Round Two: Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon are the new power team: To follow up this fall’s Invictus, in which Damon plays South African rugby player François Pienaar, the two will join forces on Hereafter, a supernatural thriller written by Peter Morgan. Warner Bros. isn’t releasing plot details beyond the logline (it’s “in the vein of The Sixth Sense“), though Movieline has some here. But we assume Damon probably won’t be playing South African rugby player François Pienaar in this one. [Variety]
Presidential Comedy: Rebecca Hall has nabbed the lead role in Richard Linklater’s new flick Liars A-E. She’ll play Bacall Loomis, who, while Obama’s inauguration is happening in the background, sets out on a road trip to claim items of hers still in the possession of ex-boyfriends. Kat Dennings is also onboard as Loomis’s buddy. What’s the connection with the inauguration? We’re thinking the movie’s big reveal is that Joe Biden is one of Loomis’s ex-boyfriends. [HR]
Magical Comedy: Penn and Teller will star in a new ABC comedy, playing versions of themselves; they’ll be mild-mannered Las Vegas magicians by night, reluctant detectives by day. Looks like Bored to Death will get out of the gate first with the unlikely detective angle, but what we’re more interested in is the flipping of protocol — Penn and Teller will be living out their secret identities in daylight. [Variety]
Knight Stuff: Paul Giamatti has signed on for Ironclad, a medieval-era action flick being shot in Wales. He’ll play King John, a tyrant who led an invading army against Rochester Castle, which was then defended by a member of the Knights Templar (played by James Purefoy) and his Magnificent Seven crew. We apologize if we’ve screwed up any historical facts here. Believe it or not, thirteenth-century English warfare is not our specialty. [Variety]
More Borgia: More exciting historical fiction! Neil Jordan has penned a script for a series based on the Borgias, the infamous Renaissance Italy family. The director had originally planned the project as a feature, and even had Colin Farrell and Scarlett Johansson (of course) attached at one point; now he’s gearing it for Showtime, which hasn’t greenlit a pilot yet but is eyeing it as a replacement for The Tudors, ending this year. A little background: The family patriarch was Rodgrio Borgia, who served as Pope Alexander VI until dying, supposedly from drinking a bottle of his own poisoned wine, in 1503. His children were famously corrupt, most notably would-be Italian ruler Cesare Borgia, who inspired Machiavelli’s The Prince. There’s enough info in Industry today for a nice little Jeopardy! run, huh? [Variety]