At the end of October, it was reported that summer blockbuster extraordinaire, Roland Emmerich, was set to begin filming a secret new alien invasion movie called The Zone that would channel the likes of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity (Read: ‘2012″² Director Roland Emmerich Wants To Make “˜Paranormal Activity’ “¦ With Aliens).

The “found footage” style movie was said to tout a $5 million micro-budget, hundreds of millions of dollars less than Emmerich is used to having on his movies, such as Independence Day, Godzilla, and 2012. We all wondered if this tiny budget would be a good thing for the director, who has been critically assaulted quite often (deservedly so), forcing him to worry about quality over just attention-grabbing effects.

Now we may never know.

It’s being reported that Emmerich’s involvement in The Zone is now non-existent after he decided to walk away, and that production on the movie has currently come to a halt. “This is not a project (Emmerich) is pursuing at this time,” said one of the director’s representatives, which has those involved with the production stunned.

As you might have noticed, “found footage” movies are pretty popular these days.

It all began with The Blair Witch Project before movies like [REC], Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, and any sequels or remakes continued to prove the success of such an outrageous style of filmmaking. Some people don’t have the stomach for these them park-worthy adventures, but for the rest of us, most of the movies can be a whole lot of fun. Just like first person shooter video games, these movies make you feel like you’re right there in the middle of whatever madness is unfolding, and they’re without doubt an effectively entertaining experience to behold.

Most of these films have been made on incredibly low-budgets and without any top-tier actors or directors involved, but now it appears that this is about to change.

News that Will Smith was choosing between a family flick no one knows much about and returning for Men in Black III is still warm, but some pretty large-scale rumors are already materializing for the actor’s future.

It’s beginning to look more and more likely that not one, but possibly two sequels to Smith’s alien apocalypse movie Independence Day could be well on the way. This isn’t the first time rumors of these sequels have been heard, but the big elephant in the room was in fact paying the pile of money required to lure Smith back….something Fox was not willing (or perhaps able) to do.

Now comes word via IESB, who has a major scoop from a trusted source, that Mr. Will Smith is now actually locked in for both of these sequels. The news hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but everything seems to make enough sense for this to be happening now.

The names Roland Emmerich and Isaac Asimov are about as opposite as two elements of the same basic spectrum can be.

Emmerich is known for his massive end of the world disaster films like Independence Day and 2012, but has also faced much criticism for his lack of other crucial story elements, specifically with titles like Godzilla, 10,000 B.C., and The Day After Tomorrow. Asimov is a legendary author and a master of the realms of science fiction literature. He has written over 500 books and was also a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, just to note a couple of his awe-inspiring lifetime accomplishments. His most popular work as an author are his seven-book creation known as the Foundation series.

So what do these two have in common? Well, Roland Emmerich is currently the man who holds the arduous task of trying to adapt Asimov’s Foundation into blockbuster movies, of course! And with the knowledge that Emmerich is the man handling this, one of the most classic of series in science fiction literature, fans of Asimov may not want to read further.

Just yesterday, we got our first look at Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in Jon Favreau‘s Iron Man 2. The images came from this weeks issue of Entertainment Weekly, which is a preview to Comic Con special. The issue has now been officially released and as it turns out, there were many more great images inside!

To go with the pictures of Black Widow, a few more tiny peeks at Iron Man 2 were offered. Among them is a look a Don Cheadle — who is stepping in for Terrence Howard as James Rhodes — sitting in front of Sam Rockwell, who will be playing Tony Stark rival Justin Hammer. There’s also a couple of new images of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark: One is of him taking part in some seemingly highly-competitive competition of sorts; the other shows him speaking to new CEO of Stark Industries: Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).

It doesn’t end there, either. A bunch of other big movies with previews featured in the issue as well, including Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland, Matthew Vaughn‘s Kick-Ass, Mike Newell‘s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Shane Acker‘s 9, Roland Emmerich‘s 2012, Ruben Fleischer‘s Zombieland, and Chan-Wook Park‘s Thirst.

Click over to check out all of these images, and head over to EW for even more.