BBC - Movies -news article - High Noon

		Brosnan Spreads His Wings Pierce Brosnan will star in indie thriller Butterfly On A Wheel. It looks as if he's out to shake and stir expectations following his tenure as 007 by playing a kidnapper who pulls a family apart - just for kicks. "This was a very conscious shift, in terms of the company, and a new direction for Pierce," says Brosnan's producing partner Beau St Clair. "Darker, edgier roles are really attractive to him right now. In the post-Bond phase, it's time to take that chance. A role can box you in a bit, and Bond is so iconic, it can hang on you." A Good Woman helmer Mike Barker will be on megaphone duty.

		Willis In Transit Bruce Willis will take top billing in Black Water Transit. Hostage scribe Doug Richardson is adapting the novel by Carsten Stroud which follows the different agendas of criminals, cops and lawyers as they collide over a shipment of illegal firearms and a double homicide. Willis will play a criminal who tries to get his family's illegal gun collection to a safe haven. (No word yet on whether Charlton Heston will cameo...) The project marks the big screen directorial debut of Samuel Bayer whose music video credits include Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.

		Hopkins Makes Fracture Anthony Hopkins and The Notebook's Ryan Gosling are teaming up for New Line thriller Fracture. Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear) will call the shots on this battle of wits between a young district attorney who attempts to convict Hopkins' character of murder. Exhibit A: Some fava beans and a nice Chianti? The script was originally penned by Daniel Pyne whose recent credits include last year's remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Meanwhile some bloke called Glenn Gers has been called in for rewrites.

		Morton Takes Control Samantha Morton is in talks to play Deborah Curtis, the widow of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis in Control. Music video helmer Anton Corbijn will make his big screen bow with this adaptation of Deborah Curtis' book Touching From A Distance. Once a writer on TV's Cold Feet, Matt Greenhalgh has adapted the screenplay, which covers the last years of Curtis' life and his suicide in 1980. It pays particular attention to the singer's struggle between the enduring love for his wife and a burgeoning relationship with another woman.

		Cruz & DeVito Say Good Night Penelope Cruz and Danny DeVito have joined romantic comedy The Good Night, which marks the directorial debut of Jake Paltrow. Sister Gwyneth is already on board for this New York story (nepotism? pah!) following a washed-up pop star (Martin Freeman) in a midlife crisis. Cruz will portray the object of his affection while DeVito plays a dream doctor who tries to get the troubled man back on track. Cameras roll on 14th November in London with just a few days of shooting in New York to establish the setting.

		Hunting, Fishing, Shooting... Alec Baldwin has been cast opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing. It's about a New York book editor who wrestles with leaving her college boyfriend for a much older playboy. Writer/director Marc Klein has adapted the story from two short stories in Melissa Bank's best-selling book of the same name... Training Day scribe David Ayer will direct a remake of Sam Peckinpah western The Wild Bunch (1969). He's also writing the script for this "contemporised" story of a bunch of outlaws who find themselves out of time in a changing world. "I've introduced a present day setting," he says, "But there are very masculine themes and characters from the original that are still very relevant"... American Pie's Seann William Scott and Topher Grace (In Good Company) will star in, um, Cockblockers. Paramount have just snapped up the comedy pitch for between $1.2m-$1.8m. The plot centres on a new couple haunted by the woman's ex-boyfriend. Scott will play the menacing ex (brandishing a large weapon?) and Grace is set as the new love... George Clooney closed the London Film Festival last night with a gala screening of Good Night And Good Luck. The film, set in the early days of broadcast journalism, marks his second directorial outing and is garnering much acclaim. Unfortunately the achievement is being overshadowed by reports that he got drunk at the after-party and attacked a security guard. Somewhere, Russell Crowe is shaking his head...