Here Kitty: Meryl Streep will play the lead in a New Line’s cat-tastic adaptation of Vicki Myron’s book Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. Streep will play Myron, a librarian who watches her small town get transformed by a kitten who becomes her library’s mascot after wandering in through the after-hours book-return slot. Pamela Gray is onboard to write, and moms everywhere are onboard to drag their kids to this. [Variety]
Alright, Alright, Alright: David O. Russell is in negotiations to direct Matthew McConaughey’s big dumb comedy The Grackle. The story follows a New Orleans barroom fighter (McConaughey) who hires himself out to settle disputes for those who can’t afford a lawyer. We anxiously await the leaked behind-the-scenes footage of Russell pounding McConaughey’s head in with a surfboard. [HR]
Moon Man: Steve Carell has signed on to voice the title character in Universal’s computer-animated family flick Despicable Me. Carell’s character is a loathsome man named Groo whose plot to steal the moon is interrupted when a group of clingy orphans come under his care. Producer Chris Meledandri (Horton Hears a Who) has brought on a star-studded cast of funnymen (and women) to work with Carell, including Jason Segel, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Russell Brand, Jack McBrayer and funniest funny woman of all Julie Andrews! [Variety]
Bummer Time: Michael Moore’s next film, which was supposed to have a foreign-policy scope, will instead focus on the economy. The untitled project will deal with the end of the American empire, and Moore hopes it will have a general non-partisan tone, divorcing it from a political movement. Because both liberals and conservatives should be able to spend the little money they have on seeing a film that reminds them how poor and meaningless their lives are. [HR]
Captain America: Showtime has teamed up with comic-book icon Stan Lee to develop an hour-long project about a gay superhero. The series, based on Perry Moore’s book Hero, will follow an up-and-coming superhero trying to hide his identity. Moore described the show to Vulture last May as labyrinthine and similar to Lost, but, “It’s not campy.†[Variety]
Tempting: Chris Cooper has joined Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons in Julie Taymor’s “gender-bending†adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Cooper will play Antonio, who usurps Prospera, Duchess of Milan (Mirren). Production of the island drama is set to start next week in Hawaii, which is quickly becoming America’s go-to spot for performing island-based, gendering-bending dramas. [HR]