If only there was a way to foolproof these lists with technicalities, they would be much more reliable. But for now, the second time in a row, Forbes has named Shia LeBeouf most profitable actor in Hollywood.

Now technically, they are right. For every dollar that Lebeouf is given, he brings back $81 in box office grosses. And that’s a big number. But that’s where logic comes in.

Look at the guy’s filmography recently – barring ‘Disturbia’ and ‘Eagle Eye’, there is not a single film in there that was sold on his name or he was the main draw of it. He was in the two ‘Transformers’ movies where his name wasn’t even on the poster. Hell, more people watched that movie for Megan Fox than him. And then of course comes ‘Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ and we all know why we watched that movie (even though we made a mistake). But fact is that all three of those movies earned a gazillion dollars and technically had him in a role. Hence, that makes him the most profitable actor in Hollywood.

A much better name comes down the line in the form of Robert Downey Jr., a man who sells his brand of comedy and acting in the movie and literally owned ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes’, having a major part in its success. But he’s still at number 3 thanks to Anne Hathaway who’s on there because of the billion dollar grosser ‘Alice In Wonderland’. And I can hardly recall her in that movie.

There’s some good names on there too, though. Check out the whole list after the jump.

Looks like we’ve got a good old battle of wits on our hands here that involves one of the biggest directors in the world against a producer of medium-sized movies. It ain’t pretty, and it’s in 3D. The battle is between ‘Avatar’ and ‘Piranha 3D’.

So here’s the nitty gritty. James Cameron started off his film career by directing a cheesy ‘Piranha 2′ hence when ‘Piranha 3-D’ (he was considered for a cameo in it too), reporters wanted to know what fond memories he had and what he thought about a new Piranha movie. And it backfired.

Turns out James Cameron had not one good thing to say about ‘Piranha 3D’. In fact, he downright attacked the movie. In an interview with Vanity Fair, this is his response to the question of whether Piranha 3D brought back “any sense of nostalgia”:

Zero. You’ve got to remember: I worked on Piranha 2 for a few days and got fired off of it; I don’t put it on my official filmography. So there’s no sort of fond connection for me whatsoever.

That’s still fine, until of course you take his extended answer about the movie itself into consideration. Then it’s outright ugly:

In fact, I would go even farther and say that… I tend almost never to throw other films under the bus, but that is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3-D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3-D horror films from the 70s and 80s, like Friday the 13th 3-D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3-D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip. And that’s not what’s happening now with 3-D. It is a renaissance—right now the biggest and the best films are being made in 3-D. Martin Scorsese is making a film in 3-D. Disney’s biggest film of the year—Tron: Legacy—is coming out in 3-D. So it’s a whole new ballgame.

This is where Cameron’s ego has dropped in. His comments over the use of 3-D as a ‘cheap’ tactic for the movie is uncalled for and he sounds like the inventor of 3-D wary about its uses. It’s a downright insult on the movie that he probably hasn’t even seen yet.

If you want to know my real reaction to his words though, producer of ‘Piranha 3D’  Mark Canton stepped forward to reply to James Cameron’s damning words and it’s exactly how I feel. Albeit long, his response is a perfect explanation from his side that also manages to diss ‘Avatar’ in many possible ways. Read more about this below.

No matter how much eye-strain Clash of the Titans gave to the collective audiences, it made a good amount of money and a sequel is in order. Since original director Louis Letterier vowed not to return, a new director has just been hired.

Heat Vision confirms the long running rumor that director Jonathan Liebesman (with a name very prone to a devastating typo) is now hired to direct ‘Clash Of The Titans 2′. He’s got the upcoming alien invasion flick ‘Battle: Los Angeles’ coming up and it has all sorts of good buzz behind it. Directing a tentpole sequel is definitely an easy way out, but the movie really needs some fresh ideas and a style behind it. Otherwise, we’re in for a drab sequel.

But hey, at least it will be shot in 3-D this time.

Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper are undoubtedly the A-listers of the coming years and even though they are in competition for quite a few projects (they were the top two choices for ‘Green Lantern’), they’ve managed to make great careers out of their sudden successes. So how about putting them both together in one movie?

THR reports that both actors are now attached to an untitled buddy cop comedy written by Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air). While most buddy cop comedies enter cliche territory, this one actually brings a new element into the mix. The story follows “two friends, who are also San Francisco cops, whose fathers were once partners on the police force. The older generation is forced out of retirement to help their sons crack a case, with typically antagonistic results.”

A great hook and a lot of marketing possibilities depending on the casting of the fathers, and it’s good to know that they’re aiming for an edgy R-rated flick here. Then again, Ryan Reynolds is probably booked for the next decade right now so this may not happen anytime soon, if ever. An interesting project, though.

We’ll keep you updated.

Adding the earlier casting rumors for the movie, we’ve got a very interesting one this time for the ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot although it makes good sense.

