Cradle Crook: Uma Thurman will soon be the envy of teenage girls (and moms!) everywhere now that she’s been cast to star alongside Rob Pattinson in an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s short story Bel Ami. The story is about a young journalist (Pattinson) who rises to the top of Parisian society by getting busy with lots of powerful ladies. Thurman plays Duroy’s friend’s wife. She later becomes Duroy’s wife. The role had reportedly gone to Nicole Kidman, but she dropped out when she realized that swarms of angry tweens (and moms!) would soon annihilate her. [THR]
Game Time: Brad Pitt’s production company has signed a deal with videogame company Capcom to develop a film based on the game Dark Void, with Pitt potentially starring. The game is about a pilot who crashes in the Bermuda Triangle and finds himself in an alternate world where aliens and technology are threatening to take over civilization. It’s actually pretty similar to Angelina’s family reunions. [Variety]
Steve Party: Steven Spielberg and Stephen King are teaming up to bring Under the Dome, King’s latest book, to TV. Optioned by DreamWorks TV, it will likely be set up as an event series for cable. King’s story revolves around a small Maine resort town that falls into chaos after an invisible force field descends upon it. If these two Stev(ph)ens could just find a way to involve Colbert, then the holy trinity would be complete. [Variety]
Country Folk: Sam Shepard will star in Tough Trade, the inaugural pilot for Epix, the pay-cable network launched by Viacom, Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate on October 30. The show will focus on the Tucker family, a three-generation Nashville music dynasty that has drank, gambled and divorced its way to bankruptcy. Shepard will play the patriarch. But first he has to learn how to play the jug. [THR]
Backyard Bird: Alicia Witt, the red-headed mom who is both Tim Riggins’s former lover and landlord on Friday Night Lights, has signed on to star in the Hallmark Channel movie Backyard Wedding. The film centers on a woman who is set to have the wedding of her dreams in her parent’s backyard. Things get complicated when her first love, and parent’s neighbor, keeps showing up. Here’s hoping the neighbor is Riggins. [THR]