ScreenDaily reports that Robert Pattinson and Nicole Kidman have signed on to star in the UK production, Bel Ami. Renowned UK theatre directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod are co-directing a film for the first time, stepping outside of their acclaimed Cheek By Jowl theater company, considered one of the most influential in the world.

Bel Ami will tell the story of Guy De Maupassant (Pattinson), a 19th-century French writer, and his “erotically charged story of ambition, power and seduction.” London-based Protagonist will take on international sales for the film.

Pattinson is of course, a rising star through his teen-friendly fantasy pics beginning with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and presumably ending with the conclusion of the Twilight saga. Other detours into more sophisticated realms of drama (Little Ashes) have been less kind to the London-born 23-year old actor. I suspect this will be a make-or-break kind of role for the kid in terms of how he is going to evolve from his current heartthrob status.

Kidman, meanwhile, who was recently tapped to play the first true-life transsexual in Tomas Alfredson’s The Danish Girl, will tackle comparatively slight material here as a presumable object of desire for Pattinson’s Guy De Maupassant.

Bel Ami is scheduled to begin filming in London and Budapest in February 2010.

ScreenDaily is reporting that Helen Mirren has joined the cast of Summit Entertainment’s DC Comics adaptation, Red, with Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman. The three-part comic book miniseries was originally published in 2003 and was written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Cully Hamner. The screenplay was adapted for the screen by Jon and Erich Hoeber (Whiteout), with Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Flightplan) set to direct.

Red is a contemporary CIA story about a retired agent, Paul Moses (Willis), who is forced to run from the new CIA Director (Freeman) after a group of assassins unsuccessfully attack him at his home. The Oscar-winning Mirren will likely play Freeman’s predecessor.

Nothing about the film – or the comic book series, for that matter – seems overwhelmingly original or inspired, and the casting matches that sentiment. No, there’s nothing wrong with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman or Helen Mirren, but they all fit almost too perfectly, this is a role we’ve seen Willis play to death, most recently in the redundantly-staged sci-fi thriller Surrogates. Nevertheless, principal shooting is expected to start on January 11th, 2010 with a U.S. release tentatively set for November 2010 as one of Summit’s biggest films of the year.

Yes, you read that title right.  As we turn to gossip (I jest), Jessica Biel, long time boyfriend of Justin Timberlake, gets F***ing Engaged.  Biel fans, don’t be alarmed.  She is not engaged to him.  That is the title of the new film she will star in. THR describes the film as:

…a raunchy comedy about a couple who make a pact to have sex every day leading to their wedding so they don’t turn into their crusty old parents.

Sounds worth watching to me.  I mean, I sat through Powder Blue largely because she was in it (Eddie Redmayne rules, btw).  If I can do that, I can handle this one I think.  The sexy actress will lead the way by both starring in and producing the independent film from first time screenwriter Julia Brownell. Lest we get excited that a new screenwriter can just jump in and get her script sold (it does happen sometimes), Brownell has written several plays for the stage, several short films, and was an improv actress herself.  Not the “rookie” that some might think.

Biel’s own Iron Ocean Films is the production company, who is also handling the movies The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and How to Cook Your Daughter.

With this news, Jessica really is doing everything in her power to shed the “good girl” image that she obtained while working on TV’s “7th Heaven.”  I would say that by this point, she has succeeded admirably in that regard.  Your thoughts on this?  Would you like to see Biel in this kind of role?  Holla at us about it.

Zach Galifianakis and Amy Adams are in negotiations to star in the comedy Town House for Fox, a project originally conceived in 2007 that was interrupted by the writer’s strike at the end of the year with director John Carney (Once) attached.

From Variety, the story is loosely based on Tish Cohen’s novel of the same name about an agoraphobic (Galifianakis) and his son who live in an historic Boston townhouse inherited through his rock-star father. With monetary troubles, he’s forced to come to terms with life as he establishes a relationship with a call girl (Adams).

Doug Wright and Carney himself adapted the script, which will be produced by Ridley and Tony Scott through their production house Scott Free.

Amy Adams is one of my favorite actresses and almost criminally underutilized and under-appreciated. She gave the best performance in the otherwise stagey and overbearing Doubt, then was given the lesser of two roles in Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, which hit theaters late this summer. She does have performances in the upcoming romantic-comedy Leap Day and in David O. Russell’s The Fighter opposite Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg, a project which once had David Aronofsky tapped to direct.

