Wood (above), who appeared in Final Destination 5 and is a regular in US TV soap The Bold and the Beautiful, will play Sarah Lance, the sister of Dinah Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy).

She confirmed her role on Twitter and, according to KSiteTV, will appear in flashback sequences before the incident that left Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Stephen Amell, recently unveiled in costume) marooned on an island for several years.

Jacqueline isn't leaving The Bold and the Beautiful, indicating she has only a guest role in Arrow. She will next be on the big screen in comedy horror sequel Piranha 3DD, which sees the ferocious fish cause terror in a waterpark and chomps its way into cinemas on May 11, 2012.

Next up is some superhero casting confirmation that is being treated as a SPOILER.

Chronicle director Josh Trank has now been linked to the studio's long-planned Spider-Man spin-off Venom.

Venom is an archenemy of Spider-Man formed when a symbiotic alien creature arrives on Earth and bonds with a human host, notably photographer Eddie Brock, giving him superhuman powers and corrupting him to the dark side.

The wisecracking mercenary was introduced in X-Men Origins: Wolverine but 20th Century Fox's planned solo feature will be a reboot that will ignore its predecessor, or may even poke fun at it in the character's irreverent, satirical way.

We reported exclusively in January that the film was likely to go into production in 2012, with Reynolds still attached to star and Tim Miller directing. We had also heard the producers were still working on the budget and script.

Reynolds recently offered a brief update on the project.

RPatz believes he will be too old to play Edward Cullen, the lover of Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan, and has moved on from the role to other projects.

Talk of continuing the vampire romance series beyond final instalment Breaking Dawn has been going on since June 2009.

The Hollywood adaptation of the sci-fi show is to be directed by David Yates, who worked with Radcliffe on the final four Potter films.

Based on the graphic novel by Steven Grant, the film - first announced last August - will follow a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who unwittingly investigate one another as each steals money from the mob.

Deadline reports that Washington (pictured above in The Book of Eli) is in discussions to join the project. No stranger to action flicks - including his upcoming thriller Safe House - the actor would work in front of director Baltasar Kormakur who recently guided Mark Wahlberg in this year's Contraband.

Judging from Kormakur's previous work, it's safe to assume a gritty, hardboiled tone for the film, which may be a different flavor than original director David O. Russell (The Fighter) had in store.

And yet last year Alcon Entertainment said it would be doing just that with possible new film and TV spin-offs. The discussions crystallised into a plan for a new movie and those gathered around the sci-fi shrine breathed a collective sigh of relief when Ridley Scott, who helmed the original 1982 release, was announced as the man who would be producing and directing.

Sir Ridley said it was likely to be a sequel and confirmed Alcon's earlier hint that we wouldn't see Harrison Ford back as replicant hunter Rick Deckard.

WITH Marvel's epic team-up fast approaching, phase two of the publisher's massive expansion onto the big screen gets some date changes - surprisingly for the better.

First up on the post-Avengers docket is old shell-head himself. Originally, Iron Man 3 was set to start shooting at the end of May, after The Avengers was in theaters, but ComicBook.com reports that the date has been bumped up with filming starting as early as the end of April at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina.

It's probable that any filming done pre-Avengers will be without lead actor Robert Downey Jr, who will likely be tied up with press for the blockbuster team-up. Regardless of when shooting begins - though more time in production can only be a good thing - Iron Man 3 still hits your local cinema on May 3, 2013.

There's been no official talk on the villain of the story but gossip is pointing towards Atlantean prince Namor (aka the Sub-Mariner) largely because the Wilmington studios are equipped with a huge water tank.

It's a tenuous link but, then again, Namor does have a history of clashing with Tony Stark's armoured alter-ego in the comics (see above) so an on-screen showdown wouldn't be out of the question.

AS its current crop of big-screen heroes get ready to gather in The Avengers, Marvel is looking to the future.

