The Wolverine actor is set to begin working on the thriller – which has been in development for almost 3 years – in early 2013, right after he finishes filming his latest outing as Marvel’s lupine superhero in The Wolverine.

According to Collider, the lead role has been eyed up by the likes of Leonardo Di Caprio, Mark Wahlberg (Max Payne) and Christian Bale (Public Enemies ), but it was the all-singing all-slicing Hugh Jackman who has nabbed the part.

Jackman has put his claws away to play a more human role in Villeneuve’s action-packed direction which will follow Mr Keller, a humble carpenter from Boston who takes the law into his own hands to find the man he believes is responsible for kidnapping his daughter and her friend. However, the vigilante father suddenly realises he may have captured the wrong man, which causes problems when he runs into a detective who has been assigned to the case.

Variety reported that the script has been penned by Contraband’s Aaron Guzikowski and will be made by Alcon producers, Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson.

They were reported in a statement saying: ”We can think of no better ‘Keller’ – an ordinary man who rises to an occasion most of us could not imagine possible.

Prisoners is hoped to be released as soon as November 2013, along with a whole line-up of great films we are very excited for such as The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, Marvel’s Thor 2, DreamWorks Animation’s Me and My Shadow and Disney’s animated film Frozen.

There has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with regards to the release date of the next hairy, bladed Wolverine film, however it now looks as though we have a confirmation. (Hopefully it will stick!) Fox has finally announced that they have firm plans for the sequel that will see Hugh Jackman re-grow his side-burns and get ready to extend his metal for some fab fighting scenes.

The Wolverine will take our fierce friend to Japan where hopes to find out more about his past. Of course it would be better if he could remember something – anything – about how he got to this point in his life, but then we wouldn’t have a film ahead of us. Apparently Wolvie will fall in love while in Japan, but things are never simple for him and he ends up having to fight the Silver Samurai.

The Silver Samurai has been around for a long time in the Marvel universe, as the mutant son of Shingen Harada, a former Japanese crimelord. He knows the shape-shifting principles of the medieval samurai, which means that Wolverine will have his work cut out for him if he wants to come out on top in this one.

Hugh Jackman has appeared in every one of the X-Men films so far, including making a well-timed cameo appearance in X-Men: First Class, however he has said that he is looking forward to this new film the most. It will be directed by James Mangold, in the place of Darren Aronofsky who pulled out.

The release date of The Wolverine will put it in direct competition with the remake of Dirty Dancing, also scheduled to come out on the same day. However, the two films are likely to appeal to very different audiences, so hopefully that won’t damage their chances of success. Jackman will also be busy with Les Miserables, so we hope he’ll be able to devote enough time to this project to ensure he’s at his slashing, powerful best.

Rehearsals for the film start on Monday, and joining the Hollywood stars will be two of the original cast from the stage show.

Hollywood actors, including Hugh Jackman (X-Men ) Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries ) Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen (Hugo), will be joined by theatre stars, Colm Wilkinson and Frances Ruffelle.

Wilkinson played the original Jean Valjean – a Frenchman who was in Bagne prison for 19 years after stealing bread – while Ruffelle played the role of Eponine – the destitute daughter of the crooked Thénardier family.

Russell Crowe will be playing Inspector Javert, Hugh Jackman is taking the role of Jean Valjean, Anne Hathaway has been cast as Fantine and Amanda Seyfried is playing Cosette.

We will also see Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier – a corrupt innkeeper – with his larger than life wife played by Helena Bonham Carter.

Cameron Mackintosh – who produced the stage show – is also involved with the cinematic remake, with award-winning film maker Tom Hooper directing the picture.

Hooper, who used to direct Eastenders and Byker Grove, has already spent three weeks with Jackman in order to perfect his character for the role.

Wilkinson was reported saying that his journey with Les Miserables has ended ‘and I have come full circle’.

Les Miserables was first staged almost 30 years ago and it still remains a sell out show in the West End and Broadway.

Around 23 years ago, Alan Parker (Angela’s Ashes) planned to direct a movie adaptation but for various reasons, it fell through.

The film will try and keep true to the musical by incorporating direct scenes from the show. Some of the scenes will be filmed at Pinewood Studios, with other parts shot on location in the UK.

We are looking forward to seeing this star-studded film – we will keep you updated on the latest news.

If you’ve not seen Les Miserables at the theatre, although it’s estimated to have been seen by hundreds of thousands, then the plot will most definitely strike you as cinema-worthy. It was originally a perennially popular Nineteenth-century novel, was turned into a movie in the late nineties starring Liam Neeson, Uma Thurman and Geoffrey Rush, and now the theatrical production is regularly advertised around central London and on the tube.

