Borat Finally Goes on ‘Trial,’ Thanks to Steven Spielberg

Cohen on Trial: In awesome-sounding casting news that probably doesn’t sound awesome to Vincent D’Onofrio, Steven Spielberg casts Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman in his sixties counterculture film The Trial of the Chicago Seven. [Times of London]

Peter Berg to Direct Everything: With one film out this week on DVD, and another set to open next summer, Peter Berg is rapidly turning into the Morgan Freeman of directors, as he plans to immediately follow the Tom Cruise spy thriller Edwin A. Salt with a new film of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which may subtly differ from David Lynch’s 1984 version. [MTV]

Madea in Space: Any concerns about the commercial prospects for J.J. Abrams’s reboot of the Star Trek franchise can be put to rest if reports that Tyler Perry has just been cast as a Starfleet instructor are accurate. If Abrams wants to guarantee a hit, he should make sure Perry is playing a female instructor who teaches Starfleet cadets using tough love and just a touch of the gospel. [UGO]

Coen Brothers to Make Even More Violent Movie: Joel Coen says that he and brother Ethan have written and plan to produce a more conventional but even more violent Western than No Country for Old Men, which will feature hanging, scalping, torture by ants, forcible eyelid removal, and “a scene that no one will ever forget because of one particular chicken.� We may actually not have what it takes to watch this movie. [Cinema Blend]

Simpson Takes Nashville: If anything will make hard-core country fans feel better about Carrie Underwood, it’ll be Jessica Simpson’s announcement that she’s started work on a country album to be released through Columbia Nashville in 2008. [Billboard]