McAdams Tapped for Woody Allen’s Next: After Marion Cotillard was confirmed to have joined the cast of Woody Allen’s Untitled Paris Film we now learn Rachel McAdams has also joined the cast that also includes Owen Wilson. The setting for the film is France, but that’s as far as the details go with the film scheduled to shoot in the summer. [THR]
Allen’s Tall Dark Stranger Goes to SPC: In other Woody Allen news, Sony Pictures Classics has picked up his next film You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger for release this fall. The picture stars Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Freida Pinto, Antonio Banderas and Lucy Punch in a return to Europe for Allen, the new film shoots in London this summer and reteams the director with financer, Mediapro, the Spain-based company which also funded Vicky Cristina Barcelona. [THR]
NPH to Walk among Smurfs: Neil Patrick Harris has landed the lead live-action role in the Raja Gosnell-directed CG-live-action-mixed adaptation The Smurfs for Columbia Pictures. There is no word on what character he will be playing, but I am sure many will guess the wizard Gargamel. Filming begins in April and the film is set for release on July 29, 2011. [Deadline]
De Niro and Cooper Traverse Dark Fields: The Illusionist helmer, Neil Burger, will direct Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper in The Dark Fields for Universal Pictures. The suspense thriller is based on a novel by Alan Glynn and centers on a down-and-out Gotham writer (Cooper) who comes into possession of a designer drug that gives him new found intelligence and success. De Niro will play a brilliant financial mogul who begins pursuing Cooper’s character. [Variety]
Jackman Set for Daniels’s Selma: Hugh Jackman will star in the civil rights feature Selma for Precious director Lee Daniels. The title of the film is in reference to Selma, Alabama, the town where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act. The film was first discussed at Coming Soon and later Deadline reported Robert De Niro would be playing Gov. George Wallace in the pic, but that is yet to be confirmed elsewhere. The goal is to begin shooting in May. [USA Today]
Wolverine 2 Heads to Japan Next January: Speaking of Hugh Jackman, new reports say Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) has completed the script for Wolverine 2 starring Jackman as he returns as the title character, with plans to begin shooting in Japan next January. Word is the script is based on a story cycle by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, in which Wolverine’s adventures in martial arts will be a love story featuring a Japanese actress. I can only assume this means we are looking at a likely Summer 2012 release. [Showbiz 411]
Lawrence Yells “Marco,” WB Yells “Polo”: Warner Bros. is enjoying the $468 million brought in by Sherlock Holmes at the worldwide box-office and sees a potential trend and has now set their sights on the 13th century journey of Marco Polo and has brought I Am Legend helmer Francis Lawrence aboard to direct. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (Accepted) are penning the script with the intention of writing a fantasy-adventure rather than a biopic. “We see this as something that takes place in the Orient of our imagination amid the cultural clash of the East and the West,” Cooper told Daily Variety. [Variety]
Avatar Villain as Conan Villain: New rumors have Stephen Lang, who played Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar, playing the role of Khalar Singh, the main villain in Marcus Nispel’s Conan. Singh’s role in the film is to find the Queen whose blood will bring life to the demonic minions of Acheron while making himself king of this hellish power. [Latino Review]
Fox 2000 Finds Life in Monte Carlo: Selena Gomez (“Witches of Waverly Place”) is set to star in the young female comedy Monte Carlo with “Gossip Girl’s” Leighton Meester possibly set to co-star. Nicole Kidman is producing and may also play a supporting role. Tom Bezucha will direct and co-wrote the film with Maria Maggenti, adapting a novel about a group of American women who ditch a disappointing no-frills holiday in Paris and pose as wealthy women vacationing in Monaco. Filming is expecting to begin in May in Monaco, Budapest and Paris. [Variety]
Rothchild Adapts Her Own Story: Sascha Rothchild’s L.A. Weekly cover story “How to Get Divorced by 30” was acquired two years ago by Universal Pictures and after a long search for a screenwriter to adapt the story and in the end have brought in Rothchild to adapt her own tale about the disintegration of her first marriage along with those of five friends. The story will be developed as a romantic comedy. The article advised readers to try out a “starter marriage” before finding an ultimate mate and offered 15 steps to ending a first marriage; script will focus on a heroine who road-tests the “starter marriage” premise and then finds her perceptions redrawn by reality and relationships. You can read the original article here and the book Rothchild turned it into can be purchased here. [Variety]