Zach Galifianakis, a key cast-member in the smash-hit The Hangover, will be Seth Rogen-busy over the next few years, including another odyssey with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and the “Hangover” boys.

Town House is set to start filming next summer.

Former (and perhaps still) King of box office comedy, Adam Sandler, is set to do something not seen since the likes of Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie or Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire (okay, I know I am forgetting others now); he is set to play both man and woman, both titular characters, in the upcoming comedy Jack and Jill.  Sandler’s Happy Madison production comanpany will see him play both Jack, and twin sister Jill, in the Columbia Pictures vehicle.  Only he will be going “up the hill” I suppose.  Scriptwill be written by “SNL” alum Steve Koren.  Variety confirms:

“Jack and Jill” is scheduled to begin lensing early next year and will be released by Sony in early 2011.

Sandler was last seen on screen in the disappointing Apatow flick Funny People, also has a voice in Kevin James’ The Zookeeper on the way, as well as the high school reunion laugher Grown Ups.  His company recently acquired the film rights to a baseball movie as well.

The title of Jack and Jill reminds me of Andrew Dice Clay’s joke that goes, “Jack and Jill went up the hill, with $1.25 a piece. Jill came down with 2.50.”  Ehhh, it was amusing at the time.  I recently suffered through Sandler’s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan “comedy”, only because of a – “smell it, smell it, now take it” – line.  The rest of the film was beyond bad, which is often how I feel about Sandler’s comedies.  I have enjoyed some (Big Daddy was oddly touching), but I prefer him in roles like Reign Over Me, Spanglish or Punch Drunk Love, so my expectations for Jack and Jill are not high.  Your thoughts on this are welcome.

Just a couple of days after news came down of January Jones signing on as Liam Neeson’s wife in the thriller, Unknown White Male, the “Mad Men” mainstay will now co-star opposite Nicolas Cage in The Hungry Rabbit Jumps for Endgame Entertainment. According to Hollywood Reporter, the film, described as a vigilante thriller, centers around a man (Cage) who becomes involved with an underground crime organization after his wife (Jones) is the victim of a brutal crime.

Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job) is directing for producer James Stern on the modest-budgeted $30 million thriller. Tobey Maguire and Jenno Topping of the actor’s own Maguire Entertainment, are also co-producing.

Jones (who lights up the latest issue of “GQ” in various stages of undress) will be busy in-between seasons of “Mad Men” this winter, as “Jumps” is set to begin filming in December with “Unknown” set to begin production in January. It’s great to see such a talented actress getting good work, and I hope the best for both her and her fictitious husband, Donald Draper (Jon Hamm), who will most notably star in Ben Affleck’s The Town as well as Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch for Warner Bros. in 2011.

Variety’s Michael Fleming is reporting on his blog that Matt Damon and John Brolin are in negotiations to join the Coens’ re-imagining of the 1969 Western, True Grit. Jeff Bridges originally joined the cast to play the lead role of Marshall Rooster Cogburn, who was originally portrayed by John Wayne 40 years ago.

Now, Matt Damon appears set to play the lawman (originally portrayed by Glen Campbell) who joins with Cogburn and a 14-year old girl to track down her father’s killer. Josh Brolin, meanwhile, would play the killer, Tom Chaney. Of course, Brolin collaborating with the Coen brothers again would reunite the actor and director duo for the first time since the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men in 2007 in which Brolin was shamefully dismissed from the Best Actor discussion.

Damon, who is expected to have a big year this year with performances in both Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, just finished shooting The Adjustment Bureau opposite Emily Blunt and will collaborate with Eastwood again on the supernatural thriller Hereafter.

The Coens’ True Grit script is reportedly more true to the original Charles Portis novel than the 1969 film version and will apparently tell the story from the 14-year old girl’s perspective rather than that of Marshall Cogburn (Bridges). As a fan of the Coen’s output recent output, especially the currently expanding misanthropic fable A Serious Man, the thought of a period western in the vein of John Ford or Budd Boetticher has me pumped.

Paramount Pictures is set to put the film into production next March for a late 2010 release. If on schedule, True Grit will continue the trend of a Coen film every fall for the last four years.