Jean Valjean is a wanted man in France, attempting to escape his dark past. Pursued relentlessly by Javert, a policeman hell-bent on capturing prisoner 24601, he soon falls in with a bunch of French revolutionaries aiming to overthrow the government. It is dramatic, and chock-full of memorable musical numbers and dark, powerful scenes in which the struggle of the working class French is illustrated in stark, unrelenting detail.

Speaking as someone who’s seen the musical, Jackman is a perfect fit, and if he can manage the bellowing voice of the various Jean Valjeans that have performed the role in the musical since its 1985 debut at the Barbican.

Hooper is also a dab hand at period drama, given that his most recent directorial effort was The King’s Speech. So, we can safely assume the film will not become similar to the ongoing attempt to bring Akira to Western audiences (clue: buy the anime on DVD and save yourself the grief). More on this as it comes.

Wolverine, Wolverine, Wolverine; what’s going on with you? The X-Men trilogy was a great example of comic book adaptation done right – it was accessible, enjoyable, and Jackman was born to play the part of the clawed, adamantium-plated angry man. But X-Men Origins: Wolverine was, well, a little hit and miss.

It suffered from a colossal amount of CGI fail. The production company had argued that the leaked version had pre-final SFX, but when it hit cinemas there was no improvement. These amateurish-looking special effects in a multi-million-dollar blockbuster representing one of Marvel’s brightest stars was extremely ill-received.

The next Wolverine film is being taken care of by someone who knows the series well, and will likely do his best to avoid the fan drubbing that is ever-imminent should something sub-par debut at the San Diego Comic Con: James Mangold. Luckily for him, the massed geeks of Comic Con are probably not too big a deal – after all, the comic book audience makes up a minute percentage of the film-going public, and who really cares if Wolverine’s facial hair is wrong or his jacket is the wrong colour.

The film itself is a well-known story to Wolverine fans – his journey to Japan and ill-fated relationship with Itsu. It should be a powerful film and it’s nice to see a comic book adaptation taking place outside the West, as I can imagine manicured gardens and falling petals are a perfect setting for a dramatic fight sequence. More on this as it comes, claw-fans.

The director, who is still on a high from his Oscar success with Black Swan, has apparently been eyeing up the project based on the biblical story for a number of years. But now it looks like it’s going to happen as several studios are apparently interested in part funding it. We’re sure it won’t be long until the project is snapped up, especially considering Black Swan was made on a budget of $12m but took $315 million.

The film, which hasn’t got a title yet, has been described by Deadline as “a big fantasy epic, and an opportunity for Aronofsky to create a world.”

Aronofsky himself has spoken about the project, he told /Film “It’s the end of the world and it’s the second most famous ship after the Titanic. So I’m not sure why any studio won’t want to make it.

“I think it’s really timely because it’s about environmental apocalypse which is the biggest theme, for me, right now for what’s going on on this planet. So I think it’s got these big, big themes that connect with us.”

The biblical story certainly does have some big themes and raises a whole variety of issue, we’re just not sure how it will translate to the big screen. Anyone remember the 2007 Steve Carell flop, Evan Almighty? Nope thought not. But Aronofsky has time on his hands now after dropping out of the Wolverine sequel and also we’re sure he’ll have actors lining up two-by-two to get on board, so this could work out well.

To find out more about the director take a look at our lowdown on him.

Last night the Bafta’s took place at London’s Royal Opera House and surprise surprise The King’s Speech came out on top. The film scooped seven awards in total, including Leading Actor for Colin Firth, Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush and Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter. It also took away the prestigious Best Film award.

This is the second year in a row that Firth has won the Leading Actor Bafta, last year it was for his role in Tom Ford’s A Single Man. Firth has already collected a number of awards this season and all that’s left now is the Oscars, do you think he’ll take home the big one?

The Best Actress Award went to Natalie Portman for Black Swan, again no surprises there really. Portman was unable to attend due to being heavily pregnant, which as director, Darren Aronofsky, pointed out as he collected her award, is because she got ‘knocked up’ while making the film.

Other favourite for awards season, The Social Network, didn’t go away empty handed, David Fincher won the Director award. Aaron Sorkin took home the BAFTA for Adapted Screenplay and the film also won the Editing award.

The event was hosted by Jonathan Ross and had it’s fair share of cringe-worthy moments like always. This year the prize for biggest mess-up has to go to Rosamund Pike. Firstly she struggled to read the auto cue and then the former Bond Girl began to open the envelope for Best Original Screenplay before the nominees had been announced. Ross had to run on stage to stop her, much to the embarrassment of her co-presenter Dominic Cooper. Woops!

Other awards went to Alice in Wonderland for Costume Design and Make Up & Hair. Toy Story 3 took home the award for Animated Film. True Grit won for Cinematography. The Best Film Not in the English Language BAFTA went to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer went to Chris Morris for his début feature film Four Lions. The Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award, which is voted for by the public went to Tom Hardy (Bronson, Inception).

