Scripter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven are together again for SCREAM 4, and while most people now know that Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox – the survivors of the previous trilogy – will likely appear, it will only be to hand things off to a next-gen cast.

Now, it appears that some of the actors on the Williamson-Craven wish list are becoming apparent. Included in the rumor mill are HEROES alumn Hayden Panettiere, Twilight’s Ashley Greene, Boy Meets World graduate Rory Culkin, and Surface/Boston Legal survivor, Lake Bell.

All this is intriguing, but a Lipofuze review might be more interesting until more is known about the plot. Alas, it’s largely under wraps… at least for now. Let’s hope it’s a case of talent well-used, not wasted.

The first season isn’t even over, the second season hasn’t even gone before cameras, and already Fox has decided it’s so hot on the musical comedy Glee that they have approved it for a third season; Glee’s second-season renewal came late in 2009.

But that’s not all; the producers are also reportedly negotiating with Fox to expand Glee’s future seasons from the standard 22 episodes to 25-episode orders. The reason behind this has more to do with merchandising that storytelling, however.

You see, each of Glee’s soundtracks have become instant iTunes best-sellers and the physical CDs even sell well enough to impact the top of Billboard album sales charts. Glee recently also surpassed a record held by U2 for the most charting singles in history… or something like that.

By expanding a season order of Glee from 22 episodes to 25, producers figure to add an additional soundtrack release to each season of Glee they produce in the future.

This season has seen Glee spawn three volumes of musical soundtracks based on season one, as well as a standalone EP-sized soundtrack for the special “Power of Madonna” episode. A volume four soundtrack is expected over the summer, sometime after the season finale airs.

That’s four full-sized soundtracks, plus one Madonna-power EP soundtrack. By adding three additional episodes, that number could expand from five to as many as six or even seven soundtrack releases per season, counting special EP releases in the vein of the Power of Madonna EP.

The point is, the multimedia approach to Glee is helping both the producers and the network make money hand-over-fist through non-traditional revenue streams, and an early green-light on the third season helps keep costs low before stars and producers start asking for improved contracts. Of course, if the ratings are still strong mid-way through the third season, producers can always avoid expensive re-negotiations with most of the cast by the very nature of the show: Glee’s biggest breakout star, Lea Michele, portrays a high school sophomore in season one, so a season four would be unlikely anyway; so long as new cast members are added every season and current stars are cycled out as they “graduate,” the show can avoid becoming overly expensive to produce by constantly being a launching pad for new talent, rather than a long-term showcase for any one star… even Lea Michele.

Setting Glee in high school among the Acneticin-needing crowd, therefore, was a wise way for producers to structure the show for long-term success.

Of course, the fact that Glee’s ratings significantly improved in the second half of the first season, following American Idol, played no small part in securing that third season renewal early. If all goes well, Fox may even have Simon Cowell’s new musical talent showcase, X-Factor, to pair with Glee in the fall!

While Shrek Forever After, which has been billed as the final installment of the series, did well at the box office, the $70.8 million weekend it posted domestically is actually below expectations for the long-running feature series. While wholesale diamonds used to be less valuable than a Shrek installment, the weekend take will only go partway to paying off the $165 million production budget. There is no worldwide box office numbers to add in yet, making the situation even grimmer; most analysts were hoping the film would tip the $80 million mark in its opening bow, but while nearly $71 million isn’t bad, it does put the film behind pace to make its investment back and reach profit mode.

At least Shrek Forever After, however, fared better than the SNL-inspired movie, MacGruber, which cost a measley $10 million to make, but struggled to pull in a mere $4 million over its debut weekend, finishing out of the Top 5 in sixth place.

Iron Man 2 was good for second place, adding another $26 million to its domestic haul; the $200-million budget film has made $506 million worldwide to date. Robin Hood still trails Iron Man 2, drawing $18.7 million domestically to bring its 10-day total to a mere $66 million. A healthy $125 million overseas puts the film Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe actioner close to making its $200 million back, but is a clear disappointment domestically.

Letters to Juliet added $9 million in its second week, but nothing else even came close to cracking $5 million below that.

Business is sure to pick up this coming weekend, however, as men will be drawn to the videogame-inspired action flick, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, while women will be looking forward to Sex and the City 2, sequel to the uninspired hit of two years ago, though this time word is the sequel cracks a sharper wit.

Robert Downey Jr. is hands-down a better actor than Russell Crowe, and now there’s proof to back up that opinion, it seems; Downey’s Iron Man 2 may have a weaker plot than the first flimic adventure of the Golden Avenger, but his performance has staying power; early returns on this weekend indicate Iron Man 2 has the early lead on Crowe’s boorish, politically-correct Robin Hood reboot, besting the Merry Men by a take of about $15 million to $13 million.