It must decide which of its thousands of other characters will be plucked from the pages of the comics to be introduced to cinema audiences.

Among the possibilities that have long been high on the list is Doctor Strange. In the comics, the character is a leading neurosurgeon whose career is ruined when his hands are injured in a car crash. Seeking to rebuild his life and regain use of his hands, he learns the magical arts from a Himalayan mystic called the Ancient One and goes on become the so-called 'sorcerer supreme'.

In June 2010, it was revealed that Marvel had hired writers Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to pen a screenplay and in August 2011, reports said the screenplay had been completed and handed in to studio executives.

Not much has been heard since then but new reports are suggesting movement behind the scenes is preparing the movie to go into production this year.

The film is back on track after Relativity settled a legal battle with The Weinstein Company, which had distributed the original 1994 movie through Miramax and claimed it owned all the rights.

The lawsuit was settled out of court and Relativity has now announced that F. Javier Gutierrez has signed on to direct the film with Jesse Wigutow making a deal to pen the script.

Gutierrez made his directing debut on the 2008 apocalyptic meteorite thriller Before the Fall and will be the third man to take the helm of The Crow following the departures of Stephen Norrington and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

COULD Spider-Man be making a cameo appearance in The Avengers movie?

Marvel Studios is unveiling its superhero ensemble - featuring Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury - in UK cinemas on April 27.

Although Spider-Man is also a Marvel character, the screen rights are with Sony, which released the Sam Raimi trilogy and is this year relaunching the franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield, on July 4.

The possibility of Marvel and Sony agreeing to let Spider-Man swing into The Avengers surfaced in a Radio Times interview with actress Jenny Agutter (right).

DESPITE the array of set pictures, video footage and posters, we still know remarkably little about The Dark Knight Rises.

That's because Christopher Nolan and his cast and crew are trying - in an online world ravenous for information - to retain an element of surprise by veering away from plot specifics.

But we have been given more general clues to the ideas poured into the project.

And in a recent interview, several thoughts about the inspiration for the story were revealed. Some have only fuelled the rampant speculation even further but are nonetheless fun to discuss.

THERE'S still a lot of mystery about next summer's team-up The Avengers, including who exactly all those heroes will be fighting.

We know from the set pictures and the trailer that Tom Hiddleston is back as Asgard's villainous god Loki, this time causing havoc on Earth.

But there have been all sorts of rumours of other characters who may be in the script.

Amid relentless speculation on where the Enterprise is boldly going in Star Trek 2 come leaks of who the story's villain will be - and news of the actor dropping out.

Early in November, Benicio Del Toro (pictured) was offered the part of the undisclosed antagonist in the sequel to JJ Abrams' 2009 reboot.

Fans suspected he'd play a new version of Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically-engineered superhuman memorably portrayed by Ricardo Montalban on the big and small screen, and Latino Review claimed it had learned this was indeed the case.

Abrams then issued a firm denial, telling Hitfix it was "not true."

But now New York magazine's Vulture blog says it has been told by a "highly-placed source" that Khan is definitely the baddie - and that Benicio Del Toro has exited after talks broke down over money.

Abrams is racing to find a replacement before filming gets under way on January 15, 2012 to meet a release date of May 17, 2013. Recently added to the cast were Alice Eve and Peter Weller, although details of their characters were not revealed.

Weller played RoboCop in the 1987 film and its 1990 sequel and was recently seen on TV in 24, Fringe and Dexter. Eve's movie credits include She's Out of My League, Sex and the City 2 and upcoming Men in Black III.

A THUNDER GOD from Asgard, a billionaire inventor in a suit of armour, a 1940s supersoldier frozen in time until the present day, a scientist who turns into a green ogre, a skilled archer and a female agent with formidable fighting skills.

That's the disparate cast of Marvel's anticipated superhero team-up The Avengers.

Official artwork, and then set pictures, have shown the assembled group. But how will director Joss Whedon handle all those different people in one film?