The latest Batman movie has shattered box office records in its opening weekend. “The Dark Knight” emerged as not just the new number one movie at movie theaters but also became the top grossing movie for its opening weekend, taking in an estimated $155 million dollars and eclipsing the previous record established last year by “Spider-Man 3” by $4 million. On “The Dark Knight”’s opening day alone the movie grossed $66 million, setting another benchmark record for ticket sales for an opening day. By comparison the previous adventure, “Batman Begins”, opened to a moderate $44 million dollar opening weekend before finally coming to a full stop with a little over $200 million in ticket sales. At the pace “The Dark Knight” is traveling it will surpass the total ticket sales of “Batman Begins” sometime in the middle of this week.

“Mamma Mia”, another new movie out this weekend, didn’t reach the same high watermark as Batman but it nevertheless did alright by grossing $27 million. Will Smith and his superhero tale “Hancock” dropped to third place with $14 million in ticket sales, bringing that film’s total gross to $191 million.

Lovely Sienna Miller is very close to snatching the role of Maid Marion in Ridley Scott’s “Nottingham”. The fair-haired “Factory Girl” actress would play the part of the apple of Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham’s eyes but in this twist on the classic adventure tale, it’s the Sheriff that is the hero while Robin is a dastardly outlaw and ruffian. Russell Crowe will play the role of the Sheriff making “Nottingham” the fourth time that he has worked with Ridley Scott. Meanwhile Miller is working hard playing the role of comic book villianness in the live action “G.I. Joe” picture.

Barring a possible strike by the actors guild which could happen as early as next month “Nottingham” is scheduled to begin filming in the late summer. The movie is scheduled for release in November 2009.

Did Edward Norton get angry when he made “The Incredible Hulk”? According to gossip Norton (who allegedly also helped write the superhero’s movie script) was displeased with the editing of the picture, so much that he swore off doing any promotion for the film. Norton had been notably absent from most of the promo work for “Hulk” leading up to the movie’s June 13 release until this week when he made appearances on MTV and “Jimmy Kimmel Live”. Early reviews have painted a favorable picture of the film which has also helped turn around the bad buzz that the earlier rumors had.

While “Iron Man” has proven to be a huge box office hit for Marvel Studios the $150 million dollar “Incredible Hulk” is a gamble. It’s a reboot of the concept of scientist Bruce Banner who, after being bombarded with gamma radiation, turns into a hulking green brute when he loses control over his emotions. Maybe Marvel sensed that Norton’s anger could act against the amount of money “Hulk” would make with audiences and decided to sooth the savage beast with more creative control.

“Pirates of the Caribbean” star Keira Knightly is in negotiations to star in a new movie version of “My Fair Lady”. The British superstar will play the part of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, a commoner whose manners and speech are transformed into an upper crust lady by the teachings of Professor Henry Higgins. The film will be a partnership between Columbia Pictures and CBS Films. Duncan Kenwothy, a producer on such British hits as “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Love Actually”, will serve as a producer on the picture.

The movie will use the original songs of the Broadway stage play and not make any major changes to the 1912 setting. The film’s producers would like to film as much as is possible at the original London locations used in the story such as Tottenham Court Road, Covent Garden, Wimple Street and the Ascot racecourse. The story will also use material from the original George Bernard Shaw play “Pygmalion” which served as the basis for the Broadway musical.

When the time-travelling Time Lord returns to the airwaves in 2010 he will be guided by a new creative thinker working behind the scenes. Steven Moffat is taking over head writer and showrunner duties on the BBC’s popular “Doctor Who” television series when it returns for its sixth season in two years. Moffat has been writing episodes for the new “Who” since its return to broadcast four years ago and had been rumored to replace exiting showrunner Russell T. Davies if the latter were to depart the sci-fi show.

Davies will remain as producer on “Doctor Who” for the remainder of the current fourth series and for three specials that will be broadcast in 2009. There is speculation that actor David Tennant, who currently plays the Doctor, may also wish to make an exit when Davies departs the show. If that is the case a new face will be found to play the alien Doctor and one potential candidate may be James Nesbitt. Nesbitt played the lead in “Jekyll”, a recent mini-series that Moffat penned.

