Future moguls Dakota and Elle Fanning have left My Sister's Keeper, a film about a couple who conceives a child (Elle) to be a genetic match for her ailing sis(Dakota). Apparently, Dakota didn't want to shave her head to play sick. Diva! Oscar nom Abigail Breslin and newcomer Sofia Vassileva will fill the void.... Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Jason Leigh are exes in Spread, a sex comedy from director David MacKenzie (Young Adam).... After a series of complicated acquisitions and transfers of the rights to produce the first film adaptation of the Watchmen comic book series, Twentieth Century Fox is suing Warner Brothers over their planned flick, which stars Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children), Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino and Malin Akerman. — Mickey O'Connor
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If The Golden Compass' tarnished box office tanks plans for more films based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, "it wouldn’t be a big loss," the official Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano editorialized on Wednesday. The paper previously called the pic "devoid of any particular emotion apart from a great chill" and "the most anti-Christmas film possible." (Our Maitland says they must not have seen Sweeney Todd!).... Per Variety, Sam Raimi next will spin Drag Me to Hell, a thriller he wrote with his brother, Ivan.... Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah and Sophie Okonedo have signed on for The Secret Life of Bees (buy the novel at Amazon), while Dakota Fanning is in talks to play the girl taken in by three sisters.... Dwight Little (Anacondas) will direct Tekken, based on the video game.
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With an eye on the possible writers' strike and a Christmas 2008 release, Columbia is fast-tracking Angels & Demons, the Ron Howard-directed follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, for a February production start.... Also per Variety, Dakota and Elle Fanning will star with Cameron Diaz in an adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel My Sister's Keeper.... Michael Mann is developing the mob drama Frankie Machine as a star vehicle for Robert De Niro.... According to the Reporter, Woody Harrelson will join Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum in Oliver Stone's new Vietnam drama Pinkville.... Jamie Foxx is a detective investigating race-related slayings in The Zebra Murders.
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Per the Reporter, Scarlett Johansson has joined the ensemble cast of He's Just Not That Into You (playing a pilates instructor who has an affair with a married man), will play a femme fatale in Frank Miller's adaptation of Will Eisner's The Spirit, and will don a crown as Mary Queen of Scots.... Chris Evans, Djimon Hounsou, Dakota Fanning and Camilla Belle are on board for the supernatural thriller Push.... Jamie Foxx is biopic'ing again, playing homeless musician Nathaniel Anthony Ayers in The Soloist.
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On May 9 Bravo premieres Kathy Griffin: Strong Black Woman, a new stand-up special in which the ribald redhead takes on Paula Abdul, Dakota Fanning and more. (Is the title a dig at red-carpet rival Star Jones? Hmm... ) Speaking of special specials, ABC presents David Blaine: Drowned Alive on May 8, while NBC has booked the 55th-annual Miss Universe competition for July 23 — so break out the Vaseline and start practicing that hand-waving.
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