Jada Pinkett Smith has been raving about starring with Tom Cruise in Michael Mann's Collateral - a thriller about an assassin (Cruise) who forces a cab driver (Jamie Foxx) to drive him to his hits.

"It's going great! I'm really enjoying it," she told BBCi Films exclusively. "Jamie Foxx is incredible. I love Michael Mann and Tom Cruise is just a ball of sunshine! He's just a ball of electricity and I really, really enjoy him. It's been a wonderful experience and I'm having a lot of fun."

Of her character, Will Smith's Mrs said, "I play an Assistant State Attorney and I'm one of the characters who's on Tom Cruise's hit list." Then followed a rather OTT, if somewhat endearing, gush about everyone involved, particularly her "favourite, favourite, favourite, favourite" director Mann, whose advice she follows strictly.

"Finally, I just do as I'm told!" she said. "Finally, I'm willing to listen to somebody! Will's going: "Why can't I get some of that!""

Media shy Anthony Hopkins spared a minute for BBCi Films, as he flew into London to promote The Human Stain and continue work on Proof.

"I filmed in Chicago last week with Gwyneth," he said. "She's a wonderful actress. I'm very happy. It's a very powerful script. They say it's better than the play. Gwyneth's wonderful. She's great. I'm lucky. I've just worked with Nicole Kidman and now Gwyneth Paltrow!"

Tom Hanks has nabbed the rights to a non-fiction book which contrasts an anti-war protest in America with a battle in Vietnam which took place on the same day in 1967. No word yet on whether he will star in, direct, or simply produce They Marched Into Sunlight: War And Peace.

Ben Affleck project Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past has been ditched by Disney, just four weeks before it was due to start shooting. The comedy, about a bachelor who is visited by the ghosts of his old girlfriends while at his brother's wedding, was due to be directed by I-Spy's Betty Thomas.

She and Affleck must be hoping another studio will pick up the tab, but Disney's worries over the rising budget and Affleck's trashing in the tabloids may be shared by other distributors. Could Gigli prove a career-threatening film?

Kenneth Lonergan, writer-director of the excellent You Can Count On Me has opted for Margaret as his second helming effort.

The coming-of-age drama is about a 17-year-old girl who witnesses a bus crash that may not be the accident it first appears. Directing heavyweights Sydney Pollack (Out Of Africa) and Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) are producing.

...at least some women do - in the world of Succubus, the latest idea dreamed up by Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnson. Variety says the horror comedy is about "a cult of female demons who use their supermodel looks to seduce and steal the souls of men."

A script will be penned while Johnson directs Nic Cage in comic book adap Ghost Rider. "Every guy had a friend who essentially disappeared when he fell for a girl," says Johnson ("Like High Noon's mate Matt Pitcher, who went AWOL for ages. Although his Mrs turned out to be really nice." - that's enough about your mates, Nev. Ed.)

Character actor turned impressive director Steve Buscemi will follow up Animal Factory with Lonesome Jim - a comedy about a dysfunctional family, starring Liv Tyler and Casey Affleck. The younger 'fleck plays a 28-year-old man forced to move back to his home town and live with his parents. There, he meets a woman (Tyler) in a bar, whose son starts to think of him as a father.

Buscemi told Variety, "I really like this script [by James C Strouse] a lot because it's closer in tone to Trees Lounge". Which is good enough for us, given Buscemi's directorial debut is one of the best little-seen flicks of recent years.