Here's some brief snippets of news for ya:

Twilight: Eclipse - Though the second installment of the Twilight series, New Moon, isn't anywhere near completion, that hasn't stopped Summit Entertainment from shopping around for a director for the third film in the series. Entertainment Weekly thinks that Drew Barrymore might be on the candidate list for that job. While her director debut hasn't been seen yet (Whip It! featuring Ellen page), she has done a lot of work behind the camera as a producer for her own production company Flower Films (responsible for romantic fare such as He's Just Not That Into You and Music and Lyrics). It seems like Summit is really desperate for a woman's touch on these steamy vampire flicks, so I would like to recommend Quentin Tarantino.

Friday the 13th Sequel - After an impressive box office showing a couple weeks ago, scribes Damian Shannon and Mark Swift are already working on a sequel. Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog comments, "Unlike the sophomore efforts of other franchises, the new Friday is expected to be not a sequel so much as a follow-up, those familiar with the project say. Jason Voorhees will be the villain, of course, but the new picture is expected to use elements of the original franchise more as a jumping-off point than as a template." I really don't understand how a follow-up is any different than a sequel. They could call it a frazzle snazzle and it still wouldn't make it any different than the inevitable sequels of any horror franchise. But I enjoyed this re-boot, so bring it on!

Richard Pryor Biopic - Entertainment Weekly reports that writer/director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) is shopping around his script around the late iconic comedian, Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? to various studio subs and independent distributors with Eddie Murphy attached to star. While I'd love to see a movie about Richard Pryor's life I just don't know if he's the right guy for the job. Unless of course he's going to play every member of Richard Pryor's family and fart a lot.

Up in the Air - Variety updates that Jason Reitman's (Juno) forthcoming adaptation of Walter Kirn's novel of the same name has just added Jason Bateman to the cast mix. Bateman will star alongside lead George Clooney in the story of "a professional who specializes in "career transition counseling" (a euphemism for firing people) looks to accomplish his two main goals in life: to accumulate 1 million frequent flier miles, and to land a job at a mysterious management company called MythTech."

The Associate - Variety reports screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) has been tapped to adapt the John Grisham novel as a starring vehicle for Shia LaBeouf with Paramount Pictures distributing. "LaBeouf will play a Yale Law School student with a sordid secret that leaves him vulnerable to blackmail. He's manipulated into taking a job at a law firm and working on a multibillion-dollar lawsuit." Doesn't sound particularly exciting, but I really enjoyed Matt Damon in John Grisham's The Rainmaker, so this could work out.

The Expendables - Ain't It Cool News got info that Arnold Schwarzeneggar is joining the upcoming action bonanza written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. Unfortunately he won't be joining the titular team, but will rather be playing himself as California governor. The Expendables tells the story of a covert team sent in to South Africa to take out a tyrannical dictator. Rest of the cast already includes Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Forest Whittaker, Dolph Lundgren and Eric Roberts. Sounds like a good old fashioned action flick in the same vein as Rambo.

The Days Before - Production Weekly reports via Twitter that negotiations are underway to have Robert Downey, Jr and Reese Witherspoon in the Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) directed film. Story is best described as a sci-fi Groundhog Day where an alien race is traveling through time and destroying the human race yesterday, and the yesterday after that. So everyday the human race was destroyed yesterday, and today and one man has to convince the world each day that they will be destroyed, over and over again. Yeah, I'm confused too, but it sounds like an very intriguing concept.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Today Paramount Pictures announced that they have bumped up the release date for the action-packed sequel from June 26 to a whole two days earlier on June 24. That has to be such better placement for box office positioning. I'm making my sarcastic face right now.

The Matarese Circle - Variety announced today a collaboration between Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington to work on this adaptation of a thriller by Robert Ludlum (author of the Bourne Trilogy books). Film focuses on "two bitter enemy spies who, after spending two decades trying to kill each other, grudgingly team up against the Matarese, a powerful group at the root of a conspiracy." Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (Wanted) are updating the book's Cold War elements for modern times. Distributor MGM also has the rights to the follow-up book The Materese Countdown for a potential sequel.

