BBC - Movies -news article - High Noon

		Jackson Chews On Bones Peter Jackson has been talking about his plans to adapt Alice Sebold's best-selling novel The Lovely Bones, about a girl who witnesses the aftermath of her own murder from Heaven. "The most perplexing problem is how to convey Susie in Heaven," says the helmer. "It has to be somehow ethereal and emotional, but it can't be hokey." To buy the time needed to solve such problems, Jackson and partner Fran Walsh are funding development themselves. "We've woken up every single morning for the past six years with people at studios awaiting a script or a cut of a film," says Jackson. "We want time to discover what this film is. Writing on spec, budgeting and getting ourselves organised before we go to studios was preferable to finishing [King] Kong and then facing another deadline 12 weeks later." The Lovely Bones is currently scheduled for release in late 2007.

		Phillips Boots Borat Starsky & Hutch helmer Todd Phillips has walked off the set of Borat, a film centred on the boorish Kazakhstan immigrant played by British comic Sacha Baron Cohen. A "creative clash" prompted Phillips to walk but there's been no official word on the matter because the film was effectively being shot in secret. Sources explain that it's an experimental project, which is largely improvised. Apparently there were problems from the first day of shooting when 'Borat' convinced organisers of a rodeo in Virginia to allow him to sing The Star Spangled Banner. He did it badly and also made headlines for inciting the rodeo crowd with inflammatory remarks about the Iraq war. Assuming Cohen isn't arrested under new terrorism laws, production will resume as soon as a new director is found.

		Hudson Scales Heights Oh, dear. According to Dark Horizons, Kate Hudson is planning a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 thriller Vertigo. She's apparently snapped up the rights to the tale about a San Francisco detective with a fear of heights and a crippling obsession with a mysterious blonde. We assume Hudson is eyeing the role of 'the blonde', originally played by Kim Novak opposite James Stewart. Meanwhile rumours abound that Hudson is about to sign for Gurinder Chadha's big-screen rework of 60s TV series I Dream of Jeannie. Watch this space - as opposed to the one between Hudson's ears.

		Scribe's New Toys Disney Feature Animation has officially committed to making Toy Story 3 - without Pixar. The suits have just hired young screenwriter Jared Stern, whose recent credits include working as a production secretary on sexy TV show Inside The Playboy Mansion. The kids loved it! Apparently the soft porn gig is just a sideline as Stern is also enrolled in Disney's Feature Animation Writing Program, where he came up with a story idea for TS3. Though details are being kept under wraps, the sequel is expected to take the characters on the road again and perhaps include a few new characters e.g. Blow-Up Susie, Woody's inflatable friend...