Tender Is the Knightley: Keira Knightley will be starring in the Nick Cassavetes–directed The Beautiful and the Damned, Film Department’s love story about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. Hardly an unexpected move, as everyone knows that in her younger and more vulnerable years, Knightley’s father gave her some advice she’s been turning over in her mind ever since: “Only act in period pieces.†[HR]
Waiting for the Rest of the Cast: Tom Sturridge (England’s answer to Zac Efron) will star alongside Rachel Bilson in Waiting for Forever, James Keach’s indie romantic comedy about a wanderer who tries to reconnect with his childhood love who’s now a TV actress. Sin City’s Jaime King and Hairspray’s Nikki Blonsky are joining him, as is Riley Smith, who’s come a long way since the 2005 TV movie, Spring Break Shark Attack. [HR]
Black and Cold: Shane Black, the man who invented ridiculous action spec sales in the nineties and reinvented himself with 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, will direct Universal’s Cold Warrior, the story of an old spy from the Cold War era who comes out of retirement to work with a young agent despite getting too old for this, etc. [Variety]
Call Me Bekmambetov: Universal has tapped Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov to direct a reimagining of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, adapted into a more modern style by National Treasure’s Adam Cooper and Bill Collage. Specifically, they’ll “depict the whale’s decimation of other ships,†and show Ahab as “a charismatic leader [with an iPod and cool haircut oh snap he should totally pimp out spinner rims on the Pequod].†[Variety]
Harbor’s Rash: Harbor Light Entertainment has teamed up with Lotus to remake Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. The story will shift to contemporary America where a jury must wade through testimony about a woman’s rape and her husband’s murder. The same company tried to get this project off the ground in 2001, so you might feel like you’ve seen this story before with slightly different details. [Variety]