The cast and plot for Ridley Scott‘s upcoming take on the tale of Robin Hood (formerly known as Nottingham) has come together finally. The movie is currently in production in the U.K. with leads Russell Crowe as Robin Hood and Cate Blanchett as Lady Marion.

Joining the two stars will be legendary actress Vanessa Redgrave (Julia, Atonement) as Queen Eleanor; Mark Strong (Stardust, Sunshine) will play Sir Godfrey; Scott Grimes (ER, American Dad) will play Will Scarlet; Oscar Issac (Che, Body of Lies) as King John; Léa Seydoux (Inglourious Basterds) will play French Princess Isabella; Kevin Durand (Mystery, Alaska, Lost) will handle the duties of Little John; and lastly, Alan Doyle as Allan Adayle.

Along with the impressive cast, Universal also put out an official synopsis of the movie, so we know what to expect. It paints a decent picture of the more realistic and less fairy tale world that Ridley is aiming for.

Click over for the full synopsis!

Principal photography commences this week on the Columbia Pictures production Salt, an espionage action thriller starring Angelina Jolie (Wanted, Changeling, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Bone Collector). Phillip Noyce (The Bone Collector, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) directs. The original screenplay is written by Kurt Wimmer (The Recruit, The Thomas Crown Affair), with a current re-write by Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, Man On Fire, The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3). Salt is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers, 1408, G.I. Joe) and Sunil Perkash (Enchanted). Executive producers are Ric Kidney and Mark Vahradian.

In Columbia Pictures’ Salt, Angelina Jolie stars as Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. When she is accused by a defector of being a Russian sleeper spy, Salt goes on the run to clear her name and ultimately prove she is a patriot. Using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative, she must elude capture and protect her husband or the world’s most powerful forces will erase any trace of her existence.

Liev Schreiber stars as Winter, Salt’s boss and friend on the Russian desk at the CIA, and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Peabody, a CIA counter-intelligence officer.

During this year’s Oscar ceremony’s final credits, some clips from big movies of 2009 were shown; one of those movies was for Michael Mann‘s newest movie — Public Enemies — which stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Up until that clip, all we had to excite us was information and a bunch of different images from the movie. That was all just a tease, though, as now we have our first look at the full trailer, and it does indeed look worth the wait. Included with the trailer is a bunch of new images and a new poster as well.

The trailer is really pretty simple: a lot of a very smooth Johnny Depp, a little bit of determined Christian Bale, a googly-eyed Marion Cotillard, some bank robbing, and best of all, the promise of some great cat and mouse action; all of this with that period 1930s back drop. If that little slick combination doesn’t already have you sold, then this movie probably isn’t for you. This isn’t to say we know whether or not it’s good or bad, but man, this mixture of story, time period, and talent would be really hard to fail with.

Click on over for full synopsis, images and the sweet trailer!

This past summer a huge fire broke out at Universal Studios Hollywood and destroyed a large chunk of the property (see Fire Raging At Universal Studios Hollywood). Now comes word that things are going very well in the efforts to rebuild the backlot and that productions will resume this summer.

While rebuilding what they lost in the blaze, Universal also went further and added a whole lot of new attractions and sets to their lot so that filmmakers have even more options to work with and so that people who take the Universal backlot tour will have more features to look out for.

Check out the image at right to see the construction underway at USH.

Ghoulish news, horror comic geeks! Independent comic publisher Chimaera Comics has formally announced the creation of a new horror imprint. The horror line has been aptly named Nightmaera and has announced half a dozen forthcoming titles, including A Violent End and Happy Panda Funtime Show.

The next bit of info actually gets me a little vaklempt, but as good as news of as a bunch of new horror comics is to a geek like me, equally amazing news is that Chimaera made the genius move of naming one of Geeks of Doom’s favorite independent comic writers and advocate, Stephen Lindsay (Jesus Hates Zombies, Ham & Eggs) as Nightmaera’s editor-in-chief. I’ve been a huge fan of Lindsay’s work since the moment I stumbled upon it on ComicSpace a few years back and I couldn’t think of a better choice to undertake a project like this. Lindsay has proven his mettle time and again and I, for one, am really looking forward to the stillborn two-headed mongrel thing that will be birthed from the loins of a dead ghoul.. uh, I mean… looking forward to checking out what a Lindsay-guided Nightmaera Comics will bring to the horror comic genre.

Check out all the details in the official press release after the jump: