Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron (Monster, 2003) is set to star in and produce French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s English-language debut Dark Places, an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best selling 2009 novel of the same name.

According to the Exclusive Media press release:

Charlize Theron will play Libby Day, a woman who, at the age of 7, survives the massacre of her family and testifies against her brother as the murderer.

Twenty-five years later, a group obsessed with solving notorious crimes confronts her with questions about the horrific event.

In Flynn’s novel, Libby grows to become a total mess and agrees to help the group, called The Kill Club, re-investigate the crime in a scheme to profit from her tragedy. Theron is always fun to stare at, but she especially kills it when portraying damaged people (i.e. Aileen Wuornos in Monster, Mavis Gary in Young Adult).

Theron, who is coming off Snow White and the Huntsman and Prometheus, will next be seen in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth installment in the franchise made famous by Academy Award winning actor and blow-job enthusiast Mel Gibson.

Eighteen-year-old Saoirse Ronan is joining Christina Hendricks and Eva Mendez in How to Catch a Monster, a sci-fi thriller written and directed by actor Ryan Gosling (Drive), who co-produces through his Phantasma Films with Marc Platt Productions and Bold Films.

Described as a modern day fairy tale with elements of “fantasy noir and suspense,” How to Catch a Monster finds Hendricks playing a fetish model and mother of two, who follows one of her sons to a secret under water city. Costars include Matt Smith (“Dr. Who”), Ben Mendelsohn (Dark Knight Rises) and Rob Zabrecky.

Ronan is best known for playing an abducted teen in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and for her role as a teen assassin in Joe Wright’s Hanna. She’ll next be seen as Gemma Arterton’s vampire daughter in Neil Jordan’s Byzantium and as Melanie Stryder in Andrew Niccol’s adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host.

The truth is out there… and so is Gillian Anderson. The “X-Files” star has got a string of upcoming projects sure to interest genre fans, including the alien thriller I’ll Follow You Down, the zombie horror-comedy Curse of the Buxom Strumpet and a story arc on NBC’s new “Hannibal” series as Dr. Lectar’s psychologist.

Now comes word that Anderson has been cast alongside Ben Kingsley in director and co-writer Jon Wright’s new robot-apocalypse thriller Our Robot Overlords. Budgeted at $21 million and co-written by Mark Stay, the story is set three-years after a robot invasion forces survivors to live in hiding.

Anderson tells ScreenDaily:

It’s a fantastic script set in the future about a woman who has four or five kids living with her in a world run by robots and they break out in search of the father who’s gone missing.

Our Robot Overlords is slated to go into production in May. To keep up with the film’s progress, peep its Twitter feed.

Underworld: Awakening directors Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein’s long-delayed psychological thriller 6 Souls—previously titled Shelter—arrives in the U.S. on VOD on March 1 and in limited theatrical release on April 5. It stars Julianne Moore (Carrie) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“Dracula”).

Michael Cooney, screenwriter of the 2003 gem Identity, pens the story, centering on a widowed psychologist (Moore) working the case of a schizophrenic murder suspect (Meyers) whose split personalities are those of murder victims.

Moore’s upcoming genre projects include MGM and Sony Screen Gems’ new adaptation of Stephen King’s 1974 novel Carrie and Warner Bros. Seventh Son, an adaptation of Joseph Delaney’s “The Wardstone Chronicles.” Meyers will next seen on NBC’s “Dracula,” playing the iconic bloodsucker.

A trailer has gone online for Final Girl, the feature film debut from controversial photographer and Birkin bag hater Tyler Shields. Abigail Breslin stars as an assassin-in-training high schooler who sets out to kill the gang of street kids that assaulted her as part of their initiation.

Sixteen-year-old Breslin made her movie acting debut at the age of five in M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 alien invasion thriller Signs. An Oscar-nominated performance in Little Miss Sunshine followed in 2006. Her genre creds include 2009’s Zombieland and the upcoming Ender’s Game and The Call.

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Gorgeous box office repellent Jennifer Aniston (“Friends”) has booked her next bomb, a kooky sci-fi comedy titled Convention from director Justin Reardon (A Many Splintered Thing) and screenwriter Christopher Painter (Tom and Jerry in Shiver Me Whiskers).

