From Variety comes word that Benderspink has landed the film rights to Michael Marshall Smith’s crime thriller novel The Straw Men.

First in a trilogy, the book follows a detective brought out of retirement to solve a series of bizarre murders connected by a dark conspiracy.

The film will be produced by Chris Bender and JC Spink, with Zenescope’s Brusha and Ralph Tedesco acting as executive producers.

No starting date was given.

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Uwe Boll, the infamous director who is hated universally, has begun shooting horror thriller The Storm with Steve Bacic, Lauren Holly and Luke Perry. He is working off a script by Tim McGregor for Brightlight Pictures.

The film tells the story of a stranger named Silas who emerges from a devastating storm seeking refuge with others ona  form. As they struggle to deal with the aftermath of the storm, it becomes clear that they are threatened by a danger that could far more catastrophic.

Boll is known for his work on extremely bad videogame film adaptations including House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark.

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Variety and Hollywood Reporter speak favorable of this movie, What Doesn’t Kill You, starring Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke.  Brian Goodman’s directorial debut movie was well-received at Toronto as well, and now is looking at coming to theaters late this year.

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Duplicity looks like a fun film to watch on the big screen. The casting makes the film while it appears to have Tony Gilroy’s twists, suspense with a hit of comedy.

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Hugh Jackman looks pumped and angst.  From the looks of his bod, he must do interval training. I’d live to think he does kickboxing.  Sure he lifts to get those awesome arms; he’s not bulky, though.

Jackman is also on the cover of Empire Magazine. That’s where this photo originated.

If you pick up the next copy of Empire, you’ll get the lowdown on X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Hugh Jackman, director Gavin Hood, Liev Schreiber (who plays Victor Creed) and more.

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Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Testud, French musician and actress, respectively, have joined the cast of Vengeance, an upcoming crime-thriller set in Hong Kong.

Written by Wai Kafai, the film will tell the story of a French assassin-turned-chef who comes to the Chinese city to avenge a murder.

The film also stars Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, Lam Suet and Lam Ka Tung. It has already begun shooting in Hong Kong and will be released next summer.

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Artist on Artist: Robert Pattinson & Hayley Williams

Check out this interview as Paramore founder Hayley Williams chats it up with actor Robert Pattinson in this exclusive MySpace Artist on Artist interview.

The Twilight star met with the “Decode” singer at The Velvet Margarita in Los Angeles to talk about former jobs (Pattinson was a hand model!), how they handle fan’s attention and to share their love of music and their desire to record a duet.

There are actually some personal insights that pretty real and cool to watch. 

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Summit Entertainment has officially greenlit New Moon the sequel to Twilight.

I am not surprise on the announcement because Twilight earned first-day grosses of $35.7 million on Friday — together with $7 million from Thursday midnight shows.

For those you are not familiar with Stephenie Meyer’s vampire series, New Moon is the second title in the series and is centered on Edward Cullen leaving Bella Swan in order to keep her safe from other vampires.

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Moving on from Max Payne, Mila Kunis has joined the cast of action thriller The Book of Eli, which is in development at Warner Bros., Silver Pictures and Alcon Entertainment.

She will play Solara, who is at first enlisted to betray the titular character, but ultimately joins him in his quest. The movie will have Eli, the lone hero, fight his way across the wasteland of a near-future America to protect a sacred book that might hold the key to saving the future of humanity in a post-apocalyptic world.

The film is being directed by Albert and Allen Hughes. It begins shooting in February 2009 in New Mexico.

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Moving on from Flightplan, Robert Schwentke is now attached to direct Venus Fixer, an upcoming thriller from New Line and Mandalay Pictures.

The film is based on a true story, focusing on a Holocaust survivor recruited by the American army to track down a serial killer in postwar Berlin. He is partnered with a German cop who had been his friend and colleague before the Nazi regime came to power.

J.C. Pollack – aka James Elliott – has penned the screenplay. It is being produced by Cathy Schulman.

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Rapper Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson has joined the cast of Dead Man Running, an upcoming indie London gang movie from Alex de Rakoff.

The film is set in London and centers on an ex-con trying to go straight who is given 24 hours to raise 100,000 GBP to pay off a loan shark or become a “dead man running.” The mission takes him from East London to rural Manchester as he tries every trick and scam in the book to get the cash before it’s too late.

Danny Dyer, Brenda Blethyn and Tamer Hassan also star. Shooting has already begun.

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Taking his cue from action movies such as Underworld and Live Free or Die Hard, director Len Wiseman is in negotiations with Dreamworks to helm its upcoming thriller Motorcade.

The film is about terrorists attacking the president’s motorcade as it travels through Los Angeles. It has been written by Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell, and has been rewritten by Billy Ray.

Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald will serve as producers on the film. No starting date was announced.

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Just on the heels of Quantum of Solace’s wide release director Marc Forster is working with Paramount to direct World War Z, based on the Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft) bestselling novel on a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies.

Changelingscribe J. Michael Straczynski is writing the screenplay.

According to Variety, Brooks wrote a detailed tale in which a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission interviews survivors from countries all over the world, 10 years after the crisis, to gather a first-person post-mortem on a war that obliterated every country on the map.

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DreamWorks and Clint Eastwood are in talks about working together on the supernatural thriller Hereafter.

The talks are led by principals Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. According to Variety, DreamWorks has been encouraging Eastwood to direct the project for months.  

