Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:Cinema Confidential recently sat down with Chris Columbus & David Heyman to speak about the next installment in the Harry Potter saga. In their conversation the two revealed some tidbits on the release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

Heyman on when we should expect the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}"The third film will come out sometime in 2004. We haven't yet determined if that will be the summer or fall. Other than that, I don't know. My focus is with the release of the second film, and on the preproduction and production of the third."

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Columbus on his decision to change gears from director to producer on the upcoming third film:

{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}"It's really simple and kind of boring. The hours on these Harry Potter films is really very taxing. I have four children, and I haven't had dinner with 'em in four and a half years. I just wanted to see my kids again and drop them off at school in the morning. As a producer on the next one, I'll basically have banker's hours, you know, 9-5. We've actually started preproduction with our new director, and we start shooting, roughly, in March."

CLICK HERE for the entire interview.

The Day After Tomorrow: A scooper for Dark Horizons has sent in a juicy report from the set of The Day After Tomorrow:

"I'm from Montreal and filming here will take place from November 7th to March. They are using Mel's Studios, the most prominent film studios in Montreal, and have a budget of around $100 million. In total there are to be 155 filming days. I looked up at the wardrobe section and their schedule and saw some set location details - a NASA refugee camp is being considered, Wall Street and Times Square will all be frozen over for other scenes. CGI wise they will either be using an outside source or local talent. Roland Emmerich (very cool dude) and his wife have both arrived in Montreal and are excited to start filming. On the posterboard of the production company several interesting pictures were up. One caught my eye was a CGI effect of the Statue of Liberty encased with CGI ice."

Thanks to Dark Horizons.

Brothers Grimm: Terry Gilliam has chosen his next project. It seems Gilliam will be making a film about Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm who's characters "travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures, they encounter a real sorceress with terrifying powers and are put to the test". Ehren Krueger has been writing the script for MGM. Production starts next spring.

Godfather 4:The Herald Sun has reported that someone close to the project is in talks to film the 4th installment in the series in Melbourne & Queensland late next year. Publisher Random House yesterday confirmed it had signed a deal with the estate of Godfather author Mario Puzo, who died in 1999. We'll keep you posted.

God & Generals: The official site for the upcoming Civil War flick has gone live with a batch of new photos and a synopsis. CLICK HERE

Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers: The official site has been updated with new AIM icons as well as some new wallpaper from the extended DVD! CLICK HERE

X-Men 2: Another picture of Nightcrawler who will be appearing in the X-Men sequel is now online. Thanks to Countingdown for scanning in the Newsweek image! javascript:;|CLICK HERE

In addition, a full transcript of last week X2 press conference is up at Superhero Hype. CLICK HERE

Hellraiser: Deader:Moviehole have picked on a casting scoop that is quite interesting:

An inside source has just revealed that Kari Whurer ("Eight Legged Freaks") has been cast in the lead role for Miramax's "Hellraiser : Deader". They recently started shooting the film in Bucharest, Romania, with Whurer playing the lead character, Amy.

Hellboy:Coming Attractions has gotten a casting scoop for the upcoming Hellboy movie:

Selma Blair has signed on to play Liz Sherman, the BFRD's resident pyrokineticist, opposite Ron Perlman's Hellboy. She will also be his love interest in the film.

Ghost Ship:CHUD has a great interview up with Julianna Margulies, star of this week's Ghost Ship. CLICK HERE

Big Fish:E! Online reports of the plans Tim Burton is making for his next film:

Tim Burton has reeled in Billy Crudup for Big Fish. Crudup joins Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney in the Columbia Pictures film about a son (Crudup) trying to learn the truth about his dying father (Finney), who tells grandiose tales of his life. McGregor plays the youthful incarnation of the father. Cameras roll January 2003.

Thanks to 'Rip'

The Phantom: Comic films are big right now. Hollywood knows this. So, why not exploit the hell out of it and turn a semi-cool genre into a crapfest? Seems that what Hollywood plans to do. Variety is reporting that Crusader Entertainment and writer Steven De Souza are planning on remaking The Phantom (the Billy Zane version was not appartently good enough) in a more current style of action film. Hyde Park's Ashok Armitraj told Variety what he thinks:

"The fact is this character is terrific and has been followed by people around the world. There is a great history there, the whole legend of the Phantom, how it was handed down four centuries with the vow to take on piracy and bad guys, these people out to destroy the world... The major thing is to put him in a contemporary setting with the weapons and gizmos and 'Matrix'-style stuff which wasn't done in the previous film."

Thanks to Dark Horizons for the scoop!

Stay tuned...~Brian