Drug Problems: Clive Owen has signed on to star in Mark Cuban’s Cartagena. Turistas writer Michael Ross is attached to write the screenplay about an undercover agent living among Colombian drug cartels. Owen’s character is discovered as an agent and must evade drug dealers if he hopes to live. But in the end they see how dashingly handsome he is and they let him go. [HR]
Frozen Cinema: Fear not, struggling Russian film industry, the Kremlin is here to save you. The Brest Fortress, which will receive $8 million from the government, is the first full-funded feature since Soviet times. The film will focus on the defense of the fortress, a key border stronghold that held out for nine days, longer than expected, after the Nazi invasion in 1941. It will also feature Vladimir Putin without a shirt. [HR]
Cop Drama!: Damon Herriman has joined the cast of NBC’s drama pilot Lost and Found, written by Chris Levinson and directed by Michael Engler. The project centers on an offbeat LA detective who is punished by getting assigned to John and Jane Doe cases in the basement. Herriman will play the requisite oddball consultant to the police department because, as we all know, in depressing police comedies nothing is as important as comic relief. [HR]
Ashley Joins the Family: Tony award winner Elizabeth Ashley is returning to the stage in February, when she joins the cast of August: Osage County. Ashley will play the role of Mattie Fae Aiken, the part that was created on Broadway by Tony winner Rondi Reed. Ashley is a Broadway vet, so it’s safe to assume she’s well-versed in playing a member of a dysfunctional family. [Playbill]
Slow Talker: Laziest man in the world Fred Thompson won’t seem so lazy anymore when his talk-radio show starts. The former Tennessee senator will fill the syndicated slot being vacated by Bill O’Reilly. The Fred Thompson Show, as it is creatively titled, will draw on what Westwood One president Gary Schonfeld calls Thompson’s “unique set of qualifications,†which include the ability to talk for three hours without saying anything. [Variety]