Rapper turned movie actor Common is the latest recruit to join “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins”, the fourth movie in the immensely popular “Terminator” franchise of films. Common (whose real name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.) will play a soldier in John Connor’s army of survivors, battling for the rest of humanity against the rise of Skynet and its army of killer robots. Christian Bale (“The Dark Knight”) is playing the adult John Connor while Sam Worthington (“Avatar”), Anton Yelchin (“Star Trek”) and Moon Bloodgood (“Eight Below”) round out the remainder of the cast. One past “Terminator” star who doesn’t appear to be invited to work on the new movie is current Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The picture is slated to start filming in New Mexico this summer and Schwarzenegger hasn’t been contacted about making an appearance in the film. Rumor has it that the Terminators we will see in “Salvation” will be of a different model than the T-800 that Schwarzenegger played in the first three “Terminator” films.

“Star Wars” and “Trainspotting” star Ewan McGregor is in talks to join the cast of “Angels & Demons”, the sequel to “The Da Vinci Code”. If the Scottish star is hired he will play a member of the Vatican named Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca, the aide to the Pope. McGregor’s clergyman joins forces with Tom Hanks’ Professfor Robert Langdon and a woman (to be played by “Munich” star Ayelet Zurer) who try and reveal a secret organization that is determined to set off a bomb during a conclave in the Vatican.

Ron Howard will return to direct the sequel which is based on Dan Brown’s prequel to “Da Vinci”. Filming starts this summer for a 2009 release.

A 29-year-old driver assigned to transport a one-of-a-kind Aston Martin car to the set of the latest James Bond film has had a high profile auto accident. Fraser Dunn was behind the wheel of the $265,000 custom built car and driving it to the “Quantum of Solace” set near Lake Garda in northern Italy when he lost control of the vehicle, crashed through a barrier, and plunged into the water. Dunn escaped the submerged car with minor injures and swam safely to the shore. The 007 production had to act quickly to try and save the vehicle. It was successfully winched out of Lake Garda but the condition of the car is unknown. Reports indicate that it had been heavily raining during the time of the accident which might have led to Dunn losing control of the luxury automobile.

“Quantum of Solace” is the second outing for Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming’s super spy agent. The production had plans to move on from Italy to Spain this week but the recent accident may have put a crink in those plans. The movie is scheduled to be released in November.

The legal battle between “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and the creator of an unauthorized Potter encyclopedia took a turn yesterday when the judge overseeing the case suggested that the billionaire writer try and settle out of court with the defendant. Rowling is suing Steven Vander Ark and his publisher to stop the latter’s reference book, “The Harry Potter Lexicon”, from being published. The 400-page tome collects the minutiae of Potter’s magical world. Vander Ark was the curator of an online website where Harry Potter fans could read about the spells and creators found in Rowling’s books and the movie adaptations. Rowling herself praised Vander Ark’s efforts when they were done for free but now she is confronting him on the charge that he and his publisher are profiting from her copyrights.

In U.S. District Court Judge Robert Patterson has been reviewing the case and foresees that even when a verdict is reached by him the case will continue on for years in appeals court. The judge wants to see the two parties work something out without the help of the law. “I think this case, with imagination, could be settled,” said Patterson.

With three more “Harry Potter” movies still to be released and interest in the boy wizard expected to remain high for several years to come, the money that stands to be made by Vander Ark and his publisher could be substantial indeed. Rowling herself is a billionaire from creating the Harry Potter series and insists that the reason why she is blocking the publishing of the unauthorized lexicon is because she has plans herself to write one.

A fourth “Austin Powers” movie may secretly be in development and the first casting decision could have already leaked out. According to the Boston Globe there is a rumor that blonde bombshell model Gisele Bundchen is the likely candidate to assume the female lead in the untitled fourth “Powers” film. If the gossip turns out to be for real the 27-year-old Brazilian Bundchen will step into the Austin lady shoes that have been worn by Elizabeth Hurley, Heather Graham and Beyoncé Knowles.

Mike Myers and director Jay Roach are supposedly working on a plot for the new “Austin Powers” which would tell the story from the perspective of Dr. Evil (which will once again be played by Myers.) It has been six years since “Austin Powers in Goldfinger” was released and made $200 million dollars for its studio, New Line Cinema. Myers has kept a low profile since then and kept to only working on the last two “Shrek” movies. His next live action role is as “The Love Guru” which opens in theaters on June 20.

