could whip together. I heard Angelina Jolie was going to be Catwoman or something like that. I thought that was a great idea. I'd like to be in that one."

Dent's death has now been confirmed via the novelization, the script, the actor, and the director. Though I would say that's as definitive as it gets, fanboys and girls across this great Internet refuse to accept it -- they just believe in Harvey Dent too much. But since we do live in a world where no comic character stays dead, where 299 Spartans can rise again, and Chev Chelios survives a fall from a helicopter, I guess you can hardly blame them.

Back in June we reported on a pair of upcoming films that deal with Greek Mythology in one way or another. One is the remake of Clash of the Titans, and the other is something very cool-sounding called Lords of War. And now it looks like we might have a third entry in the chariot sweepstakes. (Or four if you include the new Argonauts project!)

Details are sketchy at this point, but Variety indicates that writer-director Sheldon Lettich has been tapped by producer Alexander Nevsky to get to work on Hercules: The Beginning. I assume the "snake in the crib" story will be included, considering that we're starting at "The Beginning." (I further assume that a subtitle like "The Beginning" indicates a plan for sequels...)

Mr. Lettich is no stranger to the action section: He recently penned Rambo 4 and he's responsible for no less than FIVE Jean-Claude Van Damme movies! Five! Including the one where there's TWO Van Dammes!

Somehwere, Kevin Sorbo is waiting for his phone to ring.

Despite being seemingly obligated by demographic alone to enjoy it, I didn't particularly care for Michael Bay's Transformers, even after a recent second look on the small screen. Regardless, the people have spoken with their wallets, and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Ka-Ching is well underway for its release next summer.

Embedded above is the first of several behind-the-scenes videos that Wal-Mart will be providing in the coming months, and right from the get-go, the visionary Bay talks about not only making a sequel that'll make kids' dreams, but also sticking his custom-made Nikes up the collective ass of his crew. Watch as "Bay-os" and "Bay-hem" ensue in Bethlehem, PA, with fast bikes, nice cars, and big booms...

Heck, just about the only thing missing from this two-minute taste is some sweet hand-injury action.