The Daily Dish: April 23

-- Cowabunga! TMNT back on the big screen Can you believe it's been 25 years since Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael first wielded swords, scarfed down pizza and saved New York City from Shredder? What started out as comic book fare back in 1984 lead to four films, cartoons and tons of merchandise and is set to be adapted, yet again, for new fans and old-school die-hards. The live-action film, to be released in 2011, follows the last cinematic turtle adventure, 2003's TMNT, the first completely computer-animated film in the series. Scott Medrick, one of the upcoming pic's producers, told Variety that the film would stay true to the original spirit and may take advantage of "face replacement technology," allowing the fabulous foursome more expressive looks and gestures than the Jim Henson puppets previously allowed. Ok, is it weird to be excited about this?

--Schwarzenegger confirms Terminator 4 appearance..sortof Rumours have been flying that the original Terminator would be back, in some form, for the fourth installment of the hugely popular futuristic franchise since McG took the helm on Terminator Salvation. With Linda Hamilton's confirmed cameo via a flashback scene and Robert Patrick (the malleable T-1000) expressing interest in working on Terminator 5, it seems the whole gang is getting back together. Via webcast, the Governator revealed that while he's too busy to film new scenes, he's been in talks with the filmmakers who are looking to use past Terminator footage to insert him into the movie. The showdown between man and machine opens May 21, 2009 so I guess we'll find out then if Ahnold is, indeed, back.

-- Cannes names 20 films in competition Spanish auteur, and Penelope Cruz BFF, Pedro Almodovar, Oscar winners Ang Lee and Jane Campion will be competing against one another when they bring their new works to the French Riviera on May 13 as part of the Cannes Film Festival. The 62nd edition of the annual fest has announced 20 films that will be competing for kudos, including Quentin Tarantino's latest genre-bending uber-violent effort Inglourious Basterds, Ken Loach's soccer flick Looking for Eric, Lars von Trier's psychodrama Antichrist and China's Lou Ye with the reportedly "torrid young love-triangle" Spring Fever. Of those films screening out of competition are Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, aka Heath Ledger's last film, Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell and Michel Gondry's L'epine dans le coeur. (Click here for a full list of the films screening in competition.)

-- Third Twilight film gets director Another day, another Twilight story, right? It may seem that the teen vampire chronicles are making headlines daily but this is definitely news that needs to be shared. Eclipse, the third film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's popular series, has landed David Slade as the director. The talented Brit showed a distinct eye when he sat behind the camera for the edgy thriller Hardy Candy and clearly has undead credentials with 30 Days of Night on his resume. Eclipse follows Bella (Kristen Stewart) as she approaches graduation and tries to deal with the vampire-werewolf struggle while things with Edward (Robert Pattinson) get, well, complicated. Meyer expressed her enthusiasm with the choice of director, calling Slade "a visionary filmmaker who has so much to offer this franchise. From the beginning, we've been blessed with wonderful directorial talent for the Twilight saga, and I'm so happy that Eclipse will be carrying on with that tradition." The second Twilight installment, New Moon, is set to hit theatres November 20, as if you didn't know.