Helen Mirren to Take Up the Scepter Once More?

The Queen 2: Bushwacked!: Screenwriter Peter Morgan is writing a sequel to his Oscar-nominated hit The Queen, focusing on Tony Blair’s relationships with Presidents Clinton and Bush. While Michael Sheen is expected to reprise his role as Blair, it’s unclear if the Queen herself will return for the sequel. We certainly hope so, as this sounds like the ideal vehicle for Helen Mirren to deliver on those nude scenes she promised us. [Variety]

Macy, Hines Team Up: William H. Macy will topline the high-school comedy Bart Got a Room, opposite Cheryl Hines. Though it’s true that this genre has struggled at the box office recently, if anyone can save the teen comedy, it’s William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines. [Variety]

Purefoy Raises Kane: Hunky James Purefoy will take the titular lead in Solomon Kane, the first of a projected three-film series adapted from Robert E. Howard’s stories about a puritan swordsman in the sixteenth century. Purefoy is expected to be very handsome, but perhaps just short of Viggo-licious. [HR]

Lips Save Christmas: Front man Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips announces plans to unveil the group’s long-awaited film Christmas on Mars this March at South by Southwest. Not sure how excited to be about this? Check out the well-nigh incomprehensible (and slightly NSFW) trailer and decide for yourself! [Billboard]

Wolf, Caruso Light Dynamite: Law & Order producer Dick Wolf and Disturbia director D.J. Caruso join forces to mount an ambitious new television show based on graphic novelist Max Allan Collins’s Johnny Dynamite, about a man who confronts Satan’s soul-selling business in Los Angeles. The pair plan to present the series using the same visual techniques utilized in 300, such as green screen and actors who do too many crunches. [Variety]

Frain Joins Homecoming: James Frain joins the cast of the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, alongside Ian McShane, Raúl Esparza, Eve Best, and Michael McKean, completing an ensemble that should ensure the scariest pauses in Broadway history. [Playbill]