That puts Iron Man 2 on track for at least a $40-45 million weekend, while Robin Hood seems destined for come in under $40 million, and perhaps well under that benchmark. That would be an incredibly poor open for a film that cost quite a bit more than that to make.

I don’t need my old Acer Aspire desktop to calculate that Downey will again have an Iron-clad reason to be cocky about his box office clout, while Crowe will be eating his namesake after this weekend.

Of course, nothing’s official yet. Let’s see what the rest of the weekend brings.

Word on the ‘net is that NBC is ready to rebrand the network almost completely, distancing itself from the horrid Ben Silverman era. Under the fresh leadership of Angela Bromstad, the network is picking up load of hot new shows from edgy producers like J.J. Abrams, Jerry Bruckheimer and David E. Kelley.

To go in this direction, however, Bromstad’s having to break ties with old series that aren’t drawing viewers anymore.

Among the latest victims? Gone is Dick Wolf’s flagship LAW AND ORDER show, which has been terrible for years in the ratings, but to which the network in linked due to their interest in other Dick Wolf shows; word is Wolf is furious over the cancellation, which could throw the launch of LAW AND ORDER: LOS ANGELES into doubt, previously thought a shoo-in for a series pick-up. Wolf apparently is contemplating taking LAW AND ORDER to TNT for a final, 21st season.

That’s not all. Bromstad is apparently ready to break ties with one-time wunder-show, HEROES. The Tim Kring-produced show has suffered in the ratings but is still the network’s biggest money-maker in DVD sales. Word is Bromstead could approve a mega-event finale of two to six episodes, to polish off dangling storylines, or could just cut ties altogether. We should know soon.

Meanwhile, a ratings underdog but personal favorite, Chuck, has received a surprise renewal from Bromstad, who apparently believes in the series and is willing to give the show another chance when surrounded by what she believes will be a stronger NBC lineup next season.

Finally, it appears that NBC may have anticipated Wolf’s reaction to LAW AND ORDER’s cancellation; instead of attaching Jimmy Smits to LAW AND ORDER: LOS ANGELES, NBC appears ready to sign Smits to a different legal drama, GARZA, which is… surprise… produced by Conan O’Brien’s production company!

Can you believe that? That’s a way better future for O’Brien than hawking the best acne treatment on late-night infomercials.

CBS loves Chuck Lorre. The network has given long-term renewals long ago two his two signature series with the network, the Charlie Sheen-challenged TWO AND A HALF MEN, and the thoroughly entertaining BIG BANG THEORY.

To show Lorre the love, the Eye gave Lorre’s new series pitch, MIKE AND MOLLY, the honor of being the first new show officially picked up by the network for next season. The show centers around a couple who meet at a weight-loss support group.

The Lipovox-powered comedy seems an unlikely choice for CBS, especially for such an early pick-up; traditionally, CBS waits until the Monday of up-front week to announce its new series orders.

After back-to-back weeks of improving ratings, ABC has granted sci-fi thriller V a second-season renewal. That means more lizardy goodness in store for fans next fall, and a guaranteed post-LOST life for series star Elizabeth Mitchell.

In the meantime, the alphabet network isn’t sending out any high-hopes vitamins to the show they bet on to replace LOST, FlashForward. Ratings have been dismal and sinking, rather than rising, but ABC remains firm in their stance that they’ve not decided on the show’s cancellation just left.

Another presumed-dead series, Scrubs, apparently still has the slimmest of slim chances at renewal, though Twitter posts by former series star Zach Braff have indicated the prospects are less than zero for renewal. Still, with most of the expensive stars now gone, Scrubs was a half-decent performer in the ratings and less expensive than it had been to produce.

Better Off Ted, unfortunately, is dead.

The Patricia Arquette drama Medium is currently looking good, according to online reports, to be renewed for a seventh season overall, which would be its second season on CBS after NBC dismissed the show a year ago. The supernatural crime drama has improved the performance of CBS’ Friday time slot considerably this season, and is a consistent if not stellar performer.

While there is no need for wedding accessories for any of the kids on the show yet, a seventh season comes as welcome news to those who appreciate the show’s fine mixture of supernatural chills and real-world criminal menaces.

Although not as sparkling and witty as Fox’s BONES, MEDIUM is nevertheless a solid favorite for my wife and I, so we’re certainly glad to hear the show will be back for another season.

Iron Man 2 brought some impressive summer box office firepower to the table this past weekend as the superhero sequel pulled in an impressive $133 million or so in domestic box office. Add in another $194 million in foreign markets and you have an opening weekend that is apparently the fifth-largest of all time, at $327.6 million.

So that’s enough to put Marvel and the other folks involved in the movie up to their boots in moolah; although the movie cost $200 million to make, it’s already made well over a fifty-percent-plus return on that investment. That’s summer blockbusters the way they ought to be.

