After some slightly protracted to-ing and fro-ing while the FX were designed and the script was overhauled, Bryan Singer finally has the green-light for Jack the Giant Killer. 

Singer chose the project over X-Men: First Class some time ago (although he remains involved with the junior mutants as producer) and was quickly locked into a deal to direct by Warners, who didn't want him defecting back to Fox and the X-Men in the way he'd jumped ship (in the other direction) for Superman Returns. 

Christopher McQuarrie, currently on a bit of a roll, with his Wolverine 2 screenplay also kicking that film into production with Darren Aronofsky at the helm, re-wrote Darren Lemke and Mark Bombak's original script, which has now brought Jack to a place where it's been given the all-clear. All attentions have turned to casting, with the title role said to be the Next Big Thing that young actors are aiming at, since they can't be Spider-Man. The queue for auditions is long, but Singer is said to be particularly keen on Kick-Ass' Aaron Johnson.

Jack the Giant Killer is a "dark" re-telling of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale, although whether it'll be quite as grotesque as the witch-y, skeleton-y, giant-wrestling 1962 version remains to be seen. Neal Moritz and David Dobkin are producing, and shooting starts in the Spring.