The fortunes of Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi drama Gravity might finally be shifting for the better, as after some changeable experiences with casting, the director has offered Natalie Portman the crucial lead role in the movie.

Gravity, co-written by Cuaron and son Jonas, focuses on a female astronaut who is stranded on a space station when the rest of her crew is wiped out by an accidental collision with space debris. The film has Warner Bros. ready to stump up $80 million to shoot the survival story in 3D and Robert Downey Jr locked in for a supporting part, but the plum central character has been the centre of intense negotiation.

Angelina Jolie was originally ready to star, but pulled out fairly recently after mulling the idea. There have been other possibilities, including Scarlett Johansson and Blake Lively, but no one has been that close to winning the role, until now.

While the actress hasn’t committed yet, we’re betting Cuaron will work to get her into a space suit, since he needs to start shooting by the end of January so as to catch Downey Jr before he has to commit to work on The Avengers and Sherlock Holmes 2, among other projects.

Portman, meanwhile, has been getting some great reviews for her work in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (including from our own Damon Wise), after the film screened at the Venice and Telluride festivals. We’ll get to see the result next February when the movie arrives on these shores.

Fingers crossed that Cuaron might finally have found his heroine…

We’ve known for a while that casting has quietly gotten under way on The Hobbit, despite the fact that the film still doesn’t have an official greenlight and remains largely caught in the web of MGM’s financial issues. But Peter Jackson, who has yet to confirm he’ll actually direct the thing, has been looking for actors and now comes word that Martin Freeman, long rumoured as a possible Bilbo Baggins, has had to pass on a “firm” offer to play the role.

The reason, according to The Sun? The offer came in too late for him to squeeze any part into his schedule considering that he’s committed to the next series of the Beeb’s Sherlock. The story, as picked up by The One Ring, was that “It was one of the most difficult decisions of his career. MGM, who are making the film, only got a formal offer over in the last couple of weeks.  It was agonising but he had no other choice.”

Since this news comes from “a source” who “told” The Sun about it, we’re going to treat it as more rumour than anything for now, and since it’s about an unannounced casting situation, we doubt there’s any likelihood that it’ll get confirmed unless either Jackson or Freeman himself goes on the record.

Plus, with no actual date set, there has been little indication as to when The Hobbit will be filming. Presumably, Jackson and co are still angling for a late 2012 release which is why the clash happened in the first place.

So if not Freeman, then who? Pick your Baggins in the comments…

Since he and the rest of his hard-nut cast powered The Expendables to solid if not stellar box office success, Sylvester Stallone is naturally still interested in keeping the fire around the movie going. Via his new favourite communication system, Twitter, he’s already announced that he wants Bruce Willis as the villain in a possible sequel and now he’s talking about a director’s cut DVD for the film and a massive Making-Of documentary.

While we’ll have to wait a bit for the extended director’s cut of the film (Sly’s estimate is “about six months”), we’d guess the documentary, Inferno: The Making of The Expendables, will be present and correct on the first DVD release. Keep those dollars flowing, Sly!

So what can we expect from the doc? According to Stallone, “its hard core – everybodys on it” (sic), and the highlights will include a stunt mishap with Steve Austin and Sly himself getting badly hurt, leaving an injury that requires spinal surgery. They don’t do things by halves, those lads.

He’s also revealed that he’s recorded a director’s commentary for the disc – “turned out great, think you’ll like it,” is his opinion of it, though we hardly expected him to tweet that it’s a boring slog…

There’s no word on when any Expendables disc might hit the shelves, but we expect Sly will keep everyone up to date.

And Shrek goes Halloween…

Downlad Bleach 419 manga on its relase date at My Naruto Blog. In the mean time, you can read our latest Bleach 419 manga prediction entitle Final Tensa Zangetsu below. Ichigo is going to continue smacking Aizen around for a little bit, but ending up making Aizen evolve again. Enjoy your reading.

Status: Predictions
By: Nn0itra Jiruga

Aizen falls down holding the slashed part of his body.

Ichigo: Do you see now the difference between us? I’ve just begun warming up.

Aizen looks upon Ichigo and smiles and laughs crazily as he regenerates and energy radiates out of him once again and his butterfly-like wings change to that of an angel’s wings and his hair turns into a whitish-yellow color.

Aizen: My transformation is still occuring! My godhood is nearly complete! Thank you Ichigo Kurosaki, for I have finally unlocked my Bankai…

Ichigo: What? But you said that you mastered everything a shinigami could master…

Aizen: Nearly. I couldn’t unlock my bankai due to me not being able to subjugate even my own Zanpakto. You see, it knows the very godlike power it wields and of my desire. The only reason I even have a shikai is because of my vast amount of reiatsu. It was merely luck I even knew about the name…

Ichigo continues to look at Aizen with a stoic look on his face

Aizen: So you see Kurosaki, my vast spiritual is so high now that my bankai is going to be automatically released because of it… Ban….KAI!!!!!

Aizen: Genjitsu waikyoku Kyoka Suigetsu!!!(Reality distorting Water Moon.) Behold the very power I wield! It’s the power to distort reality to my very whim! Watch as I wave my hand and perform such things of grand scale that only a god could do!

