Tuesday 25th Sept 2007

Jackson is a Soul Man but is Mac?
Samuel L. Jackson is signed and Bernie Mac is in negotiations to star as estranged soul-singing legends on a reunion tour in the Dimension Films comedy "Soul Men" reports Variety. Scripted by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone ("Intolerable Cruelty," "Life"), Jackson and Mac will play two former backup soul singers who are part of a famed group.They haven't spoken to each other in 20 years but reluctantly agree to travel together for a tribute performance in honor of their recently deceased band leader.Both Jackson and Mac will dance and sing, and the film is negotiating for access to the Stax Records catalog.

Bateman's "State of Play"

Jason Bateman will join Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the Kevin Macdonald-directed adaptation of the British miniseries "State of Play" for Universal Pictures and Working Title reports Variety. The drama revolves around a newspaper's investigation of the murder of a girlfriend of a fast-rising congressman (Norton) with Pitt playing the former campaign manager of the pol who spearheads the paper's investigation.Bateman will play one of the key reporters chasing the story, likely the role of the editor's son played by James McAvoy in the original.

"G-Force" for Gabriel Casseus
Gabriel Casseus ("Black Hawk Down") has joined the cast of Disney's "G-Force" for director Hoyt Yeatman reports Variety. Casseus will play an NSA agent tracking a group of genetically enhanced animal commandos. In the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced live-action/CGI family feature, the animal commandos try to prevent an evil billionaire from taking over the world.

McTiernan sentenced to prison
A federal judge sentenced director John McTiernan to four months in prison Monday after refusing to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea to charges of lying to the FBI about his association with disgraced private eye Anthony Pellicano.Judge Dale S. Fischer gave the director of such films as "Die Hard" and "The Thomas Crown Affair" until Jan. 15 to turn himself in to authorities. McTiernan's attorney said he would appeal.McTiernan was also ordered to pay a $100,000 fine (details).

A picnic win at Tropfest
Australian filmmaker Belinda King's "The Picnic" won the $10,000 Target Filmmaker Award at the Tropfest@Tribeca film festival Sunday night. A jury of actors Josh Lucas and Rose Byrne, and directors Griffin Dunne, Bennett Miller, Mary Harron and Tom McCarthy and last year's winner Matthew Bonifacio chose the award. It was presented following the premiere of 16 finalists' shorts in New York's World Financial Center Plaza. Some 7,500 people attended the free event. The fest, founded by Australia Tropfest founder John Polson and Tribeca Enterprises, also announced next year's short film theme will be "sunflower." This year's contestants created shorts around the signature item "slice.

Monday 24th Sept 2007

Sally's with "Abraham Lincoln"
Sally Field has joined the Steven Spielberg-directed "Abraham Lincoln" biopic for DreamWorks Pictures reports Newsweek. Liam Neeson stars in the title role, whilst Field will play Mary Todd - the wife of the 16th U.S. president.The film is based on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin biography, and a release is scheduled for the film in February 2009 - the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

Denzel is taking Pelham
Entertainment Weekly reports that director Tony Scott will reunite with Denzel Washington for "The Taking of Pelham 123."Based on the 1974 movie starring Walter Matthau, the story would feature Washington as a cop who must stop a hijacked subway car.Scott and Washington previously collaborated on Crimson Tide, Man on Fire and Déjà Vu. 'Pelham' is a pre-strike priority for Sony Pictures.

Clooney Injured
George Clooney and a companion were injured on Friday when their motorcycle collided with a car on a narrow road across the Hudson River from New York City reports The Associated Press.Clooney suffered a broken rib and scrapes while his passenger, Sarah Larson, broke her foot in the 3:30 p.m. collision. The 46-year-old actor was in the New York area to film the dark comedy Burn After Reading, co-starring Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand.Clooney's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said "He's doing fine. He has a broken rib, it's very painful and it'll take a long time to heal."

The Coen's ger Serious
Shooting will begin April next year in Minneapolis on the Coen Brothers' "A Serious Man" for Focus Features.According to FilmJerk, the story will focus on Larry Gopnik, a Jewish college professor in the Midwest during the 1960s. Larry starts to question the value of life when he discovers his wife wants a divorce (she is also probably getting it on with one of the neighbors).He also has trouble with his children stealing money out of his wallet (his son is buying weed, while his daughter is saving for plastic surgery) and his deadbeat brother, who has moved in because he neither has the cash nor the maturity to live on his own.Add to that the hostile anonymous notes he keeps receiving which threaten his tenure at school, the grad student who will get a passing grade from Larry by any means necessary (who may or may not be the person leaving the threatening letters) and the hot neighbor who bedevils Larry with her nude sunbathing, and there is little wonder why Larry seeks to solve his existential issues from men of God whom he hopes will help him to become an austere and devoted man.The Coens are currently filming "Burn After Reading" with Brad Pitt and George Clooney, whilst their acclaimed adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" hits theatres this November. 'Serious' will release early 2009.

