Fantastic Beasts: The big-screen adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has already lined up Eddie Redmayne to star, and the choices for the female leads have narrowed. Saoirse Ronan, Dakota Fanning, Lili Simmons and Alison Sudol (left to right, above) are on the short list for the younger of two sisters, while Kate Upton, Katherine Waterston and Elizabeth Debecki are touted for the older sister. The movie, set some 70 years before the Harry Potter tales begin, is scheduled for release on November 18, 2016. [The Wrap]
Beyblade: Paramount Pictures, the studio behind the Transformers series and the G.I. Joe movies, has acquired screen rights to Beyblade, "a line of customizable toys modeled after traditional Japanese" fighting figures. The toys have reportedly generated more than $2.35 billion in revenue worldwide, and have already inspired animated TV series and spin-offs. [Deadline]
Transformers: We heard recently that more Transformers sequels and spin-offs were on their way, and now comes word that a prequel featuring Cybertron is a possibility. Transformers One is the working title for an origin story set on the planet Cybertron, the home of both heroic and villainous robots. In addition, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, who worked on Ant-Man, have been recruited for the so-called "writer's room" that is working up ideas for more Transformers movies. [Deadline]
Pawn Sacrifice Trailer: Chess gets exciting in the first trailer for Pawn Sacrifice. Tobey Maguire stars in the true-life tale as Bobby Fischer, the brilliant young American grandmaster who played a tense match with Russian champion Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) in the early 1970s. Peter Sarsgaard also stars; the movie is set for release on September 18. [MovieClips]
