BBC - Movies -news article - High Noon

		Clooney Leads Leatherheads George Clooney will direct and star in sporting romance Leatherheads. Renée Zellweger is in negotiations to co-star in this comedic love story set against the formation of the American pro-football league in the 20s. Of course when we say 'football' what we really mean is rugby with helmets and shoulder pads. The project has been in development for years, starting life as a drama with screenwriter Jon Favreau and director Jonathan Mostow. Clooney had then been attached to star as an ageing football player who coaxes a college player to drop out and try his luck in the new professional league. At the moment he is rewriting the script (inserting more smooching scenes?) with a view to production in early spring.

		Murphy Makes Noodles Brittany Murphy will star opposite Toshiyuki Nishida in romantic comedy The Ramen Girl. It's an US-Japanese co-production that follows an American woman stranded in Tokyo after calling it quits with her boyfriend. By some twist of logic she then decides to train under a temperamental ramen master at the neighbourhood noodle shop. TV helmer Robert Allan Ackerman is already on megaphone duty in Japan with a debut script by Becca Topol. Expect lots of Nigella-style noodle-slurping close-ups...

		Stone's New Angle On 9/11 After shocking American moviegoers with the total lack of controversy in World Trade Center, Oliver Stone has said that he would "consider" making a more political film investigating the aftermath of 9/11. Speaking at a press conference in Russia, he said, "There is a great story to be told in a movie - a conspiracy by a group of people in the American administration who have an agenda and who used 9/11 to further that agenda." The director also used the press conference to criticise President Bush for bungling the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

		Firth Heads To Prison Colin Firth is venturing behind the camera to produce the documentary In Prison My Whole Life. It hears the story of Mumia Abu-Jamal who had been a member of the controversial Black Panther organisation in the 70s - battling racist oppression by any means necessary. He has spent the last 25 years in prison for murdering a police officer in Philadelphia and during that time has become a lightning rod for death penalty activism and an icon to the hip-hop community. "My point of entry was this white, middle-class English guy named William Francome, whose birthday coincided with the killing, and a journey of this boy's consciousness," says Firth. "It's a prism to look at how much society and grassroots politics have changed over 25 years."

		Solid As A Rock The Rock has scored the top spot at the US box office in Gridiron Gang, but the beancounters aren't overjoyed. The football drama (yep, rugby with padding again) took $15m (£8m), which is a very sluggish performance for a No 1 film. Meanwhile Josh Hartnett starrer The Black Dahlia took second place with $10.4m (£5.5m) - a bit of a downer since Universal paid $11m (£5.9m) for the film. "We're a little disappointed," says Universal exec Nikki Rocco. "If I had a crystal ball, every indication was that we'd have a solid opening, and this performed a little less than what we'd hoped it would." Forget the crystal ball, it seems a funny-shaped football is guaranteed to pull in a few punters. At least Clooney thinks so. At home the numbers are unconfirmed, but it looks like Will Ferrell's racecar comedy Talladega Nights has pole position.