UPDATE: MTV spoke to Guy Ritchie, who did confirm that the character of Moriarty will be in the movie somehow. It’s still very doubtful that it will be Brad Pitt in the role, but Ritchie did say the actor would be uncredited. This means we have a Kevin Spacey in Se7en situation which will see some sort of big reveal in the very brief moments we see the character in. No complaints here, those are always fun.

A huge rumor set fire to the ‘net yesterday, claiming that Brad Pitt had joined the cast of Guy Ritchie‘s Sherlock Holmes as suspiciously-missing Moriarty. The report came from London’s not-so-trustworthy tabloid, The Daily Mirror, and within hours, Warner Brothers had issued a statement denying the report.

No word yet on if the well-known villain will be cast at all in the movie. Considering it’s an origins movie and they have a villain in Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), one would assume that if Pitt (or someone like him) was cast as Moriarty, they would likely show up in Nick Fury fashion, at the end or after the credits, in order to set up the sequel. We already know that this has every intention of becoming a franchise, so it would make sense to do. Better yet, the statement issued by Warner Bros. confirms that they will be shooting some extra scenes for the movie, though they are still planning a Christmas Day 2009 release. So while the Brad Pitt report is completely false, it wouldn’t be shocking if they were putting together some kind of Moriarty introduction cameo.

Click on over to the other side to read WB’s statement.

A rumor that has been making the rounds is one that involves the possibility of a Who Framed Roger Rabbit sequel. Director Robert Zemeckis, while out promoting his motion-capture remake of holiday classic A Christmas Carol, revealed that with all this new technology and options, that he thought it might actually be time to finally revisit his insane cartoon rabbit. He even went as far as to promise that though some things might be computer animated or 3-D, Roger and the other cartoon elements would remain as cartoons. Zemeckis then spoke to AICN, and happily explained that he had talked to star Bob Hoskins plenty of times and that he would definitely be up for another go as stressed and depressed detective Eddie Valiant.

This happy news didn’t last too long, though, as Hoskins himself has spoken to MTV News and pretty firmly stated that he wouldn’t be returning for the movie.

To briefly recap on the story so far as we know it: Neil Blomkamp — director of the upcoming District 9 — was the first to attempt bringing Halo to the big screen. He even went so far as filming a live-action short video for Halo 3 promotion, and to show what the popular video game world could look like in live-action without any budget at all. The videos were great and the project was eventually put in motion with Peter Jackson acting as producer, but sadly, it became apparent that the budget would be way too large, and the Halo movie was put down Old Yeller style.

It really didn’t look like this movie was ever going to get made, but we all may have assumed a bit too soon. IESB is reporting that Steven Spielberg himself may be the man to pull this project from the cold grasp of cinematic death and breathe that sweet, sweet life back into it. The news was confirmed multiple times that Spielberg is currently in “active negotiations” to develop the Halo movie himself.

Click on over to see the live-action videos that were made to initially pitch the idea for a movie.

In what is quite the interesting little catch by MTV Movies Blog yesterday, who picked up on a small little bit in a New York Times feature on Tom Arnold. In the very last part of the story, they mention and offer quotes from Tom himself about an upcoming project that will involve himself, director James Cameron, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s right, Tom Arnold claims that the team behind the fantastic action/spy comedy True Lies will be joining up for a new project, while being a bit cryptic as to whether it will be a sequel to the 1994 movie, or if it will just be the same kind of premise.

Here’s what Tom had to say about it:

In this time of taking the beloved movies of our past and remaking every single one of them (some successfully; most in painfully failing fashion), it goes with all common logic that the titles that aren’t being remade, would go ahead and make a sequel. After years of talking about a third Ghostbusters movie that we assumed would never come, it’s officially in motion; and now comes word that the sometimes talked about Gremlins 3 may be on the way, as well.

As we all know, Gremlins is about little creatures called Mogwai that have strict rules against sunlight, feeding them after midnight, and getting them wet. Breaking these rules can either kill them, or cause a terrifying transformation into little green monsters that will terrorize whoever them come into contact with. The first film is a classic in which the creatures destroy a little town at Christmas, while the sequel was a little less classic and had them taking over a gigantic business complex along with new, genetically mutated Gremlins who can speak and fly.

Both creator Chris Columbus, and director Joe Dante chimed in on word that the movie might take place.