Jonah Hex - John Malkovich has been cast to do battle against Josh Brolin in this adaptation of a DC Comics publication. Josh Brolin has been set as the facially deformed former Confederate soldier-turned-gunslinger Jonah Hex for awhile now and Malkovich's casting places him opposite Brolin as Quentin Turnbull, a plantation owner who apparently has sworn vengeance against Hex for causing the death of his son during the Civil War. Horton Hears a Who director Jimmy Hayward is directing

The Adventurer's Handbook - Universal has acquired the rights to a high profile spec script written by Jonah Hill and his writing partners Max Winkler (Henry "The Fonz" Winkler's son) and Matthew Spicer. Variety says the film is a "comedy in which a quartet of pals go on a global adventure, inspired by the hardcore stories of explorers whose tales are chronicled in [Mick] Conefrey's book [The Adventurer's Handbook]. Multiple studios were interested in the film bidding back and forth until the deal went to universal for a seven figure sum. The script was so high profile that EW reports, "The script was sent over on red, watermarked paper so it couldn't be photocopied. Multiple studios were interested in the project described as an edgy, broad comedy." Jonah Hill and Jason Scwartzman have already signed on to star.

Untitled Social Networking Teen Thriller - This one speaks for itself in that "WTF Really?!" kind of way. Hollywood Reporter announced that Dimension Films is looking to make some bank off the popularity of social networking sites like Facebook by mixing up a teenage thriller based around one of these sites. Bob Weinstein commented, ""Online social networking is a widespread phenomenon that interests me greatly. Combining it with a suspense thriller is a new and fresh way to explore this new trend." Almost as fresh as having cell phones being the killer. Oh wait...

H2: Halloween 2 - Heroes speedster girl Brea Grant has been cast in Rob Zombie's slasher sequel. Bloody Disgusting reports that Grant will be playing "Mya Rockwell, Laurie Strode's co-worker at Uncle Meat's Jave Hole. " Whatever that means. She's been a breath of fresh air on Heroes despite the cast being unable to sustain its big numbers. Should be interesting to see her in this type of film.

Cinema Bits is a recurring installment here at Screen Rider providing you with brief snippets of casting, production and all things newsworthy in movies and television.

Not everything warrants a full fledged blog posting all by itself, and thus The Screen Rider presents to you: Cinema Bits. This feature will be a collection of briefs over small tidbits of news you may have missed.

Star Trek - Paramount Pictures announced that it will be attaching a new trailer for the J.J. Abrams directed franchise reboot with copies of Watchmen when it is released on March 6. Both the first trailer and the Super Bowl spot were pretty intense, but I wonder how many people will suddenly be excited about this film when the target demographic seeing Watchmen, more than likely already knows about Star Trek

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - From Transformer World 2005 (I'm not sure why their website is called this) comes the first picture of the titular Transformer known as Fallen. The picture is that of some sort of toy that will be released. This should be a pretty epic villain considering the villains who don't get title focus are GINORMOUS as was seen in the Super Bowl TV spot.

X-Men: First Class - The last time we heard about this upstart, it was announced that Josh Schwartz (creator of series like Chuck, Gossip Girl, and The OC) would be writing the script, and there was much speculation about whether he would make his directorial debut with the film. Well Schwartz recently talked to MTV and told them he hasn't been asked to direct and "would be terrified to have the first thing I direct be a giant franchise movie." He did go on to rule out any focus on the Dark Phoenix storyline, which is the crux story of the X-Men universe, simply because it was done (albeit poorly) in X-Men: The Last Stand. Still no word on who this young, first class of X-Men will be.

Untitled Woody Allen Project - Variety reported that Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins will star in Woody Allen's next film set to shoot in London this summer. They are the first to join what is said to become an ensemble cast, but in typical Woody Allen fashion the script, plot and even title are being kept under tight wraps. I loved Vicky Christina Barcelona, and look forward to any Woody Allen project.

Untitled Adam Sandler Ensemble Comedy - Variety announced negotiations with Kevin James, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade to all star in a comedy directed by Dennis Dugan (who nailed comedy with Happy Gilmore and then gouged out its eyes with You Don't Mess with the Zohan). The film will follow "five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on a Fourth of July weekend." Dugan and Sandler's Happy Madison Productions have made some real agonizing comedic films, but I'll wait for a trailer before I rain on this parade.

The Rum Diary - The film based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel of the same name just picked up recently Academy Award nominated actor Richard Jenkins, and Aaron Eckhart to join the cast (according to The Hollywood Reporter). Similar to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (a film that made me feel like I was on drugs, but not in a good way) the film follows journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) on a drug and alcohol binge as he comes to term with the fact that his life may never get any better as he sulks away in 1950's San Juan.

Cinema Bits is a recurring installment here at Screen Rider providing you with brief snippets of casting, production and all things newsworthy in movies and television.