One of the most exciting, original and undervalued filmmakers alive – kiwi Andrew Niccol – has a bunch of films in development, but none more exciting than the intriguingly titled I'm.mortal. Okay, I just have to block out the fact that he's directing a Stephanie Meyer adaptation (The Host), but this one looks like a sci-fi classic, where the ageing gene has been turned off and time is literally the new currency. If S1m0ne (yes, nobody liked it except me) are anything to go by, it'll be another amazing idea given full breadth through a great story.

Everything else this week is sequel, prequel or remake news – as usual. But as a lifelong King Kong fan I'm thrilled by the prospect of a Kong prequel called Kong: King of Skull Island. Nobody's attached yet but it's slated for next year.

The writers behind Nimrod Atal's Predators reboot are scripting the Masters of the Universe remake, so that's one step closer to reality. Men in Black 3 (in 3D, of course) is also confirmed, and there are no less than three films about Oz (as in the Wizard) in planning right now. I smell an orgy of children's literature adaptations on the horizon after the haul from Alice in Wonderland .

But in the biggest mismatch of a director and a property I've heard in a long time, that crazy doyenne of destruction Roland Emmerich is lined up to do a film based on Asimov's Foundation. Now, Emmerich can certainly do 'big', but he's like Michel Bay – he just can't leave anything in one piece. I haven't read any of the Foundation books since I was about 17 but I remember them being about the geopolitics of a planet covered with a single huge city, not a wave of energy that destroys the universe like Emmerich is probably planning.

In news that would otherwise be uninteresting, Joss Whedon in talks to direct the long-gestating Avengers movie, which will at least make it worth seeing if he can stand his ground against a studio that will be more interested in licensing deals with fast food restaurants than a good script.

In business news, the unlikeliest contender has bought back the Miramax name - the Weinsteins themselves. It was kind of a good luck charm for them, as few films they've released under the Weinstein Company banner have performed as good as their old stuff under the Miramax name.

And MGM's finances are in such dire straight they've put the brakes on everything they have, including pre-production of the next Bond film.