Comic Book Movie reports that 20th Century Fox is interesting in actor Bruce Willis to voice The Thing. I say voice because the character will be fully CGI this time around and not makeup and prosthetics like the last around. Willis is an interesting choice and definitely sounds the part, but I wonder if he would want to fill his shoes into a role that was already well done to begin with. But it also suggests that The Thing might also appear in human form for a short time in the beginning, which would be great to market the movie.

Also, a list of directors is out which includes James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), Joe Carnahan (The A Team, Smokin Aces) and David Yates (Harry Potter 5-7). It’s a wildly varied list and isn’t confirmed as of yet as well. So both these news are still rumors right now.

Looks like this is getting put together pretty fast.

With videogame adaptations still proving to be a risky business for Hollywood, the main problem here is the disconnect between the gamers and movie-going audiences and actually convincing those game fans to check out the movie. ‘Doom’ is the biggest example of that failure no matter how desperately they tried. But what about ‘Half Life’, one of the biggest games ever? If the movie ever happens, they want to do it right.

Gabe Newell, CEO and co-founder of Valve, has an inventive solution for the bad ideas that directors and writers have put forward for a ‘Half Life’ adaptation – they are going to do the movie themselves. Valve is one of the biggest gaming studios and they want to do the adaptation right and I don’t believe them. PC Gamer talks to Gabe and here’s what he’s got to say:

There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood. Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they’d bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story. And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally [sic], the worst. Not understanding what made the game a good game, or what made the property an interesting thing for people to be a fan of… That’s when we started saying ‘Wow, the best thing we could ever do is to just not do this as a movie, or we’d have to make it ourselves.’ And I was like, ‘Make it ourselves? Well that’s impossible.’ But the Team Fortress 2 thing, the Meet The Team shorts, is us trying to explore that.

He also mentions that Blizzard should game a ‘World of Warcraft’ movie rather than Sam Raimi, which now suddenly makes good sense to me. Till now, no game studio has branched out into movies although if any one can do it, it may be Valve. I’m not sure if a movie is such a great requirement that they should sacrifice upcoming games for it, though.

What do you think?

While ‘The Expendables’ is going good business out in the U.S., it’s got a coveted Eid release date in the UAE and you can bet I’ll be there on the first day. But plans for a sequel are already underway, and Stallone has a few ideas in mind.

The grandmaster Stallone recently tweeted this piece of info:

“Had dinner with Bruce Willis last night. I want him in EXPENDABLES II as a super villain. What do you think?”

Bragging aside, Stallone could be serious about this. I haven’t seen the film, but Willis has a cameo and a mysterious character that can be built to something more in the next film. He should really try and get Van Damme into the mix, though. That would be the real epic bit. Willis is awesome too, though.

What do you think?

Firstly, I refuse to call the upcoming ‘Final Destination’ with the horrid title ‘Anal 5nal Destination’ until I’ve got no other choice. But other than that title, Warner Bros. looks to be going back to the roots of the franchise and trying to fix the errors that ‘The Final Destination’ made. In that vein, a mysterious character from the franchise is returning.

Bloody Disgusting reports that actor Tony Todd will return to the series in the upcoming ‘Final Destination’ film. For those who watched the first two films, you would remember him as the mysterious caretaker who knew a lot more about death and its rules than he should. He did some voicework on the third film too, but was completely absent from the fourth one. Not that his inclusion would’ve changed that movie, but it would have helped nonetheless.

But there’s more good news on the horizon. Among other unknown cast members, actor Nicholas D’Agosto has been cast in the movie. He was a new talent that was hilarious in ‘Fired Up’, a movie that I liked much more than I should have. So it’s good to see him playing possible comic relief here. Also notable is that there’s an offer out to actor David Koechner, who is notable for his hilarious work in ‘Anchorman’, ‘The Office’ and many other movies. His presence can make this movie.

So far, so good. Let’s see if they crack the story right this time.

Now that ‘Mission Impossible 4′ (may not be the final title) has found it’s costar in the form of Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner, the hunt for a female lead begins. And already, we have three actresses testing for the movie.

Deadline reports that for a role of a female operative, the following actresses are testing for Paramount – Paula Patton (Precious, Deja Vu) Lauren German (Hostel: Part II),  and Kristin Kreuk (Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Lie, Smallville). With this series, I’m pretty sure the female lead isn’t set to survive by the next one so my choice would be the adorable Kristin Kreuk (pictured above). Of course, Paula Patton was great in Deja Vu and she could play an operative pretty well too.

That’s all we know for now, but Paramount is sure speeding up the casting on the movie.

Nothing better than when a deserved film gets rewarded at the box-office. And this week, arguably the best movie of the year got that distinction.

Disney and Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 3′ has just crossed the coveted $1 billion mark at the box office, making it not only the highest grossing animated movie ever but the only Pixar and animated film to do so. Only six films in the past were able to hit that mark and now Pixar has joined that rank. Also, Disney has become the only studio ever to have two $1 billion grossing movies at the box office in one year. The other, of course, is the less deserved ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Tim Burton.

Read the full press release below.