The rope was believed to be from the hotel room curtains, Bangkok Police Col. Pirom Chanpirom said. He said investigators found no sign of forced entry into Carradine’s room. An autopsy was being conducted at a Bangkok hospital, but no results will be available for another day, he said.

Carradine, who became famous in the 1970s when he starred as traveling Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the television series Kung Fu, was 72.

Modern audiences may best know him as Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films.

Rhodes is expected to play a larger part in the sequel, which is rumored to go beyond high-tech villains. Justin Theroux is writing the screenplay. Jon Favreau is returning as director, and Robert Downey Jr. is expected back as billionaire industrialist Stark/Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow also is expected to be back as Stark’s assistant, Pepper Potts.

Warner Brothers President Alan Horn said the studio was also still feeling repercussions from the three-month Hollywood screenwriters strike that ended in February but has “impacted the readiness of scripts for other films. We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family . . . release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment,” Horn said.

The studio said the change of date would not alter production plans for the final, two-part Potter movie adventure, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The release date for part one is tentatively set for November 2010.

I call BS on this. After ruining Order of the Phoenix by forcing a shorter cut, now they are sticking it to Harry Potter fans by delaying the movie so Warner can make more money. What a blatant example of the hubris and greed of movie executives. I’d say that I would boycott the movie next summer to send a message to Warner that the Harry Potter movies should be about the fans. It will make money no matter how long it is, whenever it opens. But who am I kidding, I’m a Potter fan, and I’ll be seeing it opening weekend in November or July. I just felt the need to comment on the corporate greed that is ruining the Harry Potter franchise – again – for its fans.

The films will be titled, simply, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, according to producer David Heyman. Director David Yates, who returned for his second tour of Potter duty with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and is quite popular with the cast, will direct both Deathly Hallows films, which will be filmed concurrently. Screenwriter Steve Kloves also returns and, by completion of the franchise, will have written seven of the eight films.

Heyman said he approached Rowling with some trepidation about the strategy but found that she signed off on its logic rather quickly. “I went to Jo and she was cool with it,” Heyman said, “and that was quite a relief.” Heyman said now that the “Potter” team knows they can split “Deathly Hollows” in half, the next challenge is figuring out the division. As Heyman put it: “The question will be, where do you break it? And how do you make them one but two separate and distinct stories? Do you break it with a moment of suspense or one of resolution? These are the interesting challenges. But each book has presented its challenges.”

Finally Warner Brothers makes a smart decision about the Potter franchise.

In Pixar’s coming movie Toy Story 3, Woody the cowboy and his toy-box friends are dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, leaves for college.

The sdtuio will re-release Disney Digital 3-D versions of Toy Story on October 2nd 2009 and Toy Story 2 on February 12th 2010 to celebrate the 3D-produced third film’s release on June 18th 2010.

“Bad news from The Giver Movie front. David Yates, the director currently working on the next Harry Potter film, was supposed to begin The Giver film next. But he has just decided he wants to do the final Harry Potter first, thereby postponing The Giver by several years.

Maybe the opening of this film could be held simultaneously with my celebration-of-life service after I succumb to old age? Or the producers will decide to get a different director. Stand by. But without holding your breath.”

Kitsch, one of the stars of NBC’s Friday Night Lights, is playing Gambit, a Cajun thief whose powers include the manipulation of kinetic energy, which allows him to use card-throwing to deadly effect. Will.i.am, frontman of hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas, will play Wraith, a mutant with the power to turn himself translucent. Collins will play as Kayla Silverfox, Wolverine’s lover and a member of Team X, a superpowered covert ops team. Reynolds, onscreen in Definitely, Maybe, will appear as Deadpool, a wisecracking mercenary.

Liev Schreiber already has been cast as Victor Creed, a mutant with bestial superpowers who also is known as Sabretooth. Production began this month in New Zealand before moving to Australia. A New Orleans shoot also is on the docket. Fox is releasing the film everywhere May 1, 2009. David Benioff wrote the screenplay. Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter are producing, along with Jackman and his Seed Prods. producing partner, John Palermo. Marvel Films’ Kevin Feige is executive producing.