As January movies are more painful to go to than the Jug when it’s cold on a Monday night, I thought this week’s article would be a perfect opportunity to update the following on some film news.

Thus far, the casting for the third and final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman tril­ogy has been terrific. Tom Hardy (Inception) has been cast as Bane, the jacked and roided out jugger­naut. Anne Hathaway has been cast as every 16-year-old boy’s fa­vorite villain, Catwoman. Morgan Freeman, Gary Olman, Michael Caines and Christian Bale are also all back for what will surely be the highest opening weekend movie.

James Cameron announced that he is a working on Avatar Two and Three. All the surviv­ing characters are set to return and the rumors are that Cam­eron’s next will take place entirely in Pandora’s ocean. Cameron will shoot both films back-to-back.

The newest Spiderman has been filming in New York City for the past two weeks. Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) is Spiderman and from the pic­tures on set, this seems like a much darker and dense character than Tobey Maguire’s.

The “sequel” to the romantic-comedy Valentine’s Day has been fully cast. The original movie was pure garbage, but the film’s list of stars still drew in over $200 million. It will be stacked again with: Robert De Niro, Ashton Kutcher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vergara, Jessica Biel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry, Zac Efron, Lea Michele, Bon Jovi, Til Schweiger and Seth Meyers.

Quentin Tarantino has announced there will be a Kill Bill Vol. 3. This is surprising considering Bill died in Vol. 2.

The Oscars announced their nominees today. The King’s Speech led the field with 12 nominations. However, I do not see the film winning any award except best actor. The Social Network was nominated for eight Oscars, and I see the film taking home at least five, including Best Picture. People may not realize it but The Social Network is the movie of the decade and will define our film period like The Godfather did. Da­vid Fincher will battle Christopher Nolan for the best director of their generation. They are both just about to hit their prime in directing age and experi­ence. Fincher is about to take home his first Oscar for best director over Nolan (little taste of my Oscar preview in two weeks).

Everyone’s favorite Fresh Prince, Will Smith’s next acting project will probably be Men in Black 3. However, he is now putting together a film and stardom vehicle for his daugh­ter Willow Smith. The project is a modern day version of the classic story Annie.

Sacha Baron Cohen has reunited with director Larry David (Borat and Bruno) for The Dictator. Cohen is playing an ignorant and evil dictator (imagine that) and a goat herder.

Disney has announced that a sequel to Tron: Legacy is in the works. The film was fun and entertaining for audiences (and had the best soundtrack of the year), but its story was lacking. I’m interested to see where they are going to go with this considering Tron died.