Rather than continue in the Superman Returns reboot mode, Deadline Hollywood reports that Warner Bros. has decided to reboot the property again with The Dark Knight‘s Christopher Nolan in a “mentor role”. He’ll produce and recruit a less experienced director to helm the new film(s). This furthers Nolan’s involvement with the studio, which in addition to the Batman films is also releasing his secretive Leonardo DiCaprio film Inception this summer.

Heat Vision reports that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the series and the first with Chicago‘s Rob Marshall taking over from Gore Verbenski, has cast Penelope Cruz in an unspecified role as “Sparrow’s foil and equal in many ways”. It’s Cruz’s first foray into big budget action filmmaking since the disastrous Sahara in 2005.

Sony released a press statement yesterday announcing that Spider-Man 4 will hit screens July 3, 2012. 500 Days of Summer‘s Marc Webb will direct, but no casting information has been announced. This release date puts the film in direct competition with JJ Abrams’ second Star Trek movie, which opens the same week.

MGM’s Robocop remake has been put on hold until the studio’s sale is finalized. Writer David Self says that Darren Aronofsky is still involved with the project, but other sources have reported that the studio wants a 3D film packed with CG and Aronofsky – who hates CG so much that he pulled the special effects team for the original Superman movie out of retirement to create the visuals for The Fountain - wants no part of it.

The Escape From New York remake, on the other hand, is now out of development hell after a rewrite from Alan Loeb. The budget was sufficiently reduced after taking the setting from a post-apocalyptic New York to an abandoned New York.

Finally, the live action remake of the classic anime Akira, which Leonardo DiCaprio flirted with for a number of years, looks to be back on again with the Hughes Brothers onboard after their surprise box office success The Book of Eli.