Zac Strikes a Deal: Zac Efron (17 Again) has signed a two-year producing deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. The studio has been working for a few years to develop the Jonny Quest franchise as a starring vehicle for the High School Musical star; and Algorithim, a sci-fi project, has also been developed with Efron in mind. Both projects have been stalled, as producers couldn’t figure out how to get around Efron’s clause that he must play a basketball star in all his films. [Variety]
In Woody’s Hands: Owen Wilson is attached to Woody Allen’s next movie, which will shoot this summer. The title and story line are being kept under wraps, as is typically the case for Allen’s films. Though something tells us it’s going to be more of a “Larry David Is Neurotic†than a “Javier Bardem Is Smoldering†21st-century Allen film. [Risky Business/HR]
Go Big or Go Home: Ed Harris and Amy Madigan have joined the cast of Big Red, World Wrestling Entertainment’s new drama. (Yes, you read that right.) The film marks the third in a series of films the WWE is self-financing, producing, and releasing, in which their wrestlers are mixed in with veteran Hollywood actors. Red is set in the mid-sixties, and focuses on a 12-year-old boy whose English teacher (Harris) pairs him with the school’s bully on a project. Things go okay until the bully whips a metal chair out from nowhere and repeatedly beats the kid with it. [Variety]
Hawke Eye: Ethan Hawke will star opposite Kristin Scott Thomas in the indie The Woman in the Fifth, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. The thriller is about an American film teacher who flees Paris after a scandal and takes up with a widow who may be a serial killer. Since he studies film, he should know how this goes down: the more normal she seems at the beginning of the movie, the more likely she’s the psycho killer. [Variety]
The Q Factor: Maggie Q is in talks to play the title character in the CW’s reboot of Nikita, about a new Nikita who is trained to replace the original one after she “goes rogue.†Q’s casting would not only mark the highest-profile role for an Asian actress on a prime-time drama series, but it would really break down some walls for single-letter-surnamed people across the globe. [HR]