The Random - Sex and the City 2, Moneyball, The Ghost, The Electric Slide, The Rum Diaries, The Oscars, The Baster, Pancho Villa, Ironclad

All four principal cast members (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) and writer-director Michael Patrick Kin have signed on for Sex and the City 2. THR has more.

Steven Soderbergh (Che) is set to make the big-screen adaptation of Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game" his next directing project. Brad Pitt is set star as the main character Billy Beane. Moneyball centers on Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, who used sophisticated computer analysis systems to piece together a team that regularly contended for the World Series despite possessing a payroll dramatically lower than big-market rivals like the New York Yankees.

Timothy Hutton has been cast in Roman Polanski’s The Ghost, which tells the story of a ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) who uncovers secrets while completing the memoirs of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan). Hutton will play the role of the prime minister’s American lawyer. THR hs more.

Ewan McGregor and Carey Mulligan are in talks to star in Tristan Patterson’s The Electric Slide, about a guy who robbed more than 72 banks in the 1980’s before getting caught by the FBI. More in Variety

The Hollywood Reporter say that Amber Heard (who will star in John Carpenter's The Ward) will star opposite Johnny Depp in Rum Diary, the adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel adapted and directed by Bruce Robinson.

Bennett Miller (Capote), Baz Luhrmann (Australia) and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) are set to direct segments for the upcoming 81st Annual Academy Awards which is broadcast on February 22nd says the AP Wire. Luhrmann has created a production number featuring Oscar host Hugh Jackman, Miller will contribue a short film sequence to kick off the ceremony, and Apatow will direct a comedic tribute short film along with some live action material for that section of the show.

Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman will team up for the romantic comedy The Baster for Mandate Pictures reports the trades. Bateman and Aniston will play best friends Wally and Kassie. When neurotic and insecure Wally learns that Kassie plans to become pregnant through artificial insemination, he secretly replaces the donor's semen with his own and must live with the secret that he is the father of her child. You can see the comedy potential in that scenario can't you!

Serbian helmer Emir Kusturica (Black Cat, White Cat, Time of the Gypsies) will make a biopic about Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa for Fidelite says Variety. Entitled Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman With Six Fingers, the Gordan Mihic co-penned script is based on James Carlos Blake's novel "The Friends of Pancho Villa" about the legendary outlaw turned general and governor. Javier Bardem is being sought out by the director to play Villa, but no casting is yet confirmed.

Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) will team with The Tudors stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Peter O'Toole for Aloe Entertainment and Dune Films' Mary, Mother of Christ reports the trades. Belle will star as the titular Biblical character, Meyers will play the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer, and Peter O'Toole will play Symeon who meets Mary and her family in the temple shortly after Jesus' birth. Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play King Herod and Anna the Prophetess respectively.

James Purefoy, Robert Carlyle , Bob Hoskins and William Moseley (The Chronicles of Narnia) have joined the cast of medieval action thriller Ironclad for ContentFilm International says The Hollywood Reporter. Based on a legendary story, "Ironclad" is set in 13th century England and tells the story of a formidable Knight Templar (Purefoy) and his "Magnificent Seven" who defended historic Rochester Castle against the tyrant, King John (Paul Giamatti), and his mercenary army. Pete Postlethwaite, Lord Richard Attenborough, Colm Meany and Angus McFayden also star.

Robert Downey Jr., Tina Fey and Ben Stiller are in talks for DreamWorks Animation's dark superhero project Master Mind reports Reuters. Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons script concerns a brilliant superhero villain who loses his life's purpose when he accidentally kills his good-guy nemesis. Stiller's Red Hour Films will also produce the satire which will hit theaters on November 5th 2010.

Discuss in the Forum

The Ghost - Roman Polanski has cast Tom Wilkinson, Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor and...James Belushi?

/film have the news that Roman Polanski’s The Ghost has added Tom Wilkinson and James Belushi to its cast. That's right, James Belushi. Looks like he's made it to the big leagues.

They join Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattrall and Olivia Williams. The film will start shooting in Berlin on 4th February.

It is an adaption from the Robert Harris novel and tells the story of a Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), a former British Prime Minister who’s in the process of writing his memoirs. When the death of a colleague disrupts his life, a ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) is called in to assist him in completing the book. But when the ghostwriter digs a little deeper into his subject’s life, he finds disturbing secrets that have far-reaching consequences.

Sounds pretty intriguing and I may pick up the book to have a read. Anyone read it? Is it a good tale?

As for Polanski and his constant battle with the US legal people it looks as if the court case has been delayed.

An appeals court has halted a planned hearing on the legal travails of the
director Roman Polanski. On Wednesday Judge Peter Espinoza of the Los Angeles
County Superior Court was supposed to consider Mr. Polanski’s request that a
longstanding case against him, in which he was found guilty of having sex with a
13-year-old girl in 1977, be dismissed. Mr. Polanski claimed, among other
things, that there had been misconduct by a judge and a deputy district attorney
on the eve of his sentencing. Judge Espinoza had already thrown out a request by
Mr. Polanski’s lawyers to move the case from Los Angeles, where they said he
couldn’t get a fair hearing. Responding to a late request by Mr. Polanski’s
lawyers, the appeals court issued a stay of Wednesday’s planned proceedings and
gave the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office until Jan. 30 to file
opposition to the request.

Home / Forum / Guestbook