Aniston and co-star Mark Duplass (“The League”) play siblings who invent a five-sided box that could not only revolutionize the storage industry, but destroy the universe. Adding to their troubles is Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3) as an evil box mogul. Convention is slated to shoot this summer.

Aniston made her feature film debut in 1993 with the cult classic Leprechaun. She has since steered clear from starring in horror.

Cuban heart-stopper Eva Mendes is set to join “Mad Men” star Christina Hendricks in How to Catch a Monster, a sci-fi thriller written and directed by actor Ryan Gosling (Drive), who co-produces through his Phantasma Films with Marc Platt Productions and Bold Films.

Described as a modern day fairy tale with elements of “fantasy noir and suspense,” How to Catch a Monster finds Hendricks playing a fetish model and mother of two, who follows one of her sons to a secret under water city.

Bloody Disgusting reports that Mendes will play Cat, a member of something called “The Big Bad Wolf Club.” Co-stars include Ben Mendelsohn (Dark Knight Rises) and Rob Zabrecky. Production is slated for May.

Mendes made her movie acting debut in the 1998 home-video original Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. A lesbian role in Columbia Pictures’ teen frightener Urban Legends: Final Cut followed in 2000. A year later, she skyrocketed to fame with a very-nude dramatic role in Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day.

Since then, Mendes has mostly starred in dramas and comedies, with notable exceptions being 2007’s Ghost Rider, an adaptation of the Marvel anti-hero comic and graphic novelist Frank Miller’s solo directorial effort The Spirit, for which she went nude.

Red Compass Media has released a trailer for writer and director Brian A. Metcalf’s The Lost Tree, starring Thomas Ian Nicholas (American Pie), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Scott Grimes (“E.R.”) and stunners Clare Kramer (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Lacey Chabert (pictured above).

The film follows Noah (Nicholas), a guilt-ridden widower, as he takes refuge in a cabin in the woods to mourn the loss of his wife (Kramer). The trip takes a turn for the worse when he discovers that he is not where he thinks he is, but in a far more dangerous place.

The trailer is introduced by people who are neither Kramer or Chabert, but it’s worth a look anyway.

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Anchor Bay Films has released a new trailer for writer and director Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem, starring Sheri Moon Zombie as a radio DJ in Salem, Massachusetts who receives a mysterious record from a powerful coven of witches hell-bent on taking over the town.

The Lords of Salem co-stars Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator), Sid Haig (Devil’s Rejects), Dee Wallace (Cujo), Meg Foster (They Live) , Lisa Marie (Ed Wood),  Billy Drago (Vamp), Bruce Dern (Silent Running), Ernest Thomas (”What’s Happening”) and Maria Conchita Alonso (The Running Man).

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Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed yesterday to CNBC that the Mouse House is set to produce stand-alone films based on characters from the Star Wars universe. The spinoffs will be released as companion pieces to the new Star Wars trilogy, slated to launch with J.J. Abrams’ Episode VII in 2015.

Today, Entertainment Weekly reports that the first two stand-alone projects in development are an origins story on smuggler-turned-hero Han Solo and an intergalactic adventure tale showcasing bounty hunter Boba Fett.

The Han Solo film is said to take place in the time period between Revenge of the Sith and New Hope, while the Boba Fett movie would be set before Return of the Jedi—for obvious reasons (Spoiler Alert: he was swallowed by a big, angry vagina).

Will Vader Cameo in Boba Fett Spinoff?

While EW is confident in its sources, it does note that the projects are in their early stages and things could change. Disney, which acquired Lucasfilms LTD in October, has not yet to issue comment.

On Tuesday, Igner revealed that screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan (Empire Strikes Back) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) are currently at work on the first stand-alone films. No word on who is writing what, however.

While I’m excited about both spinoffs, I can’t help but feel a disturbance in the force when the Han Solo film is said to focus on a “young Han Solo.” Here’s hoping he’s not in high school being bullied by Huts, while trying to impress a young Oola.

You put that phone down right now, Andrew Garfield’s agent! This is not the audition you’re looking for.