Thursday Link-A-Mania

The Hobbit; Twilight star for Snow White, maybe; Age Of Rage; The Dark Tower; Prometheus; True Blood; J Michael Straczynski

Peter Jackson Surgery Delays Filming Of The Hobbit
According to a press release from The Hobbit’s publicity department, filming on the two movies has been delayed because Peter Jackson has had emergency surgery: “Sir Peter Jackson was admitted to Wellington Hospital on Wednesday night with acute stomach pains. He subsequently underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer. Sir Peter is currently resting comfortably and his doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Sir Peter’s surgery is not expected to impact on his directing commitment to The Hobbit beyond a slight delay to the start of filming.” Our best wishes to him on a speedy recovery.

Snow White Casting
Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron have been cast in Universal’s Snow White And The Huntsman, according to Variety. Mortensen will play the Hunter while Theron is the evil queen. Meanwhile, Heat Vision is claiming that Twilight’s Kristen Stewart is in the running for the role of Snow White. The film is a new take on the classic fairy tale which expands the role of the Huntsman who, in the Brothers Grimm version, is ordered to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, but instead lets her go. In this new retelling, he becomes her mentor, teaching Snow White to fight and survive against the evil queen.

Babylon 5 Creator Adapting Harlan Ellison Story For The Screen
Babylon 5 creator J Michael Straczynski has confirmed on Facebook that he has adapted Harlan Ellison’s Repent Harlequin, Said The Ticktockman for the big screen: “Since this has apparently leaked onto several film-oriented websites, I should probably confirm the information and preclude distortion: I have optioned, and adapted into screenplay form, Harlan Ellison’s Repent Harlequin, Said The Ticktockman. It’s out to producers, studios and directors now. We hope to find a director who has always wanted to make this story into a movie. More as, if and when it develops.” The book is about a dystopian future where being late is a crime. Ellison was a creative consultant on Babylon 5.

Black Swan Scripter To Write Post-Apocalyptic Movie
According to Heat Vision, Black Swan co-scripter Mark Heyman is set to write a post-apocalyptic movie called Age Of Rage for Fox Searchlight. Apparently based on a idea by Spider-Man director Marc Webb, it’s set in a future world where everyone over a certain age has died and a group of teens sets about trying to establish a new society (hang on, isn’t this that Australian series, The Tribe?). Heyman is also currently writing the script for Machine Man.

Has The Dark Tower’s Gunslinger Been Cast?
Deadline is reporting that Javier Bardem, who won an Oscar for his role in No Country For Old Men, has been (unofficially) offered the lead role of Roland Deschain – The Gunslinger – in director Ron Howard’s movie-and-TV-show extravaganza The Dark Tower, based on the fantasy book series by Stephen King. Deschain is the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers, and humanity’s last hope to save a civilisation that will fall unless he finds the Dark Tower.

Fassbender For Ridley Scott’s Prometheus
X-Men: First Class’s Magneto, Michael Fassbender, has been signed up to star opposite Noomi Rapace in Ridley Scott’s not-Alien-at-all-really-no-honest sci fi movie Prometheus, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He will apparently be playing an android. The film, which has just had its release date change,  is now due to be released on 8 June 2012.

More Jesus In True Blood
Kevin Alejandro, who plays Lafayette’s new boyfriend Jesus in True Blood (he first turned up in season three), has told TVLine that we’re going to be seeing a lot more of his character in season four (or “The Season Of The Witch” as everybody is calling it): “All I can tell you — because they’re really tight-lipped over there — is that Lafayette and Jesus are both there and you’ll see a lot of us. You will definitely get to know Jesus better — and he’s a pretty likable guy. There definitely will be more interaction between Jesus and other characters this season, too.”