Fox Atomic has released the trailer for “28 Weeks Later“, the sequel to 2002’s zombie apocalypse yarn “28 Days Later“. Set for release on May 11, the second movie stars Robert Carlyle (”The World is Not Enough”), Rose Byrne (”Troy”), Jeremy Renner (”S.W.A.T.”) and Harold Perrineau (”Lost”) and picks up 6 months after the infection that killed nearly everyone in the British Isles has run its course. Survivors that managed to avoid the outbreak are returning back to their homes and the American army is helping make London habitable again. However, the Rage virus soon manifests itself once again and a new outbreak of homicidal victims is unleashed and quickly threatens to engulf the entire world this time.

The director of “28 Days Later”, Danny Boyle, acts as a producer this time while Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo steps behind the camera. Fox Atomic will also be releasing a graphic novel called “28 Days Later: The Aftermath” which will bridge the gap between the two movies. It arrives on bookstore shelves next week on April 3.

View the trailer for “28 Weeks Later” here.

The directors of the mega-franchise “The Matrix” are hard at work on their next blockbuster. “Speed Racer” will be a $100 million dollar adaptation of a cult Japanese cartoon from the 1960s about a young driver known only as Speed who drives a high performance racing car called the Mach 5. Speed and his gang of friends compete in a world-spanning race circuit for cash and the glory in beating his rival, the evil Racer X.

The Wachowski brothers have selected 22-year-old Emile Hirsch as their Speed, the star of “The Girl Next Door” and “Alpha Dog“. This will be the biggest movie to date for Hirsch and it will also kick off the summer 2008 movie season when it opens in theaters on May 8, 2008. “It’s something that you’ve never really seen before,” said Hirsch in an interview discussing the movie’s vision. “It’s like ‘Blade Runner’ meets Andy Warhol, kind of pop art in this colorful world.”

The producer of the movie, Joel Silver, also said that the special effects for the racing scenes will be of a similar mind-bending nature as the bullet time sequences were in the first “Matrix” film. If the guys responsible for “The Matrix” can make a huge leap forward again in special effects watching real NASCAR racing may never be the same again!

The two star-crossed lovers of the biggest movie of all-time will star again together in a new movie now in development for DreamWorks Studios. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have agreed to play a suburban couple in “Revolutionary Road” based on the critically hailed 1961 novel by Richard Yates. The real-life husband of Winslet, Sam Mendes, will direct the film starting this summer.

This is the first project that Winslet and DiCaprio have shared since they starred in “Titanic” ten years ago. Since that time both stars have gone on to receive Oscar nominations and box office success. In “Revolutionary Road” they will play a married couple that find themselves caught between their own personal desires and the pressure to conform creating a growing tension that eventually leads to explosive consequences.

The two “Mummy” films have grossed over $350 million dollars at the box office, making them lucrative properties for their owner, Universal Pictures. It has been six years since the release of the second film, “The Mummy Returns“, and now Universal is making preparations to blow off the dust from the franchise and create a new “Mummy” picture in time for a summer 2008 release date.

Martial arts superstar Jet Li is in talks to play the villain in “The Mummy 3″. Unlike the previous two movies, Li would have a new role and play a Chinese emperor mummy who was buried with his army of thousands of terra-cotta statues. As well the new “Mummy” movie will be set in the year 1940, twelve years further than the events in “The Mummy Returns”.

Talks are also underway to bring back Brendan Fraser as adventurer Rick O’Connell and Rachel Weisz as Evelyn, his wife. As well there is a part for Rick and Evelyn’s son, Alex, who we last saw in the second movie as a young boy. In the new film Alex is now all grown up and a two-fisted adventurer like his dad.

The screenplay for “The Mummy 3″ was written by the writing team of Miles Millar and Alfred Gough and it will be directed by Rob Cohen (”The Fast and the Furious”).

With Steven Spielberg eyeing a June start for the new “Indiana Jones” movie the rumors are flying faster than ever about who will star alongside Harrison Ford. Earlier reports that “Disturbia” and “Holes” star Shia LaBeouf was in talks to play the son of Indiana caught the attention of the world press but have been downplayed by the 21-year-old actor who told reporters recently that it was just a rumor and that he had not been talking with anyone about starring in the movie.

Last week another development broke when word came down that Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett had been cast in “Indy 4″. However, that may not be the case just yet as an Indy fansite told its readers that she was still in talks to appear in the movie and had not signed a deal just yet. Speculation ran rampant as to what role Blanchett could be up for, such as a possible new love interest for Indy or maybe even a longlost daughter that he didn’t know about.

Finally, a Taiwanese newspaper printed an interview with “Miami Vice” actress Gong Li stating that she is up for a part in a big budget Hollywood movie that is supposed to start filming this June, igniting speculation that the movie in question is none other than “Indiana Jones 4“. With no official cast announcements coming from Spielberg or Paramount Pictures and still no clue about what the movie’s title will be, fans of Indy have been left wondering how much longer they will remain in the dark until they know what the new movie is about and who will be standing alongside Dr. Jones in his latest adventure.

