Winstone in Darkness: Ray Winstone will replace Robert De Niro in Martin Campbell’s Edge of Darkness, lending his somewhat dubious star power alongside co-star Mel Gibson. In another possibly related switcheroo, $4 million will replace $21 million in “Edge of Darkness’s opening weekend.†[Variety]
Goats: George Clooney and Mandate Pictures have assembled their cast for The Men Who Stare at Goats, the movie based on a book by Jon Ronson about a desperate reporter in Iraq who stumbles on a “supposedly real secret army unit tasked with creating soldiers with paranormal powers.†Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges are in negotiations to star with Clooney, whose paranormal power is expected to involve “being incredibly goddamn sexy.†[HR]
Five Join the Faire: Christina Ricci, Bill Engvall, The House Bunny’s Owen Benjamin, My Name Is Earl’s Nadine Valazquez, and Cedric the Entertainer have joined the romantic comedy All’s Faire in Love, the story of a Renaissance Faire troupe and the young bard (Benjamin) who falls in love with a lovely lady (Ricci) and must battle swashbuckling RenFaire nerds for her love. We’re pretty sure “battling swashbuckling RenFaire nerds†is what Meatloaf meant by, “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.†[HR]
Universal Gives Chase: Universal has picked up Lauren Weisberger’s Chasing Harry Winston, the third novel from the bazillion-selling author of The Devil Wears Prada. Hitch’s Andy Tennant will direct the romantic comedy, which will expand on one of the book’s three characters — either the daughter of a supermodel, a rising star in the publishing world, or a newly single female — and focus on how her life changes over the course of a year. We might skip this one unless she “changes†into a robot that fights werewolves with space lasers. [HR]
Doomsday Everyday: Fox plonked down at least a million non-monopoly dollars on Doomsday Protocol, an original spec by Ghost Rider’s Shane Salerno. Story is tippy-top secret, but it’s an epic sci-fi adventure “in the vein of The Seven Samurai involving a group of aliens and humans with various abilities who are brought together to save Earth,†the only way we know how, by downloading Jeff Goldblum’s computer virus to the mother ship from their Mac laptop. [HR]