The Grand Tour: Charlize Theron is in negotiations to star alongside Tom Cruise in Bharat Nalluri’s Tourist, a remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer. Theron will play a lady Interpol agent who uses a bumbling American tourist to help her flush out a cagey criminal she once loved. Cruise will likely need to spend the next several months preparing for his role as a bumbling, clueless person. [Variety]
Help Please: Jenna Fischer and Michael Weithorn, creator of King of Queens, are bringing their sitcom successes to indie dramedy A Little Help. Written by Weithorn, the film centers on a widowed single mother who reconnects with an old boyfriend — who just happens to be her sister’s husband. Because if anyone makes you think “poignant but funny indie drama,†it’s King of Queens creator Michael Weithorn. [Variety]
Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: MGM has acquired the film rights to Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s screenplay for a Three Stooges movie and plans to fast-track the project, which has been in development limbo for years. The Farrellys will direct the four twenty-minute shorts that will make up the feature, each one further explaining the origins of the Stooges. Though no casting decisions have yet been made, Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson have previously been mentioned as possibilities — not because they’re actually interested but mostly because people would love to see them poked in the eyes. [HR]
Broadway Jane: Jane Fonda will return to Broadway next year in 33 Variations, a new play written by Moisés Kaufman. The story focuses on “Beethoven’s fascination with a trivial waltz, and the modern-day musicologist who sets out to discover the root of his obsession.†[Playbill]
Made Man: Steven Soderbergh is re-partnering with Che collaborator Peter Buchman for Making Jack Falcone, the story of a Cuban-American FBI agent who went undercover in the Gambino crime family. Buchman is onboard to write and Soderbergh to executive-produce this mob drama/FBI recruitment tool. [HR]
Space Space: Fox is trying again to make Ron Livingston a household name by casting the actor in Gravity, an adventure series about astronauts on a six-year space mission. Given the success of last year’s canceled Standoff, we can only hope they find a way to cram all six years into one season. [HR]