Per the Hollywood Reporter, Michael Apted is set to claim the reins from Andrew Adamson and direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third film in the seven-pic series. Among the returning cast members are (spoiler alert?) Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes.... Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) will helm and cowrite with Paul Haggis the 22nd James Bond film.... Ben Stiller will produce/perhaps star in the comedy In Deep, in which a man fighting a parking ticket gets caught up in a nightmarish chain of events.... Per Variety, a September release is set for National Lampoon's Homo Erectus, a caveman comedy (is there any other kind these days, really?) starring the likes of Ali Larter, David Carradine and Gary Busey.... Frank Miller will adapt Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business as a starring vehicle for Clive Owen.read more
The networks are just days away from unveiling their fall lineups. Here's the early word on what new shows to expect.
ABC will try hard to diversify its program lineup with a few dramas that don't fall into the soap category. That's why Marlowe, based on the famous Raymond Chandler detective character, and Pushing Daisies, a quirky supernatural drama about a man whose touch brings people back to life ("with procedural elements" as the pilot's log line says), are on the list of possible pickups. A sitcom based on the Geico cavemen and Sam I Am, starring Christina Applegate, are contenders on the comedy side. And oh, yes — the network also has a new series that will be spun out of a little show called Grey's Anatomy.
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Per Reuters, MGM has acquired distribution rights for Myriam, Mother of the Christ, a dramatic rendering of the life of Jesus' mom, penned by The Passion of the Christ's Benedict Fitzgerald and slated for an Easter 2008 release.... Per Variety, Clive Owen will exec-produce and narrate a feature based on one of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries.... Salma Hayek will star in and produce the Spanish-language comedy La Banda, in which a wealthy housewife secretly takes a job as a wedding singer.read more