BBC - Movies -news article - High Noon

		Washington Takes Inside Job Denzel Washington will star in crime drama Inside Man for director Spike Lee. Recent Oscar nominee Clive Owen is also being courted for a role in the story of a tough cop who matches wits with a clever bank robber. It all kicks off when a plan to pull off the perfect heist disintegrates into a tense hostage situation. There must be more to it than that, but Lee's camp ain't telling. Cameras will roll in the summer, marking the fourth collaboration between Washington and Lee after Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X and He Got Game.

		Janssen Returns To X Fans of the X-Men franchise can breathe a sigh of relief. Famke Janssen has joined Hugh Jackman on the confirmed cast list for X-Men 3 to be directed by upcoming Brit helmer Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake). Fans of the comicbook series will know that although her character Jean Grey was killed off to save her fellow mutants in X-2, she returns as the evil mutant Phoenix. Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart are also set to sign up for more X-Men duty. The film shoots this summer with a view to release in May 2006.

		Bay Helms Bots For once the rumours were right. Executive producer Steven Spielberg has hired Michael Bay to direct The Transformers, a live-action adaptation of the 80s comicbook and cartoon series. It's already scheduled for a November 2006 release with production beginning this autumn. Apparently Spielberg was impressed with Bay's upcoming sci-fi drama The Island (due here in August) and thought he'd be a good fit for this tale of warring robots who disguise themselves as toasters etc.

		Redford Snared In Web Old saddlebags Robert Redford has joined the cast of Charlotte's Web, a retelling of the classic children's tale blending live action and CG animation. He'll voice an arachnophobic horse who panics and faints at the mere sight of the eight-legged Charlotte, voiced by Julia Roberts. The eclectic line-up also includes Dakota Fanning, John Cleese, and Steve Buscemi with Tadpole helmer Gary Winick calling the shots. It's a weird web they're bound to weave.

		Around Town Offbeat director Neil LaBute (The Shape Of Things) is attached to helm social satire Dem. Newbie scribe Brandon Noonan has somehow landed a blind writing deal (ie he hasn't even written it yet!) at DreamWorks to adapt the 1967 novel by William Melvin Kelley. It follows a selfish white marketing man forced to take stock of his life when his wife gives birth to a black baby. Hello? Me, Myself And Irene, people?... Universal has snapped up screen rights to comicbook series Proximity Effect for Van Helsing helmer Stephen Sommers. At this stage, Sommers is only wearing producer's hat for the tale of a woman who exhibits extraordinary powers, but only when within 30ft of a certain man. Hmm. Sounds like a really bad rom-com to us... It seems comicbooks are licence to print money in Hollywood. Comic book writer Jeph Loeb has been hired to pen a big-screen version of The Spirit, based on the noirish superhero created in 1940 by Will Eisner. He's a masked detective, believed dead, who lives in a cemetery and fights crime in Central City. FYI: Loeb is a writer and consulting producer on Superman TV series Smallville.