Absolutely nothing else even came close; a mere $9.1 million was enough to secure last weekend’s champ, the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street, a stranglehold on second place, as nothing else made more than a mere $6.7 million. Even the Freddy Kreuger remake saw a remarkable drop-off in interest, as business dropped over seventy-two percent from last weekend’s open.

Can Iron Man 2 stay on top without any 3D help? Well, it’s unlikely rom-coms Just Wright and Letters to Juliet will pose a serious threat, so the only real challenge will be the Russel Crowe version of Robin Hood, which will open wide enough to do well, though unlikely wide enough to challenge Iron Man 2 unless the superhero flick sees an Iron-like drop-off in business.

In fact, with the only serious challenges coming from Shrek Forever After the following week, it may be the end of May before anything has a real shot to unseat the Robert Downey Jr.-starrer. That’s when the highly-anticipated Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will debut.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Spider-Man movie franchise reboot being headed up by director Marc Webb. There’s a lot of ways he could bring a fresh take and a lot of ways to screw it up.

Casting is vitally important.

Too often in casting today, directors will choose actors in their 30s to portray high school kids because they still look young at the time of casting. Trouble is, that works for one film and by the time a sequel would be made, they’re looking their age.

So, while I hold no illusions that Marc Webb reads a snarky site like HollywoodIdiocy, here’s some of my dream-casting for the Spider-Man reboot, with actors close to being age-appropriate for the roles.

First and most importantly, Mary Jane Watson. She’s the emotional core of this series, so getting her right is vital. It’s hard to find a young actress who can pull off the demands placed on MJ’s role in the Spider-Universe as she ages into it, but I think I’ve found just the candidate.

Saoirse Ronan would make an ideal Mary Jane. First of all, she’s only sixteen, making her the perfect age to begin playing MJ for three or four films before the next reboot. Plus, she proved quite capable of carrying a major motion picture with her role in The Lovely Bones. Sure, she’s closer to blonde than red-head, but so was Kirsten Dunst when she was cast. It’s called a dye-job. Big whoop.

As for Peter Parker, you need someone who has that mixture of geekiness and leading man potential. You’d have to nerd him up a bit, but at 17, Taylor Lautner has already proven his ability to be part of a huge, money-making movie franchise with his role in the Twilight Saga. Put a pair of glasses an him and he’d make a decent Parker.

To round out the romantic triangle and give MJ someone to worry about when vying for Parker’s affections, I can think of no one better-suited to the role of Gwen Stacy than Dakota Fanning, whose acting talent is beyond reproach.

So there you have it for the key roles; Lautner, Ronan and Fanning. Cast these three, Marc Webb, and no one will be whining over the loss of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Bryce Dallas Howard for very long at all.

The 2010 remake of Wes Craven’s slasher classic, A Nightmare On Elm Street, is a box office champion this week by a wide margin. The movie topped all box office results, slaying $32.2 million out of US moviegoers against a roughly $30 million budget. That’s good for the studio.

However, the bad news is that director Sam Beyer is no Wes Craven as a stylist, and there’s not a single cast member with Johnny Depp-level potential to be found. It arguable if there’s even a Heather Lagencamp wannabe. Like so many remakes of classic horror/slasher films, the new version lacks the subtlety and suspense of the original, and just maximizes on the gross-out and ups the profanity level to hard-R territory.

And even though V is once again on the air, as it was in 1984 when Craven plucked Robert England from their cast to portray Freddy, Jackie Earle Haley is no Robert Englund, either. Haley, best known for his roles on Fox’s freshman action drama Human Target as well as last year’s dark superhero drama, Watchman, Haley is dark and foreboding as Krueger, but lacks England’s dark charm.

Still, the remake is already far more successful than the 1984 flick from a business standpoint; the original opened to $1.27 million and ultimately drew $25.5 million in domestic box office after being made on a $1.8 million shoestring budget. Still, it was strong enough to inspire seven sequels over eleven years before winding down in 1994, save for a Freddy vs. Jason fan-service flick in 2003. It remains to be seen if Haley’s Freddy will prove to be as enduring.

The down point for the new Nightmare is that $32.2 million might have been more than enough to take top box office honors this weekend, but it’s well below Freddy’s last appearance, with Robert Englund as Freddy, in Freddy vs. Jason. That 2003 film drew $36.4 million in its opening weekend and went on to earn $82.6 million, so the new Nightmare is already behind that pace, from seven years ago.

How To Train Your Dragon held on to the number two spot on the box office, still drawing over $10.8 million in its sixth weekend. Below that, things were dismal as nothing drew more than $7.6 million, with even the Brenden Fraser family comedy Furry Vengeance coming in with a weak showing, drawing a mere $6.5 million, barely good enough for fifth place.

A new box office champ is sure to emerge, despite bad early word-of-mouth, next weekend when Iron Man 2 soars into theaters. Take that, Freddy!