FRY AND LAURIE ARE RE-UNITING
Former comedy duo Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are to re-unite for the first time in 13 years to lend their voice skills to CG animated movie project The Canterville Ghost. “Fry stars as the title character, Sir Simon de Canterville, a 300 year old ghost, while Laurie stars as his nemesis, a lowly gardener who is revealed to be Death himself.”
THE BABYMAKERS GETS A POSTER
After trying everything to get his wife Audrey (Olivia Munn) pregnant, Tommy Macklin (Paul Schneider) realizes to his horror that he may be “shooting blanks.” Terrified that his marriage may fall apart, Tommy recruits his friends (and an Indian ex-mobster) to rob a sperm bank where he made a deposit years ago. As with any half-baked scheme, everything can and does go wrong, testing the limits of Tommy and Audrey’s relationship. The Babymakers is a hilarious twist on the heist film genre, a laugh-out loud comedy showing how far one couple will go in hopes of creating a new life.
Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, the cast also includes Kevin Heffernan, Wood Harris, Nat Faxon, Aisha Tyler, Collette Wolfe, Hayes MacArthur, Lindsey Kraft, and Helena Mattsso.
PETER WEIR TO DIRECT THE KEEP
Peter Weir (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Truman Show) is now attached to direct the adaptation of author Jennifer Egan‘s 2006 bestseller, The Keep.
The contemporary gothic thriller focuses on set in a mysterious medieval castle somewhere in Central Europe where two estranged American cousins reunite, stirring childhood traumas and phobias in a haunted castle.
CAVAYE PREPS ART HOUSE COP-THRILLER
Fred Cavaye, who made last year’s art house thriller Point Blank, is lining up his next project, a currently Untitled Cop Thriller which will star Vincent Lindon and Daniel Auteuil.
“”Set in the South of France, the film will star Lindon as a guilt-riddled former cop, who quit his job and abandoned his family after accidentally killing a woman and her child. Seven years later, as his own son’s life is endangered by a gang, Lindon’s character resurfaces and enlists the help of a friend (Auteuil), a rogue cop, to protect his son.”
“It’s a modern-day Western,” Cavaye tells Variety, citing High Noon and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as references.””
ELIZABETH BANKS HEADLINES WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH MARGIE?
Elizabeth Banks will star in the dark comedy What’s The Matter With Margie, to be directed by Daniel Minahan (Series 7: The Contenders) with an original screenplay from Alan Ball (American Beauty, True Blood).
“Banks will portray a downtrodden office-worker who finally snaps and resorts to murder as a solution to her problems.”
SANDRA BULLOCK AND MELISSA McCARTHY ARE BUDDY COPS
Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Freaks and Geeks) will direct Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in a buddy-cop comedy from screenwriter Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation).
“Untitled pic follows the strained working relationship between a high-strung FBI agent (Bullock) and an unconventional Boston cop (McCarthy) who team to take down a Russian gangster.”
JENNIFER ANISTON MIGHT JOIN SCI-FI CONVENTION
Jennifer Aniston is interested in joining Mark Duplass and Ben Kingsley in first-time director Justin Reardon‘s film, Convention, written by Christopher Painter.
“Set at a national box convention, indie pic will star Duplass as an inventor who unveils his latest creation: the five-sided box. The mysterious new design initially seems perfect, until the inventor learns that each time he creates its special fold, he rips a hole in the space-time continuum. It’s up to him and his sister to put things back together and save the world.”
MARK WAHLBERG ENLISTS IN THE DISCIPLE PROGRAM
Mark Wahlberg will star in and produce The Disciple Program for Universal. The script, by newcomer Tyler Marceca, was purchased last week by the studio in a bidding war. Also attached is director Morten Tyldum, who recently helmed the Norwegian thriller Headhunters.
“The screenplay centers on a man who begins an investigation into his wife’s mysterious death, only to find that the mystery goes much deeper than he imagined.”
RACHEL McADAMS JOINS A MOST WANTED MAN
Rachel McAdams will co-star opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman in director Anton Corbijn‘s adaptation of the John le Carre novel, A Most Wanted Man.
The script, by Andrew Bovell, “takes place
in present-day Hamburg, Germany, where a mysterious, near-dead
half-Chechen, half-Russian man on the run arrives in the city’s Islamic
community desperate for help and looking to recover his late Russian
father’s ill-gotten fortune. Hoffman will play chief of a covert German
spy unit who works to solve the mystery of the man’s identity. McAdams
will play a woman who becomes involved in the international intrigue.”