Aizen literally waves his hand and darkens the sky and creates a whole line of moons in the sky.

Ichigo: …

Aizen: It looks like I have no need to even fight you anymore since I wield a god like power now. With this power, I don’t even need to destroy your town, I can just transverse into the king’s dimension myself…

Aizen then waves his hand again and opens a portal to the king’s dimension and just as he starts to go in, Ichigo stops him with his hand on his shoulder and Aizen looks over and sees that Ichigo has transformed into his hellknight form.

Ichigo: No, your fight is still not over with me…

Ichigo then tosses him to the ground and immediately follows up with a getsuga tenshou so powerful that the shock waves from the attack destroys some of the moons that Aizen created.

Probably not the best, but I gave it a shot.

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It was the battle of the manly gunslingers this weekend across the pond, extended an extra day thanks to the Labor Day holiday on Monday. But while the competition was fierce, with the top films changing positions more than once, the drawing power of George Clooney in The American was able to overcome Danny Trejo as Machete.

Clooney’s latest, the meditative, only occasionally bullet-flinging thriller, managed to win out with $13.1 million across the three days. That led it to the top spot, beating out Robert Rodriguez’ gore-soaked satire of immigration and Mexpolitation films. Machete started well, but lost pace, eventually ending up in second with $11.4 million. Still, that was enough to best heist pic Takers, which dropped to third and $10.9 million and The Last Exorcism, which sank quickly from second to fourth, earning $7.5 million. Down in fifth, we find the brutally underperforming Going the Distance, which arrived with $6.8 million, marking one of the worst rom com debuts for a while.

The rest of the charts belonged to the likes of The Expendables (pushed down to sixth with $6.7 million), The Other Guys (seventh, with $5.4 million) and Eat Pray Love, which fell to eighth and $4.8 million.

Bringing up the rear, we have Inception, which earned $4.5 million in its eighth week of release for a running total of $227 million in the US alone and Nanny McPhee Returns at 10th with $3.5 million.

Explode your chart needs over at Box Office Mojo.

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Naruto 509 Confirmed Spoilers will be posted here soon. If you are looking for an early spoilers, please check my manga spoilers website to get the release date of Naruto 509 manga. By the way, this is the latest Naruto 509 predictions for this week. Read Naruto 509 entitle Angel Interrogation by Sensei-Q below.

Status: Predictions
By: Sensei-Q

*Konan and Tobi are standing still in the middle of the rain*
Tobi: Are you going to tell me where you hid him, or do I have to get you to talk with force, hmm?
*Konan has a serious look on her face, but seconds later she has a smirk on her face*
Tobi: Fine, have it your way, woman.. *Tobi jumps off of the broken pipe and runs towards Konan with his arms stretched*

Konan: Here goes noth- *Konan’s stomach is pierced by Tobi’s fist before she is able to finish her sentence*

Tobi: Now, tell me where he is, or I’ll make sure to stab through a vital organ this time, *Tobi said with a threatening voice*.

Konan: You fool, I’ll never tell you anyway..*disperses into paper*
Tobi: You bitch.. *turns around to see Konan up in the sky with paper wings on her back*

Konan: For someone with a Sharingan, you’re tracking skills are amateurish. That being said, it’s time to finish you off.
Tobi: Heh, well then. Show me what you got..!
~Epic Shippuuden OST~
*Konan’s wings change shape into much bigger and aerodynamic wings as she flies towards Tobi with great speed and spinning in the process*

Tobi: That won’t work on me, I seemed to have overestimated your tactical skills.
*Konan flies through his body into the water, and Tobi solidifies his body again*
Tobi: Why would such a linear attack work on me *he said as he turned around*
Konan: -Linear, you say? *Konan jumps out quickly, surprising Tobi and leaving him vulnerable for a split-second*
Tobi: (Shit!) *jumps away, but is kicked down immediately by Konan’s paper-clone which was hovering in the sky all along*

*The real Konan jumps back up from the water and pushes a Fuujin tag against the falling Tobi’s mask right above the eye hole, causing Tobi to make a reverse salto because of the force of impact*
Konan: Nagato told me everything about, “Madara”.

Tobi: *Struggles to stand up* You don’t know what you’re talking about, you silly woman.. *tries to pull off the Fuujin Tag but can’t*

Konan: That Tag contains sealed sunlight. You’re a shell of your former self. The First Hokage humiliated you. He not only defeated you, but he also “banished” you from what we call ‘daylight’. He sealed you and your eye into Darkness, where you belonged in the first place.
For years you’ve experimented with the seal, resulting in great pain and slow deaths. The DNA you lend from that plant creature won’t help you this time. You’re going to die right here and now.
If I release the Fuujin, the sunlight will trigger the seal the First Hokage placed on your left eye.

Tobi: W-Wait, Konan, we can work this out. Remove the Tag and I’ll leave you for good.
Konan: I’m not a controllable fool, this is your end.

*Konan makes a ‘Ram’ handsign*

Tobi: Wait, you bitch!!!

*The seal on Tobi’s mask starts to glow&lighten up*

Konan: And now; Relea-!!!

*Konan is pierced from the back, through her heart by a lightning spear*

Next chapter: Naruto 510 – Least Expected

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You can be Mark Millar’s new superhero