Based on the spec script penned by Frost/Nixon scribe Peter Morgan, the story line is being hush-hush, but described similar to The Sixth Sense.

Eastwood and Spielberg have worked together in the past on Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima.

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As Samuel L. Jackson tries to destroy London, Jim Caviezel tries to stop him in the espionage thriller Blown directed by Martha Fiennes.

The film focuses on Will Matlock (Caviezel), a top MI5 operative whose standard investigation of a global corporation directs him to come across a forthcoming terrorist attack. Jackson plays Julian Lezard, the businessman who involves him in a high-stakes game of wits and deception.

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Psychological thriller After.Life – with the period in the middle – has picked up Justin Long and Josh Charles in its cast.

The film also stars Christina Ricci who is caught between life and death, and a seemingly helpful funeral director who may be intent on burying her alive.

Long will play Ricci’s boyfriend in the movie, becoming increasingly suspicious of foul play. Charles is set to play Long’s friend.

Shooting is set to begin next week in New York.

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A chance for Steven Spielberg and Will Smith to work together would be fantastic. They both hold their own brilliantly. Together would be a lava flow. Variety just reported that the two are in discussions to collaborate on a remake of Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy.  The film won Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

DreamWorks is working on securing the remake rights, and the new film will be distributed by Universal.

In the 2003 Korean original, which is a second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, a man gets kidnapped and held in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. Suddenly, he’s released and given money, a cell phone and clothes and is set on a path to discover who destroyed his life so he can take revenge.

Spielberg would like to take this opportunity to make a film with Smith, who would play the kidnapped man if all the pieces fall into place. Spielberg is looking for a writer to begin the process of putting the production together.

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13, the English-language remake of 2005 French film 13 Tzameti, adds Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, Jason Statham, 50 Cent and Ray Liotta to the casting list.

The psychological thriller won the grand jury prize for the world cinema at Sundance Film Festival.

Gela Babluani wrote and directed the original film. He’s penned the English remake and is directing the film as well. Filming starts in New York on November 20.

Sam Riley, his casting was announced in October, plays the lead character. A young man falls into an underground competition where the rich gamble on human beings in a Russian-Roulette-style competition.

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Hideo Nakata, the Japanese, director of spine tingling horror-thrillers The Ring Two, Ringu and Dark Water,  is set to direct Chatroom, a psychological thriller about teenagers who encourage each other’s destructive behavior. Chatroom is Nakata’s first original film in English.

Variety reports that Chatroom was written by Enda Walsh as an adaptation of his own stage play. The Irish playwright won the Cannes Camera d’Or for first film in 2001 with his Disco Pigs and recently penned Steve McQueen’s Hunger.

Filming will begin in the spring in the U.K.  I look forward to seeing how Nakata handles the English aspect of filmmaking. He has done awesome work in Japanese and has a strong following.

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Anyone who has read the book “Angels & Demons” knows how powerful this story comes across as it takes place inside the Vatican. We are fortunate to have Ron Howard and Tom Hanks join talents, once again, to bring you Robert Landon from The Da Vinci Code in Imagine’s Angels & Demons.

We are viewing only the teaser trailer, but the camera work and the dark lighting tells us what to expect when the film opens May 2009. Angels & Demons also stars Ayelet Zurer (Munich) and Ewan McGregor (Star Wars prequels).

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Charlize Theron is in talks to star in The Tourist with Tom Cruise. The film is a remake of the 2005 French Thriller Anthony Zimmer.  Bharat Nalluri is set to direct the Julian Fellowes script, a drama about a female Interpol agent (Theron) who uses an American tourist (Cruise) in an attempt to seek out a difficult criminal to catch with whom she once had a romance.

If all goes well filming starts in March. Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote the upcoming Cruise film Valkyrie, is polishing up the script.

Nalluri is a versatile director who’s worked in television and film. He most recently directed the HBO film Tsunami: The Aftermath and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

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Indie suspense drama Last Will has got actors Tatum O’Neal, Tom Berenger and James Brolin in its cast.

O’Neal will play Hayden, a woman framed for the murder of her wealthy husband (Berenger) in an affluent Midwestern town. She’s arrested by a detective (Brolin) who begins a quest to uncover the truth.

The script has been penned by Alan Moscowitz; Brent Huff is attached to direct.

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M. Night Shyamalan is hoping to break into horror films, starting with PG-13 supernatural thriller Devil, the first project under his three-picture deal with Media Rights Capital. The project has gotten a writer – Brian Nelson from 30 Days of Night.

The film is based on a short story by Shyamalan. Story details are under wraps, though.

Directors John and Andrew Dowdle, moving on from the horrible remake of the excellent Spanish horror flick Rec, will helm the project. Production is slated to begin next year.

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Variety reports that Mike Nichols is set to direct the remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low for Miramax Films.

The original was a 1963 detective thriller, based on the novel “King’s Ransom” by Ed McBain. It followed a businessman who is ruined when he pays ransom to kidnappers who mistakenly nabbed his driver’s son.

The script is being penned by David Mamet, with Scott Rudin producing.

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Take a look at the Underworld: Rise of the Lycans trailer and see if you were as surprised, but delighted,  as I was to see Michael Sheen playing Lucian, so wild and a such a Spartan-esque body.  We are used to seeing him as Tony Blair, mild manner, in a dark blue suit.  Lucian is the whole other side of the specturm for Sheen.  Rhona Mitra seems to hold her own with Sheen as the main focus of the vampires.  The versatile Bill Nighy plays her father.

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