It’s a safe bet that, unless they can stop time, this pilot will be a mid-season replacement or for next fall, as the schedules for this fall have been set and production won’t even come close hitting a late-September deadline. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be executive producing rather than surprising, which makes sense.

Though it’s not stated, I would assume that this project would fictionalize the era, rather than try to license the likenesses of all those wrestlers/caricatures that we held/hold so dear. So after years of repairing Arab-American relations, in 2012, we will have some fictionalization of the Iron Sheik to completely shatter that glass.

Also, TUGBOAT!

Hammer will ride for director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer in Disney’s big screen revival of the classic Western series. He’s also got a supporting role in the upcoming J. Edgar Hoover biopic and he’ll play the prince in Th Brothers Grimm: Snow White, just one in an infinite number of Snow White projects in the works. However, this looking-to-start-a-franchise movie could be the spurs to the sides of the horse that is Hammer’s career. The horse is named “Ol’ Careery.”

No official release date yet for Disney’s Lone Ranger, but it could ride into theaters as early as fall 2012. (Variety)

Don’t be surprised if you see Brian Koppelman and David Levien in the United States history section of Barnes & Noble. The pair who have previously plugged words into Matt Damon‘s word-gorge with Rounders and Ocean’s Thirteen, have stepped in to takeover scripting on National Treasure 3 for Jerry Bruckheimer.

Jon Turtletaub, who directed the previous films and Sorcerer’s Apprentice, is next slated to direct Unreasonable Doubt. It’s unclear if he’s gotten out from underneath the thumb of the National Treasure series or not, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a little Cage-cation.

Koppelman and Levien’s career is also taking off in other directions. They’re also moving ahead with plans to direct Levien’s novel City of the Sun. That story follows the father of a missing paperboy who teams with a private investigator while they search for his son fourteen months after the boy’s disappearance. With the newspaper industry on the ropes it would only make sense that paperboys have to travel farther and farther to make a living. Decent thing would have been for him to call home first though. (via Bleeding Cool)

It may come as no surprise that Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay have taken an interest in cocaine. The duo are moving forward on the series “Cocaine Cowboys” that they set up at HBO in 2008.

Writer Michelle Ashford “The Pacific“) has been hired to pen a new pilot based on the 2006 documentary of the same name. Focus is on the rise of cocaine trafficking in Miami in the 1970′s and 1980′s.

Sounds. Awesome.

I expect to see an entire series that looks like the final fifteen minutes of Bad Boys. And I will except nothing less. NOTHING. LESS. (Deadline)

This will be the second sci-fi adventure for the duo, who had earlier teamed up for World War Robot (also a space adventure), a graphic novel adaptation that portrays ”a small band of humans and robots facing off in a battle on Earth, the moon and Mars.” Best of luck to the poor bastards who are part of the production design team on that one.

While no specifics were mentioned, expect the film to convey the understated elegance and quiet dignity that Bruckheimer and alien adventure films are known for. (Variety)

This Pirates seems to be chock full of everything that we haven’t seen in previous Pirates films. They even capitalized on the whole zombie phenomenon. This could have been intentional or the writers received a mandate to work everything ever into the film. The fourth time around you have to do that. Let’s just hope they keep it under five hours long. Kids can only take so much convoluted plotline.

_{Smack dab in the middle of the Danger Zone.}

27-year-old billionaire financier David Ellison loves two things most in this world: counting money and flying. He helped finance and starred in the film Flyboys, and now he wants to head down the highway to the Danger Zone with Top Gun 2. Vulture reports that Paramount is pitching the sequel to Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Tom Cruise knowing full well that Ellison will pick up a huge chunk of the tab.

The studio has also talked with Christopher McQuarrie about writing the script. McQuarrie and Cruise are BFFs after working together on Valkyrie. The original Maverick has agreed to a small part in the film, "provided it’s not too ‘obvious’ a part." Looks like flying jets is out. Damn, that would have been a really cool way to see Maverick. Maybe he can just repair the new pilot’s motorcycle and offer sage advice. No word yet if Val Kilmer, the Ice Man himself, will be involved in the project. If he wants a not too obvious part he could try out for the tarmac.

Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney have just paid low-seven figures against $3.5 million for a pitch from Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii called Lightspeed. What the hell is that? I’m not familiar with that videogame and/or boardgame. What is this a remake of?? Oh. It’s an "original" idea?? People still have those?

Story centers on a young pilot who makes the Earth Interstellar Racing Team and must take his ship on a perilous journey across the galaxy on the brink of war. Bruckheimer envisions the project as a live-action and potentially 3D pic.

Haha. Good one, Variety. "Potentially 3D pic."

It looks like Jerry Bruckheimer has found a kinship with writers Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro. The pair wrote his next two blockbusters, Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer‘s Apprentice, and now he has them on the hook to write a third National Treasure film for director Jon Turteltaub.

When reached for fictional comment, not-real Jerry Bruckheimer had this to say:

"The National Treasure films have always displayed a reckless abandon for all semblance of reality. After seeing how Carlo and Doug laughed in the face of physics and history with their other works, Jon and I knew they were the d-bags for the job. It also helps that they can’t capture the way people actually talk."

No plot specifics have been released yet but we’ll keep you posted on Nicolas Cage‘s hunt for William Henry Harrison’s gold or whatever it turns out to be.

In the interest of full disclosure, I made that earlier quote up. (Coming Soon)

Jerry Bruckheimer would like you to know that Nicolas Cage is not some gay-bay sorcerer like you’re used to seeing. No way. This sorcerer drives a sports car (and is probably going through a sorcerer’s mid-life crisis). A new international trailer for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was conjured up today. (*submits resume to Variety*) In this version, we see the same framework of the first with Nicolas Cage in a dopey hat abducting Jay Baruchel from his life as a physics nerd to induct him into the life of a magic nerd. The largest difference is more footage of the excellent Alfred Molina as the villian "Maxim," a nefarious sorcerer who hangs out in dudes’ bathrooms but then gets hidden hastily when girls are over.

Sadly you’ll have to wait until July 16th to see Cage go full-wizard.

Witness the magic of computer effects after the jump…

Scorcerers Apprentice International Trailer – Watch more Funny Videos