As if a Liam Neeson thriller wasn’t appealing enough, Variety is reporting that the 57-year old Irish actor will be flanked by two blonde beauties in the upcoming Dark Castle production, Unknown White Male. January Jones (“Mad Men”) and Diane Kruger (National Treasure, Inglourious Basterds) have signed on for the Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) directed film, which will be distributed by Warner Bros. and begin shooting this January in Berlin.

Based on a script by troika Oliver Butcher, Stephen Cornwell and Karl Gajdusek, Unknown White Male centers around a man (Neeson) who awakens from a coma to find that someone has stolen his identity. No one, not even his wife (January Jones), will believe him, but with the help of a young Berlin taxi driver (Diane Kruger), he sets out to prove who he is.

Jones, who is dynamite on AMC’s lush and brilliant original TV series “Mad Men”, should have no trouble find work in her spare time or after the show reaches its conclusion – you can see her in the upcoming British comedy Pirate Radio (re-titled here in the States) on November 13th. Meanwhile, Diane Kruger, the German-born 33-year old actress, rose to stardom with roles in Troy and the National Treasure series. Her latest role, in Quentin Tarantino’s “Basterds,” was a surprise box-office hit and an overnight fan favorite.

Unknown White Male sure sounds awfully familiar (another good old identity-crisis thriller), but the cast alone makes it worthy enough of recognition and after the success of Taken, another Liam Neeson starrer, Warner should expect to see good business. The film is tentatively slated to release sometime in 2011.

Yeah, I know it’s old, but things happen, okay?  Some news days are slower than others, so blanks need to be filled in.  In an overlooked bit of news from earlier in the week, the Risky Biz blog reported that Angelina Jolie appears ready to step into the role previously occupied by Charlize Theron in The Tourist. More about the film itself:

A remake of the French thriller “Anthony Zimmer” from 2005, “Tourist” centers on an American tourist who, on behalf of Interpol, goes undercover to entrap a former lover who’s a suspected global criminal. It follows in the long tradition of innocents caught up in shady activities abroad that dates back to Hitchcock (”The Man Who Knew Too Much”), Polanski (”Frantic”) and beyond, and a theme that also has contemporary echoes with “Taken” this past year.

The role calls for equal parts action and seductress, roles that either woman could certainly pull off, but Jolie having a particular background in playing such types.  This situation is likely still very fluid though as the project is currently seeking a director as well.  The Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day helmer Bharat Nalluri is apparently bouncing out along with Theron.   Couple that with the fact that we have already seen Tom Cruise leave and Sam Worthington fill in his shoes as the male lead, and we have a project in flux.  This kind of echoes what happened with State of Play’s fluctuation in casting earlier in the year, but is by no means exclusive to a few projects, since it happens all the time.

I am not sure that Jolie is greater than Theron, having just witnessed her in a small role in The Road and a role I missed in The Burning Plain, these are equally talented actresses.  I actually like the idea of Theron going a little more the action route.  These women have had roles that parallel each other as well with Aeon Flux and Tomb Raider, but Jolie won the box office war by a large margin there.  As far as star power, Cruise/Theron is slightly greater than Jolie/Worthington at this juncture, but overall it should still be an A-list project that will attract a big name director, as long as not too many more major changes come.  Comments?  Share them.

According to Hollywood Reporter, Justin Long has joined the cast for Robert Redford’s period drama The Conspirator, which will begin shooting this month in Georgia. The film tells the story of Mary Surratt, who was tried as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination, and her defender, Col. Frederick Aiken before a military tribunal.

Robin Wright Penn was already set to star as Surratt, while James McAvoy will play the Colonel who reluctantly agrees to defender her. Justin Long will play the best friend of Colonel Aiken who lost a limb in the Civil War.

Long has been one of the busier young actors in Hollywood after starring as the obligatory comic relief nerd in Len Wiseman’s Live Free or Die Hard in 2007. He had a strong cameo in last year’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno.  He can be seen next in the upcoming horror-thriller with Liam Neeson, After Life and in the romantic comedy Going the Distance in which he will co-star with his girlfriend, Drew Barrymore.

Redford’s output as a director has been lacking as of late, with The Legend of Bagger Vance and Lions for Lambs failing to really ignite and find an audience. It would be a welcome sight to see one of the greatest actors of the 60’s and 70’s make an impact film in the 21st century.