The Writers Guild of America is set to start striking today against Hollywood. The 12,000 member union is fighting for better pay from movie companies over DVD sales, online content and digital sales of movies which are a growing source of revenue for the companies. Writers voted last week to begin strike action on Monday but also held out hope that a settlement could have been reached over the weekend. Unfortunately talks broke down Sunday night and a strike seems now certain as writers turn off their computers and start picketing outside of movie studios.

Film producers had prepared in advance by stockpiling screenplays in case the strike goes on for a long time but television programming could be seriously harmed if it goes on for several weeks. American TV shows will feel the loss of writers as new episodes for the fall season can’t be produced and several shows where long-term storytelling is key such as “Lost”, “24” and “Heroes” could stand to lose their audiences as networks are forced to air repeats.

Even if the writers and producers can reach a compromise sooner rather than later they may find themselves in the same situation come July 2008. That’s when the contacts with the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America are set to come up and both of their members may also go on strike. If that happens all production will roll to a halt and no new movies or television shows would be produced until both groups reach a settlement. Be prepared to watch a lot of reruns and catch up on your DVD watching!

Warner Bros. has released the trailer for “Get Smart”, a new update on the old 1960s television sitcom that starred Don Adams as secret agent Maxwell Smart. For the big screen version it’s Steve Carell (“Evan Almighty”, “The 40 Year Old Virgin”) playing Maxwell but it’s still the same klutz prone spy. Anne Hathaway (“The Devil Wears Prada”) plays the new Agent 99; Dwayne Johnson (“Doom”, “Gridiron Gang”) is Agent 23; and Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) is the Chief on Control, the good guys.

The movie’s storyline sees Control’s list of secret agents exposed by the nefarious schemes of KAOS, led by Siegfried (played by Terence Stamp). With the covers of the Control agents blown the Chief has no choice but to promote over-eager analyst Maxwell Smart to full agent status. Partnered with the lovely and deadly Agent 99 and the suave, charismatic Agent 23, Smart has to find a way to defeat KAOS with just his wits and his spy gadgets.

“Get Smart” is being directed by Peter Segal (“The Longest Yard”, “Anger Management”) and will be released on June 20, 2008.

Bruce Willis will soon be making a picture with one of his daughters. Rumer Willis has been cast along with her more famous father and former “The O.C.” star Mischa Barton in the dark comedy “The Sophomore”. The daughter of Demi will play the sidekick to the most popular girl in a Catholic high school (Barton’s character) while Dad will be the school’s demented principal, a former Desert Storm army soldier that can’t let go of his glory days. The movie will be played as a dark comedy that finds the school’s students discovering a conspiracy involving the theft of the SAT exams and corruption at the school.

Music video director Brett Simon will start filming the movie this August. This is the second film that Willis has starred in with his daughter after Rumer played his character’s daughter in 2005’s “Hostage”. She has also starred in two of her mother Demi’s films, “Now and Then” and “Striptease”.

“One Night at McCool’s” and “Agent Cody Banks” director Harald Zwart has been selected to shoot the sequel to “The Pink Panther”. Columbia Pictures and MGM want Zwart to begin filming the second movie in the reboot of the Peter Sellers comedy franchise starting in August. Steve Martin will once again play the part of French police Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The movie’s screenplay is being rewritten by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel while Zwart preps.

Shawn Levy directed the 2006 remake and will also act as an executive producer on “Pink Panther 2”. After the box office success of Levy’s last movie, “Night at the Museum”, he currently has five movies in development for his next job including a comedic update on The Hardy Boys that may star Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller as the two sleuthing siblings and a superhero movie about the fast-moving “Flash”.

Sean Connery has decided that he will not star in “Indiana Jones 4”. The 76-year-old Scottish born actor has issued a statement on the official Indiana Jones website stating that his reason for not reprising the part of Indy’s stuffy dad is due to enjoying his time off. “I thought long and hard about it and if anything could have pulled me out of retirement it would have been an Indiana Jones film. I love working with Steven and George, and it goes without saying that it is an honor to have Harrison as my son. But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun.”

Also announced at the time was the long rumored involvement of Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett (“The Lord of the Rings”) and actors Ray Winstone (“The Departed”) and John Hurt (“V for Vendetta”). The three join the already announced Shia LaBeouf who will play the son of Indiana Jones. Filming has started on the movie in Connecticut and it will be out in theaters next May 22.