Keanu Reeves thinks that there is hope for a second sequel to one of his early films which is now a cult classic, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. While giving an interview with MTV recently the “Matrix” and “Speed” actor said that the idea of doing a third Bill & Ted movie was still being kicked around by Reeves and his co-star Alex Winter. “The most serious we ever got was a few years ago,” Reeves told the network. “I had once mentioned about doing it when we were 40. Now maybe the only shot we have is to do it when we’re 50.”

While Reeves has gone on to become a huge movie star his”Lost Boys” co-star Alex Winter left acting to become a director. The duo starred as the two loveable stoners turned time travelers in a pair of movies released back in 1989 and 1991. Reeves has just finished starring in a remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and could don his Wyld Stallions rocker gear anytime.

When Keanu was asked about where he thinks the real Bill and Ted would be at this point in their lives he gave a humorous answer: “The same place they are now – in each and every one of us.”

“X-Men” star Hugh Jackman must have loved his experience playing a popular comic book superhero because he is going to be making his own comic. “Nowhere Man” is the title of the character that the Australian movie star is developing for Virgin Comics. “I’ve had so much fun in the graphic novel world with the ‘X-Men‘ franchise that I wanted to get even more involved. I’m excited to work with Virgin and Marc and create a compelling character and story that hopefully will also make it to the bigscreen,” Jackman told Variety. Virgin Comics has recruited other Hollywood talent to make their comics including Nicolas Cage and “Revolver” director Guy Ritchie.

The idea is for “Nowhere Man” to launch first as a comic book and then take it to other platforms such as videogames or even as a movie that would star Jackman. The storyline is a carefully guarded secret but what little is known about the comic is that it is set in a future society where people have given up their privacy for personal safety.

Jackman is currently in Australia playing his character of Wolverine for a fourth outing in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” for 20^th Century Fox. It is scheduled for release in May 2009.

Just as Shia LaBeouf’s star is set to go into supernova starring opposite Harrison Ford in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in two months his personal reputation is starting to be tarnished. The latest brouhaha that the 21-year-old finds himself involved with is having his SUV vehicle towed from the driveway of a Los Angeles apartment complex. LaBeouf left his car parked in the driveway of the complex, blocking all other vehicles that wanted entry or exit from the apartments. The owner of the property went outside to Shia’s car and left a note tucked under his windshield wiper that read “Think of other people that live here,” before having LaBeouf’s car towed away to the impound yard. The “Disturbia” and “Transformers” star was too busy the next day to get his wheels from lock-up, forcing the actor to hire a driver and car to shuttle him around L.A. to get to a photoshoot for “Arena” magazine.

It’s just the latest run-in that LaBeouf has had. Last week he pleased not guilty to a charge of misdemeanor smoking after he was caught puffing away in a no smoking zone. Last November he was arrested for refusing to leave a Walgreens store late at night. Is the rough and tough image that LaBeouf is now creating just to prepare the world for his 50s style greaser character that he plays in the new “Indiana Jones” movie or is Shia headed down the same slippery slope that Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton went down? Time will tell.

Arthur C. Clarke, the writer of the legendary science fiction movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”, died yesterday at the age of 90 in his home of Sri Lanka. In the 1960s the famous writer collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick on what was to become one of cinema’s most celebrated films, an epic tale starting with the origins of man through to humanity’s first encounter with alien intelligence. “2001” was a milestone in movies and Clarke followed it up with three sequel novels, “2010”, “2063” and “3001”, with the first book being adapted into a 1984 film. Several of his other novels are in the process of being turned into movies including “Childhood’s End” and “Rendezvous With Rama”.

In addition to his fame writing “2001” Clarke is also credited with inventing the idea of satellites in Earth orbit that could transmit telecommunications signals.

Rumors that “Dirty Dancing” star Patrick Swayze had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer turned out to be accurate but the star isn’t as ill as the initial reports made him out to be. “Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far,” Swayze’s physician, Dr. George Fisher, told news reporters last week. “All of the reports stating the timeframe of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic.”

The earlier reports also said that the “Ghost” leading man had been forced to retire from show business so he could fight the dreaded disease. That is also untrue. He has finished filming a pilot for a new television series on A&E called “The Beast” and if that show gets an order from the network the 55-year-old will be ready to report to the set for work. Perhaps the rumor got started when Swayze backed out of a movie titled “Fired Up” after he didn’t like the creative direction that the show was going in.

“He’s got such a big heart and been such a good and generous person. It breaks my heart to know he’s suffering. But he’s hanging in there and getting the best treatment,” said Swayze’s 81-year-old mother Patsy about her son’s medical fight.