Idris Elba (Takers, "The Wire") will be the new Alex Cross, inheriting the James Patterson-created character from Morgan Freeman, who played the detective in the films Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. The new project will be based on Patterson's twelfth novel featuring Cross, fittingly titled Cross.

Ryan Reynolds is emerging as the frontrunner for a coveted role opposite Denzel Washington in the thriller Safe House, from director Daniel Espinoza (Snabba Cash), reports Deadline.com.

This is the project I last told you about in early July. It has the following synopsis: When a group of villains destroy a CIA-operated safe house, the facility's young house-sitter must work to move the criminal who's being hidden there to another secure location.

The cast of Peter Berg's Battleship keeps growing - stranger and stranger that is. Victoria Secret Model/burgeoning actress Brooklyn Decker has joined the alien invasion action epic. The Sports Illustrated cover girl will play along side Rihanna and be the love interest of Taylor Kitsch's lead character. Meanwhile, this is shaping up to be a very random cast. Not an insult to the eclectic group, it's just... well, bizarre.

J.J. Abrams and one of his most trusted t.v. directors, Jack Bender, are teaming up for a big-screen scarefest called 7 Minutes in Heaven. Yes, they've gone from making board games into movies to adapting make-out sessions... At least it's a persuasive title.

Wes Craven has unleashed a new phantasmagorical killer in My Soul to Take, a thriller for which a brand new trailer has debuted. Looking for all the world like classic Craven, with tormented teens, surreal murderers and eerie nightmare sequences, the film is coming out just in time for the Halloween season courtesy of Relativity Media and Rogue.

"Mad Men" actress January Jones and rock and roll royalty Zoe Kravitz have both joined Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, reports Deadline.com. The two board a cast that literally grows larger by the day - yesterday we wrote about Oliver Platt and Jason Flemyng joining up, and the day before that we touted the Rose Byrne announcement. At the moment, there are approximately 3,259 actors in the film, and there's no sign of letting up...

Rejoice all ye who enjoy watching your vampire/werewolf battles sans teenage brooding and expertly-styled hair: Underworld 4 is coming... although we'll be seeing it later than initially expected. Box Office Mojo reports that the film, which will be shown in 3D, now has a January 20, 2012 release date, which is a major push-back from its original slot, September 23, 2011.

The writers of The Hangover continue to chug along - pun intended - with 21 and Over, a comedy that looks to mine similar laughs from the dire consequences of getting wasted. Variety reports that Relativity Media (Grown Ups) bought the spec script from Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, although the price tag is unknown.

The trailer for Casey Affleck's incisive documentary and/or elaborate hoax about Joaquin Phoenix, I'm Still Here, has just gotten a brief but deep trailer. And by "deep", I mean it contains someone telling Phoenix that he's a drop of water on a mountaintop. Or something. It's really weird, that's for sure.

The new teaser trailer for Gareth Edwards' low-budget wonder Monsters has just premiered at Apple.com, and it's definitely worth a look, so peep it below. Monsters, in case you're unfamiliar, was shot by newbie director Edwards for peanuts; the sci-fi movie utilized a two-man crew and a store-bought digital camera, while boasting realistic yet homemade special effects. Apparently, it cost somewhere in the neighborhood of under $10,000 to make. (And if you're thinking it's just another Paranormal Activity, check out the trailer to find out you're way off.) The flick, which has understandably drawn comparisons to District 9 (in terms of story), premiered to rave reviews at this year's South By Southwest Film Festival and has steadily gathered excited buzz ever since.