The highest accolade, the Fellowship, went to Christopher Lee, and the Harry Potter films finally got some recognition and received an award for Outstanding Contribution. Ahh, it’s good to be British isn’t it?

It’s hard to explain what Darren Aronofsky brings to the films he takes to the big screen. For someone to have successfully translated the spirit of one of Hubert Selby, Jr.’s many crazed, fast-paced, passionate novels without so much as a single criticism is astonishing, and it doesn’t just stop there.

After being educated at both Harvard University and the American Film Institute in live action and animation film theory, he started on the path that would lead him to Pi, his debut feature. With no budget, he proposed a deal to potential investors – put in $100, and get a screen credit. In addition, get $150 back if the film profited – landing him a budget of $60,000. Of course, when it hit Sundance in 1998, he won the Best Director award and with sales over $3m was perfectly capable of paying back his many investors. In addition, he met Clint Mansell, who scored the film and would become a career-long collaborator.

His success continued with the 2000 $4.5m-budgeted Requiem for a Dream, adapted from the Selby, Jr. novel of the same name. Mansell’s soundtrack for the film has been used so often in popular culture you’re likely to associate the title track with anything from professional sporting events to The X Factor. Helping further the careers of many actors, including leading man Jared Leto (also the vocalist and frontman of 30 Seconds to Mars), the film was again a large hit at the box office and has now become a favourite of many.

Aronofsky was now hot property, and as a result was asked to work on numerous projects, such as an adaptation of comic legend Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One (eventually partially reworked into Batman Begins). He then began working on another script: The Fountain. After dying due to a lack of leading roles being cast and Cate Blanchett quitting as the female lead, it was resurrected starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, the latter going on to become engaged to Aronofsky until 2010.

The Fountain‘s over-complex plot and surrealist special effects were a miss at the box office, and Aronofsky faded from view for a brief period before rocketing back up the director charts with The Wrestler, the comeback of another Hollywood name – Mickey Rourke. The moving drama received countless nominations and won Aronofsky the Venice Golden Lion and an Independent Spirit award, both for best director. The film is also largely regarded as having revived Rourke’s acting career, who has since gone on to star in other films.

His latest project, Black Swan (of which you can read our review here) is a dark tale of competition behind the scenes at a ballet performance. Like many of his ideas – a mathematician trying to crack the stock market, a washed-out wrestler trying to re-unite with his daughter, a bunch of drug addicts living on Coney Island – it sounds so simple. But his ability to turn his character’s internal struggles into something darker, something gruesomely real and, in places, almost horrifying is what makes him one of the world’s best.

Currently he’s probably basking in the glory of Black Swan‘s awards and nominations, and gearing up to consider a wide variety of projects. He deserves to: considering he’s only 41 and has been doing nothing but producing ground breaking cinema for the last 15 years, he’s taken the role of director and done with it what others can only hope to achieve (Michael Bay, I’m looking at you…) in their entire careers. For a director to have one classic film under their belt is astonishing. For a man to have every single one be a critical success puts him on the path to “film legend” without so much as a second thought.

The film comes courtesy of Zhang Yimou who, as the man behind House of Flying Daggers as well as the direction of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is arguably China’s most famous director.

Nanjing Heroes, however, will step away from the more frequently featured themes of Chinese cinema, which tend to focus on the country’s tumultous medieval history and martial arts. Instead, this film will tell the story of the mass murder of Chinese citizens which took place after the Japanese invasion of China’s former capital city.

It’s not the first time that this harrowing piece of history has been used as movie material. Last year saw the release of City of Life and Death and John Rabe, both of which documented the massacre as well as the story of Rabe, a German businessman who protected many Chinese civilians during this time.

Rather than taking on the character of Rabe, however, Bale has been cast as an American priest who works as Rabe’s accomplice. Of course, it is not the first time that the actor has appeared in a film about the Japanese invasion – he also featured in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun when he was just 12 years old. Having said this, it is still worth noting that it is relatively uncommon for Western actors to be cast in roles within Chinese cinema.

The script has been written by Yan and Liu Heng, who wrote the novel upon which Zhang’s 1990 film, Ju Dou, was based. It will reportedly feature about 40% English dialogue, with the rest in Mandarin Chinese.

Despite the fact that Zhang has been nominated three times, no Chinese film or director has ever won a major category Academy Award. Could this this be the film that finally bags him that Oscar?

Zhang is reportedly due to begin shooting Nanjing Heros on 10th January in a church near the city itself. Meanwhile, Bale has also recently confirmed that he will reprise his role as Batman in, what is rumoured to be the final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. We’ll keep you posted!