'Prometheus' Facehuggers, Dano in 'Prisoners' and Laika Stakes a Claim in 2014

1.) Paul Dano has joined the cast of Prisoners for Incendies helmer Denis Villeneuve. Dano joins previously cast Hugh Jackman, Melissa Leo and Jake Gyllenhaal in the thriller revolving around a small-town carpenter named Keller (Jackman) whose young daughter and her best friend are kidnapped. After the cops fail to find them, Keller takes the law into his own hands, but in the process runs up against Detective Loki, a hot shot cop with confidence to burn, assigned to the case.

2.) Laika, the studio behind Coraline and ParaNorman, has announced a September 26, 2014 release date for a currrently untitled movie which will again be handled by Focus Features. Rumors expect the project to either be Philip Reeves' Goblins with The Fantastic Mr. Fox animation director Mark Gustafson attached to helm or Colin Meloy's Wildwood from the book "The Decemberists." I'm sure we'll hear soon enough which it is. [Box Office Mojo]

3.) Anne Hathaway is attached to star in the romantic comedy The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie with a script co-authored by Mindy Kaling and her "The Office" co-writer and producer Brent Forrester. The story centers on a woman whose lack of self-worth has limited her choice in men to losers. When she is about to hit the bottom of the barrel, life takes an unexpected turn when she is pursued by the hottest guy ever. Kailing is expected to take on a supporting role. [THR]

4.) With Prometheus being the talk of the town recently with the DVD and Blu-ray hitting shelves today, a new interview with original screenwriter Jon Spaihts reveals the Alien facehuggers once played a role in the film when it was conceived as a straight Alien prequel. Empire reveals the following:

"I did have facehuggers in my original draft," says Spaights. "David, as he began to get fascinated by the science of the Engineers, doesn't deliberately contaminate Holloway with a drop of black liquid. Instead, Holloway hubristically removes his helmet in the chamber, is knocked unconscious, facehugged and wakes up not knowing what had been done to him, and stumbles back into the ship."

"In my draft, he returns to his cabin, is embraced by Shaw, who is delighted to see him having feared that he had died, and the two of them make love," he goes on to say. "And it's while they're making love that he bursts and dies. So that lovemaking sequence echoed my original lovemaking sequence where he explodes! It was messy."

Spaihts also reveals a few details regarding Michael Fassbender's David that you may be interested in. Just give the link a click for the full story. [Empire]

5.) Finally, Oprah Winfrey has posted yet another photo from the set of Lee Daniels' The Butler, this one coming as principal photography has wrapped as she captions the picture saying, "And that's a WRAP! Terrence Howard and me in our goodbye 'love scene'. Thanks Lee Daniels for the great experience." [Oprah]

Terrence Howard and Oprah Winfrey on the set of The Butler
Photo: Oprah Winfrey