Tony's back for 24

Despite seemingly being killed off last year, Tony Almeida is set to return for all of the new season of FOX's "24" reports Zap2It.Executive producer Howard Gordon confirms that Tony's resurrection is "something, obviously, we're going to have to explain away... It's not the what of it, but the how, that's interesting."Could Michelle Dessler (Reiko Aylesworth) be making a similar appearance? "No, she's definitely six feet under."This time around, the show moves to Washington D.C, where Bauer is facing trial for his extreme actions in the pursuit of justice.

You could be in the Justice League

Audition took place this past week for the "Justice League" project and notices mailed out have confirmed some details.First up, shooting is slated to begin mid-February in Sydney, Australia and the shoot will run for approximately three to four months under the helm of the confirmed George Miller.The production is currently based out of Seattle, and they are searching "for the 8-9 leads for this action feature film".What do they require? "We are looking for Male actors 18-35 years old; Caucasian and Black. The primary focus should be to find Caucasian actors. There is 1 role for the Black Actor. We are looking for Female actors 20-32 years old; any ethnicity."

Phillippe visits "Franklyn"
Ryan Phillippe, Eva Green and newcomer Sam Riley will star in first-time director Gerald McMorrow's $12 million futuristic thriller "Franklyn" for the Recorded Picture Co reports Variety.Set in contemporary London and a future metropolis dominated by faith, it weaves the tale of four lost souls divided by two parallel worlds on course for an explosive collision when a single bullet will decide all their fates.

An "Avatar" for Giovanni
Giovanni Ribisi has signed on to James Cameron's $190 million 3-D feature "Avatar," playing a passive-aggressive character named Selfridge in the Fox film says The Hollywood Reporter.The story follows a band of humans pitted against a distant planet's indigenous inhabitants. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez also star.The feature blends live-action photography and new virtual photorealistic production techniques invented by Cameron's team and features six computer-generated actors.

Winona becomes an Informer
Winona Ryder and Mickey Rourke have joined the ensemble cast of Gregor Jordan's "The Informers," an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel says The Hollywood Reporter.The drama, which tells seven separate stories set in 1980's Los Angeles, follows a week in the lives of a group of morally challenged characters -- a movie executive, his wife, his mistress, a rock star, a vampire and a kidnapper.Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Brandon Routh, Ashley Olsen, Jon Foster, Lou Taylor Pucci and Austin Nichols have already been cast.Ryder will play a newscaster who has just been dumped after a longtime affair with a married producer William Sloan.Rourke will play Peter, an amoral former studio security guard who plots to kidnap a small child to sell to the leader of a Los Angeles cult.

Katherine Heigl gets "Lost"
Katherine Heigl has optioned film rights to Jacqueline Sheehan's bestselling dramatic novel "Lost & Found" reports Variety.The story focuses on a widowed psychologist who moves to a remote Maine island and works in an animal hospital after her husband dies.

Brad Pitt could be a "Fighter"
Brad Pitt is in negotiations to team with Darren Aronofsky for Paramount's drama "The Fighter." Pitt is replacing Matt Damon, who had to bow out because of scheduling conflicts. Pitt famously pulled out of Aronofsky's "The Fountain" in 2002 which effectively killed that project for several years.Based on the life of boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his trainer brother Dick Eklund (Pitt), 'Fighter' chronicles their early days on the rough streets of Lowell, Mass., through Eklund's battle with drugs and Ward's eventual world championship in London.

A moments silence for the master of Mime
PARIS -- Marcel Marceau, the master of mime who transformed silence into poetry with lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions that spoke to generations of young and old, has died. He was 84.Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau breathed new life into an art that dates to ancient Greece. He played out the human comedy through his alter-ego Bip without ever uttering a word (details).

Esmeralda dies at 81
Alice Ghostley, the Tony Award-winning actress best known on television for playing Esmeralda on "Bewitched" and Bernice on "Designing Women," died Friday.She was 81. Ghostley died at her home in Studio City after a long battle with colon cancer and a series of strokes, said longtime friend Jim Pinkston (details).