The stars of “Monster’s Ball” are reuniting on another edgy drama, this time based on a shocking real life event. “Tulia” is the title of the movie and the same name of a small town in Texas which saw controversy in 1999 when police arrested 40 black men on suspicion of drug possession and selling narcotics. Facing heavy prison time if found guilty, several of the men pled guilty and were convicted on a lesser charge while those that claimed innocence were found guilty in court all on the word of one undercover officer that claimed to have purchased the drugs from them even though no evidence was ever presented. The case made headlines and drew charges of racial discrimination and eventually made of the convictions were overturned but only after several years had passed with the wrongly convicted men in prison.

Halle Berry will play the star in the film based on the Tulia story, an ACLU lawyer trying to expose the corruption and prove the innocence of the people accused of being drug dealers. Billy Bob Thornton has also agreed to star in the movie in an unspecified capacity, possibly as the unjust police officer that set in motion the events that took place in Tulia. The film will start shooting at the end of April in New Orleans under the direction of Carl Franklin, the man that also directed Thornton in “One False Move“.

Faced with increased competition from emerging world markets, international piracy concerns and the ever-escalating cost of making motion pictures, Hollywood is attempting to fight back by reimagining the 3-D movie for a 21st century audience. Several movie studios are now embracing a new digital technology that produces 3-D images in full color, giving audiences a richer experience while watching the movies. “Titanic” director James Cameron and 20th Century Fox are making the science fiction movie “Avatar“, slated for release in 2009, using this method. “Journey 3-D” is another similar film in development at New Line Cinema, and Dreamworks Animation has just announced that all of its movies will be released in both 3-D and traditional 2-D beginning in 2009 with the release of “Monsters vs. Aliens”.

If waiting two years is too long for you, Walt Disney Pictures is releasing “Meet the Robinsons” this month to 500 theaters equipped with the digital 3-D technology, and later this year a new version of the epic Norse poem “Beowulf” will be out that incorporates the technology. Hollywood is hoping that by offering a new sensory experience that can’t be reproduced in a home environment that audiences will flock to see their favorite stars and the latest special effects appear right in front of their eyes. But like everything else that is new, expect to pay a little more to see a 3-D movie. Theater owners are adding an extra dollar or two on top of the regular ticket price to offset the costs of upgrading their equipment to the 3-D realm.

“My Name is Earl” star and professional ex-skateboarder Jason Lee will soon be surrounded by canines and chipmunks. Lee has inked a deal to play the halpless human housemate to “Alvin and the Chipmunks” for a movie to be made by Fox Animation. The 36-year-old will play David Seville, the man that acts as the Chipmunks companion and chaperone and the one that usually is the butt of their practical jokes. The Chipmunks will be created using computer graphics. The movie gets into production later this month and will be released in time for Christmas.

Lee will next be heard, not seen, as the title role in “Underdog“. He is providing the voice to the cartoon canine crimefighter. Look for it in theaters this August.

The director of “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” has a new movie in development. After being dismissed from other movie studios when his latest screenplay was called “The Green Effect”, M. Night Shyamalan rewrote the project and will now make “The Happening” for 20th Century Fox. The movie is similar to “Signs” in that it follows an everyday family that is on the run when a world-effecting event takes place. The studio wants to cast a recognizable leading man in the part of the main character.

Shyamalan shot to success in 1999 with “The Sixth Sense” and then followed that with “Unbreakable”, “Signs” and “The Village” before calling it quits with Walt Disney Studios. Last summer he took a critical and commercial drubbing with “Lady in the Water“, a fantasy story that turned out to be a bomb at the box office as well as with movie critics. “The Happening” movie will cost $57 million dollars to make and will begin filming in Philadelphia this coming August. The movie will be out in theaters in June 2008.

Shyamalan is also developing a live-action movie based on the animated childrens series “Avatar: The Last Airbender“.

While in Australia to promote the opening of “The Good German”, star Tobey Maguire surprised the media by stating that he’s done with wearing the blue and red costume of Spider-Man after the third movie opens. “It feels like a trilogy to me and it feels like the end,” Maguire told “The Courier-Mail” newspaper when questioned about whether he would consider making a “Spider-Man 4″. Added Maguire, “To me it seems like this is a natural point for the team to break up because we have a lot of story conclusions that were going along for the main characters for the first two movies and we kind of tie almost everything up for the third movie.”

Maguire and fellow star Kirsten Dunst were only signed to star in three “Spider-Man” movies when they were cast in the parts of Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson. There was a brief time when Jake Gyllenhaal was considered to replace Maguire in “Spider-Man 2″, but a last minute reconciliation between the actor and “Spider-Man” movie studio Sony Pictures avoided that potential disaster. The movie franchise has made over a billion dollars at the box office for Sony and producer Laura Ziskin has said before that she would like to make a total of six movies featuring the Marvel Comics superhero before calling it a day. As well, no one knows if director Sam Raimi is interested in making another movie or move on to other endeavors.