Sure, it's very helpful to have a cast in place before starting a flick. James Cameron's Avatar already has the likes of the soon-to-be-Uhura Zoe Saldana, the toughest chick to ever hit space -- Sigourney Weaver, all-around tough girl Michelle Rodriguez, quirky Giovanni Ribisi, and the underworld Macbeth, Sam Worthington. But even with tough, female topliners, and epic Ripley, you need to have a lead villain to create all the thrilling space action. Variety reports that this will be none other than Matt Gerald. ...Who?

The actor, who looks like a real-life Hitman, is jumping into the role from much smaller stints in films like Magnolia (Officer #2), T3 (SWAT Team Leader), and xXx (Liebo). He's also just finished working on the Chuck Palahniuk adaptation, Choke, where he plays Detective Ryan. Now, Avatar is about the clashing between a humanoid race on their home planet of Pandora, and those from Earth who settle in and are at odds with them. It's sounding kind of like Dune meets the Mayflower. Pandora has all sorts of treasures and resources, and those darned Earth people want it for themselves, which leads to a battle for survival. Now we've just got to wait and see if Gerald can stand up to Weaver, Saldana, and Rodriguez.

Word from The Hollywood Reporter is that New Zealand actor Karl Urban has joined the cast of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek re-start. Fans of fantastical cinema will no doubt remember Urban from his work in Lord of the Rings, The Bourne Supremacy, Doom, The Chronicles of Riddick and Pathfinder. Mr. Urban will be playing medical officer "Bones" McCoy, a character made famous by the late DeForest Kelley. Plot details are still being kept under wraps, but here's what the all-new Enterprise crew looks like...

Captain Kirk (previously played by William Shatner) -- Chris Pine (27 years old)
Spock (Leonard Nimoy) -- Zachary Quinto (30)
Sulu (George Takei) -- John Cho (35)
McCoy (DeForest Kelley) -- Karl Urban (35)
Scotty (James Doohan) -- Simon Pegg (37)
Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) -- Zoe Saldana (29)
Chekov (Walter Koenig) -- Anton Yelchin (18)


...and Eric Bana as the villainous Nero. (With a special appearance from Leonard Nimoy!) Production on the film is expected to run from November to March. So what do you think of the whole crew?

Also, feel free to pick through our numerous reports on this flick. Like right here, here and here.

I'm going to be real honest with you here, because it's late and the PG-13 side of me is itching to break loose. The only thing I remember about Haven (aside from some nice blue water) was Zoe Saldana. And, technically, I'm not talking about her performance. Should she eat more? Sure, but aren't most Hollywood actresses flirting with an eating disorder at one point throughout their career? Zoe's cute, she looks good, and she's also about to co-star in one of the most talked-about films in the month of July -- Star Trek XI: The Flashback Episode. (That was a joke; not the real title -- in case you thought about IM'ing your Trekkie group.)

Saldana will be playing Uhura, "which means freedom in Swahili" (thanks Variety!), and acts as a member of the bridge crew on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Variety adds that the character also rose to the rank of commander. Saldana takes over for Nichelle Nichols, who played the character on the original Star Trek series, as well as in six Star Trek films. Star Trek XI will follow the Enterprise crew during those oh-so-important wonder years, back when the gang first met and, presumably, took on their first mission -- which (and don't tell ANYONE I told you this) apparently has to do with Kirk and Spock being placed in charge of finding out exactly what J.J. Abrams is calling his damn monster movie. Interesting ... and I like the cross promotion. Heroes star Zachary Quinto and Anton Yelchin have already signed on to play Spock and Chekov respectively, while the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has also hopped onboard to play something (I like the Enterprise janitor, but I'm not writing the thing). Star Trek XI will arrive in theaters on December 25, 2008.

Director and world ruler James Cameron called Ain't It Cool News last night to release details about the cast of Avatar, his ultra-secret sci-fi project that will mark his first return to the big screen since 1997's Titanic. Here's the big news -- Sigourney Weaver has signed on as Grace, whoever that is. I have only the vaguest notion of what the film's plot is, so I'm not sure if this will a primary role or a sort of bone to throw to long-time fans of Aliens. But either way, it somehow makes me want to see this film a lot more. Cameron also revealed the following names for the cast roster: Peter Mensah, Joel David Moore and C.C.H. Pounder, an actress who is mostly know for television work -- it will be interesting to see what Cameron has in mind for her. He's also trying to get Angelina Jolie "in and out in five days," to boot.

Cameron just returned from three days of location shooting in Hawaii with leads Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington and he will now be moving on to California to begin a shooting stage called "pre-capture." He also gives some details about the stuff he's inventing for the film, including some contraption called a "motion builder" for use in the real-time cinematography, although I can't quite figure out what that could be, based on the details given in the piece. He also confirmed that no director of photography had been chosen yet, and gives details about how the workload will be divided up between himself and the DP who is eventually chosen. He also noted that the first assistant director is coming off of The Polar Express and Beowulf, other motion-capture-heavy projects. Avatar is currently penciled in for release in 2009.

Though the film is completely absent from the IMDb and other online news sources, Jerry LaMothe has amassed a substantial cast for Blackout, his new feature that is currently shooting in Brooklyn. According to the usually reliable BlackFilm.com, Jeffrey Wright is starring in the film, which details events in a Brooklyn neighborhood during 2003's blackout. That's pretty much all we know about the movie, but there are a lot of names in the cast, including Wright's co-star Zoe Saldana and the legendary Melvin Van Peebles.

Considering the fact that LaMothe's last feature as a writer-director, 2004's Nora's Hair Salon, went straight to video and was called "The Worst Movie Ever" by an IMDb commenter and "a nightmare from beginning to end" by a reviewer at DVD Verdict, he must have written a damn good script to get someone like Wright to sign on to this project. Well, either that or he's tell people that guy is a different Jerry LaMothe altogether.

[via JoBlo]