Not only has the studio just moved up the release date for Spider-Man 2 from July 2 to June 30 to get a jump on the competition, but Sony suits are feeling so good about the webslinger's box-office potential that it's staked out May 4, 2007 for a third installment that hasn't even been shot yet.

Comic actor Jack Black has been in cast alongside Naomi Watts in Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong. Black will play Carl Denham, an adventurer filmmaker who is trying to make a name for himself in 1930s New York.

Justin Hawkins of The Darkness plans to take the place of the late Freddie Mercury with Queen at a 30th anniversary gig this year. The plan is to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Queen's first chart hit and to raise as much for charity as they can.

Van Halen have officially confirmed plans to hit the road for a summer reunion tour, with singer Sammy Hagar rejoining the band. Look for stops in Toronto on July 3rd and St. Paul on July 22nd.

Jennifer Aniston is set to star in Gambit, a remake of a 1966 British caper that starred Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine. Ben Kingsley is rumored to be negotiating for a role as well. The original film told the story of a British thief who comes up with a plan to steal an expensive statue from a millionaire mogul.

3 Doors Down and Nickelback are joining forces for a co-headlining summer tour featuring full sets from both bands. It will kick off at the end of June and run for at least a month.

Wal-Mart is getting into the digital download game, launching its own music download service. Wal-Mart's service boasts a vast music library (more than 300,000 songs and growing), and unlike its peers, Wal-Mart is selling songs for just 88 cents, 11 cents cheaper than the industry standard.

David Duchovny, revealed that the long awaited sequel to The X-Files movie will finally happen this year.

Despite Pixar's breakup from Disney, Disney has announced that they plan on moving forward on Toy Story 3 as a feature film rather than a straight to video release.
Disney retains the rights to make the sequels to the movies.

Kyla Pratt has been cast to star as the female lead in Fat Albert, the big screen version of the animated series created by Bill Cosby. She will star opposite Keenan Thompson, who has already been signed to the project.

Dave Kajganich has been tapped by Warner Bros. to pen a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The original 1956 film is a cult-classic among sci-fi/horror aficionados.

Will Ferrell is in talks to join the big screen version of The Producers. He would join Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, and Nicole Kidman, all of whom have already been cast for the project.

Sopranos star Drea de Matteo has been tapped to star as Matt LeBlanc's onscreen sister in the upcoming Friends spinoff. The sitcom will revolve around the relationship between East coast transplant Joey Tribbiani and his high-strung sis' Gina, a hairdresser and single mom to whiz kid Michael.

Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson's terribly patient hubby, snagged a role in an ABC sitcom pilot. The could-be show stars Gina Gershon as the mother who vexes her more uptight teen daughter.

Sir Peter Ustinov, the acclaimed British actor, author and playwright, whose film career spanned more than six decades and was highlighted by two Oscars for Spartacus and Topkapi, died of heart failure at age 82.

Survivor: Thailand contestant Helen Glover lost her columnist gig with a Rhode Island newspaper after CBS warned the former jungle dweller that she was blabbing too much about behind-the-scenes life on the hit reality series.

Law & Order veteran Jerry Orbach will be leaving the NBC series at the end of this season. The actor has played Detective Lennie Briscoe for 12 of the show's 14 years on the air.

William Shatner is expected to join the cast of The Practice's spinoff next season.

A new mass-market women's magazine called All You will debut this September from Time Inc., and will be exclusively sold at Wal-Mart Stores.

Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits CD is expected to shift in excess of 100,000 copies in the U.S. during its first week of release to debut in the Top Ten of the Billboard charts.