Get Out Of His House: Ryan Reynolds’ hot streak continues. The actor has emerged as the frontrunner for the starring role in Safe House, opposite Denzel Washington, with an offer for Reynolds “expected imminently.†The film’s director Daniel Espinosa has been meeting with and considering a who’s who of the hot, young actor brigade for the part, including Tom Hardy, Zac Efron, James McAvoy, Sam Worthington and Shia LaBeouf. Reynolds would play the only surviving agent of an attack on a CIA safe house who tries to get a lethal prisoner (Washington) to a second safe house without getting them killed. Sounds almost as harrowing as navigating the increasing-by-the-day roster of movies Reynolds is attached to. [Heat Vision/HR]
Bieber Fever: Paramount has selected Jon Chu (Step Up 3D) to direct the 3D feature film about pop star Justin Bieber. The studio has also added Magical Elves partners Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz (Top Chef, Project Runway) to the producing team. Work on the film is to begin immediately in order to have the film ready by the predetermined release date of Valentine’s Day 2011. Not a bad gig for Chu considering they could probably just film two hours of Bieber playing checkers and this thing would still pack theaters for weeks. [Deadline]
Clueless: Michael Vartan will star opposite Zoe Saldana in Colombiana, an action movie directed by Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3). The film is focused on a woman (Saldana) who witnesses her parents get murdered in Bogota, and grows up to become a hitwoman by day and vigilante murderer by night, as she attempts to track down the person who killed her parents. Vartan will play her boyfriend, an artist who “has no clue what she does for a living.†You know how those oblivious artists can be! [Heat Vision/HR]
What’s Up, Doc?: Warner Bros has hired David Berenbaum (Elf) to write Bugs Bunny, a live action/CG feature film that aims to revive the iconic character in modern day. Surprising that they’re going with this then instead of a Tweety Bird Twitter-themed film. [Deadline]
Courier-ing: Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) will star in The Courier, an action film directed by Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now). He’ll play - surprise! - a courier, one who has taken on “improbable missions and never missed a drop.†He’s hired to deliver a briefcase to a missing-in-action underworld figure, which leads him to be chased by “corrupt cops, double-crossing feds and rival crime bosses.†Sounds positively heart-pounding. [Deadline]
Ring, Ring: Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Defiance) has signed on to star with Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton in The Retreat, a British thriller about a couple vacationing on a remote island working to fix their marriage but who discover everyone has been killed by an airbourne virus. Unclear whom Bell is playing, so we’re just going to assume he’ll be performing upbeat dances for Murphy and Newton to try and cheer them up after the virus has wiped everyone else out. [Deadline]
Motherloving: Fox Searchlight has picked up the comedy pitch Motherf***er from the comedy duo of Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones (Wein will direct). The story is centered on a man who falls in love with the mother of his girlfriend after she takes him home to meet her parents. Sounds sort of like a movie-length version of this. [Variety]