Update: McFarlane’s Twisted Land of Oz still on?” Welcome to our latest edition of News Bites, which will be updated throughout today. To kick off the day, beyond the break you’ll find details on Mastodon scoring Warner Bros. Pictures’ Jonah Hex adaptation, you’ll chew on some new MPAA ratings for Saw VI, Paranotmal Activity and Night o the Demons and get your first ever look at Yam Laranas’ Patient X. Watch for more small morsels of news as it comes in.MCFARLANE’S OZ STILL IN THE WORKS

Todd McFarlane recently chatted with Empire and revealed that the screenplay is still being developed for Twisted Land of Oz

“On the state of the script: They’re on their second iteration right now, trying to get it into a zone that makes sense. Josh Olsen wrote a draft that didn’t quite strike Warners fancy. Everyone was a little lukewarm. They wanted it more sexy! So they were going to do a rewrite and get some fresh eyes on it.”

Based on the L. Frank Baum novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The classic characters in the book receive a bit of a ‘twist’ in this series, an artistic interpretation of what could have been in an alternate Wizard of Oz universe.

MASTODON SCORES JONAH HEX

Harry writes on Aint it Cool News, “Today – and many other days as well – the metal gods known as MASTODON have been not so quietly scoring the film Jonah Hex. When I asked what it was sounding like, the only response was, “Needless to say, pretty heavy!””

Hex, known for having the right side of his face disfigured and wearing a Confederate army uniform, was a rough-and-tumble gunslinger and part-time bounty hunter whose adventures always ended in blood.

Starring Megan Fox and Josh Brolin, the film arrives in theaters June 18, 2010.

OBVIOUS R-RATED HORROR

–Saw VI, which arrives in theaters October 23 scored an R-rating for “sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and language”

–Paranormal Activity, which is still looking to confim the September release, received an R-rating for “for language.”

-The remake of Night of the Demons was given an R-rating by the MPAA for “bloody horror violence/gore and language throughout, some sexuality, nudity and drug use”

PATIENT X

Below you’ll find an early teaser for Yam Laranas’ Patient X, his latest project since completing his remake of his own film The Echo for Vertigo.

After twenty years, local police captures the murderer of the older brother of a young boy. Now a doctor, he must go back to his old town and face the murderers himself. He then discovers that the murderers are Aswangs (folkloric Filipino vampire-like creatures) and they pose a deadly threat not only to him but also for the entire town.

We’re working on getting more details and stills, so sit tight.

NEW DORIAN GRAY CLIP

To go along with the first clip posted today, below you’ll find a second look at Dorian Gray, which arrives in UK cinemas this Friday.

Based on the book The Picture of Dorian Gray, when Dorian Gray, a wealthy but naïve and irresistible young man, has his portrait pointed, he rashly wishes that he could remain as beautiful, youthful, and alluring as the handsome face in the portrait. Little does he know that his wish will come true. When encouraged by the decadent Lord Henry Wotton into a life of depravity and self-indulgence, Gray is stunned to discover that while the face in the painting is aging grotesquely, he is not! In fact, he remains as beautiful as ever. Nothing ages him… but Gray’s wanton lifestyle will eventually catch up with him, and the consequences of his reckless behavior will come to haunt him.