Disney and Universal Pick New Chairmen

Disney Studios stayed in the news yesterday as the Mouse House officially named Rich Ross as the replacement for former Disney chairman Dick Cook. The move had been somewhat expected as the head of Disney Channels Worldwide emerged as the favorite shortly after Cook left the company.

According to Variety, Ross has been largely responsible for Disney’s branding efforts over the last five years, and is likely to focus on building franchises that can not only become tentpoles at the box office but transfer to other media. Ross will be in charge of the company’s live-action and animated feature labels, including Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, Miramax, Marvel Entertainment and Pixar. Ross will also oversee its music group and theater productions including Broadway and tours like High School Musical and Disney on Ice.

Comcast Negotiating With General Electric For NBC-Universal

The Wrap reports that Comcast, the leader in cable entertainment and communications is talking with General Electric to buy NBC-Universal for almost $35 billion. This would be huge as Comcast is trying to build its presence with online and television content to compete with YouTube and Hulu (coincidentally owned in part by NBC).

Jessica Alba Is A ‘Little Focker’?

Jessica Alba is in negotiations to join the third film in the Meet The Parents franchise titled Little Fockers according to The Hollywood Reporter. I’ll be honest, while I enjoyed the first movie, I had no idea they were making another sequel which no one wanted, and still haven’t finished Meet The Fockers, but hey, it’s Jessica Alba. She will reportedly play a hot pharmaceutical rep who causes drama with the male characters in film. Undeniably great casting there.

Alba, coming off of shooting Machete, would join Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Teri Polo returning to the cast as well as Owen Wilson. Expect this one sometime next year.

Universal Shuts Down Development Until 2010

In another sign of the times according to Variety, Universal Pictures has announced that they will not spend any more money to advance development of projects for the rest of the year. This shuts down any films that haven’t been given the green light or those that are being fast tracked until at least 2010. Now why couldn’t they do this before they released Love Happens?

Peter Berg Talks Dune, To Direct Battleship

Director Peter Berg (Hancock, Friday Night Lights) has been busy working on a number of projects these days, but with his agreed two picture deal with Universal we’re getting a better ideal of what to expect going forward. According to Variety, Berg has been confirmed for the movie adaptation of Hasbro’s Battleship set to open July 1, 2011.

Any Ideas For ‘Bourne’ Sequel?

If you have some suggestions Matt Damon and Universal Studios are all ears, because as the star admits, they’re stuck on how to move forward with the Bourne series. In an interview with Empireonline, Damon talked about the difficulty the studio is having in figuring out how to continue the story of Jason Bourne. Find out what he has to say about continuing in the title role as well as the upcoming Green Zone also to be directed by Paul Greengrass after the jump.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau Play Cowboys and Aliens

After having so much fun together working on Iron Man and its sequel Jon Favreau has apparently joined Robert Downey Jr. on an adaptation of Cowboys and Aliens. According to the new blog at The Hollywood Reporter, the director has joined the Dreamworks/Universal project which RDJ has been attached to for over a year. It’s only fair that as soon as Eric goes on vacation one of his favorite actor-director combos decide to work together again.