Variety reports that Kevin Bacon is preparing a series about Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth for Showtime.

Dubbed The Booths, the series will revolve around the family of John Wilkes Booth and his dysfunctional relationships in the years before Lincoln’s assassination.

Booth had two brothers – Edwin and Junius Brutus Jr. – with whom he performed on stage once, in a New York showing of Julius Caesar in 1864. He assassinated President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in 1865.

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Kat Dennings, stars in the film Nick and Norah’s Infinite  opened in theaters this weekend and is in third place for the Box Office score, is in negotiations to join Woody Harrelson and Sandra Oh in Defendor.

 Defendor is scripted by Peter Stebbings and is making his directorial debut. The story focuses on a regular guy (Harrelson) who believes he has a secret superhero identity. Dennings will play a teenager he befriends, while Oh is cast as his psychiatrist - must be the villain.

Filming starts next month in Toronto.

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Variety reports that Warner Bros. Pictures is developing a film version of Yogi Bear, the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon starring the bear with the tie.

Quite surprisingly, it will be a live-action film, with Yogi and his sidekick Boo Boo rendered in CG. It will be helmed by Ash Brannon (Surf’s Up) and will follow Yogi’s exploits in Jellystone Park where the bears cause much mischief and avoid their nemesis – Ranger Smith.

The script is being drafted by Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia of That ‘70s Show.

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Peter Webber, who directed The Girl With the Pearl Earring, is set to direct The Spider’s House, a romantic drama set in 1950s Morocco.

The film based on a novel by Paul Bowles and adapted for screen by Laurie Cooke. The story focuses on two American former lovers whose paths cross in Fez, Morocco, as clashes between pro-independence insurgents and French colonial overlords escalate.

Filming is scheduled to start in Morocco early next year.

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Coming back to reality after being high for so long, Harold & Kumar writer/director duo Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have announced that they will write and direct Till Beth Do Us Part, an upcoming comedy in the works at Warner Bros.

The story, as one ca  n fully expect from the title, focuses on two twenty-something guys whose friendship is put to the test when one of them becomes engaged – most probably with “Beth”.

The duo notes that the story will be “more grounded” than their stoner franchise and that it will have few “zany flourishes” whatever that means.

Shooting is set to begin early next year.

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Guillermo del Toro isn’t the only one getting some vampire action today (or tonight, depending on where you live), as Cloverfield director Matt Reeves has signed on to write and direct the Hollywood remake of the acclaimed Swedish horror film Let the Right One in for Overture Films and Hammer Films.

The original was based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, following a bullied boy whose desire for revenge crosses paths with his growing love for a female neighbor who happens to be a vampire.

The film won the best narrative feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival and is scheduled for a limited theatrical run in the US starting October 24. The sanitized and completely ruined American remake is likely to hit the big-screen late next year.

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20^th Century Fox’s The Opposite of Love nabs Anne Hathaway to star as an attorney who doesn’t commit to love, but has a well-constructed life coming apart at the seams when she rebuffs her ready-for-marriage boyfriend.

Film is based on the bestselling debut novel by Julie Buxbaum. Fox optioned the book in June and signed Kara Holden to adapt.

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Didn’t I just post something about Guillermo del Toro? This time the director has inked a publishing deal with HarperCollins imprint William Morrow to pen a trilogy of vampire thrillers with Chuck Hogan.

First book, “The Strain,” hits bookstores next summer. Go, del Toro Go!

The story focuses on an invasion of New York City by a vampire virus. Series will trace the roots of the vampire race back to its Old Testament origins.

The books will be published by HarperCollins in the U.K., and a special edition will be published simultaneously in a Spanish-language for the U.S.

Hogan has penned the thrillers “The Standoff,” “The Blood Artists” and “The Killing Moon.” Warner Bros. recently picked up his book “Prince of Thieves” for Ben Affleck to helm and star.

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Warner Bros. sparked a development project for prequel to the Will Smith starrer I Am Legend.

The plan is for Smith to bring back his role as scientist Robert Neville with Francis Lawrence returning to direct.

The studio has set D.B.Weiss to write a script that is based on a detailed outline that was hatched over the past few months by Smith, his producing partners and Lawrence.

Variety reports the prequel will chronicle the final days of humanity in New York before a man-made virus caused a plague that left Smith’s character the lone survivor among a mutated mob in the city.

Producing a prequel is the only way to extend I Am Legend franchise that grossed $584 million worldwide for Warner Bros. and maintain Smith in the lead role. To refresh your memory, his character was killed in the first film, after extracting a potential cure for the virus for the scattered survivors.

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British horror production company Hammer Films is back in business, as they have announced The Wake Wood, a new film, has started filming this week.

The story focuses on grieving parents who are given the opportunity to spend three more days with their daughter who is killed by a savage dog.

Timothy Spall, Aidan Gillen and Eva Birthsistle stars, with David Keating helming from a screenplay he co-wrote with Brendan McCarthy.

The Wake Wood is set for release next Fall.

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When was the last time you could not be separated from your significant other? Never? Well, two married Slate magazine writers decided to emulate a real-life pair of Buddhist teachers who vowed never to be more than 15 feet from each other. The writers tried to do it for 24 hours.

And yes, they are making a movie on it.

This feature comedy is being adapted from the article On a Short Leash by Ron Burch and David Kidd for Spyglass Entertainment.

More information on the project as it develops.

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The Hollywood Reporter carries word that Miramax will produce and distribute Muchas Gracias, Bob Oppenheimer, a period romantic drama.

The story focuses on an American serviceman in the ‘60s who is sent to a fishing town in Spain after a US military plane crash results in the accidental detonation of four hydrogen bombs.

It draws from the true story of Palomares, Spain, where an American B-52 bomber crashed and released more than 1000 tons of nuclear material in 1966.

The script has been penned by Bob Dolan Smith; it will be rewritten by Daniel Taplitz.

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Crime Spree reports that iconic crime writer Robert Randisi has sold film rights to Everybody Kills Somebody Somtime to Sandy Hackett, son of late comedian Buddy Hackett.

The novel is based around the legendary Rat Pack and is set in ‘60s Vegas. It centers around threatening letters being sent to one of the pack, with the group working to figure out who is sending them.

The book will be adapted to the big-screen by Randisi himself; shooting is slated to begin January 2010.

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From The Hollywood Reporter comes word that Rian Johnson (Brick) will pen and direct time-travel thriller Looper.

The film is set in a present-day world where a group of hitmen are sent their targets from the future.

The project will see Johnson and producer Ram Bergman team up. Bergman produced the writer’s previous two films. They are hoping to start sometime in early 2009.

Endgame Entertainment, which financed and produced Johnson’s previous outing, is likely to finance and produce Looper, though it is yet to e confirmed.

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An out of control libido can destroy a man’s career (and obviously his marriage), and that will be explored in Solitary Man by Michael Douglas who will play a car magnate whose career and marriage are destroyed by his business and romantic “indiscretions”.

Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito and Jenna Fischer are in talks to co-star. Paul Schiff and Steven Soderbergh are producing.

The film is based off a script by Brian Koppelman, who along with David Levien, are producing. Shooting begins this November in New York.

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Beverly Hills Ninja, the utterly forgettable 1997 action comedy, is getting a sequel that will get underway in South Korea starting next month.

The writer of the original film – Mitch Klebanoff – has scripted the sequel and will direct it. As expected, the film will tell the story of an orphaned boy who wants to be a ninja but becomes involved in a crime in Hollywood while looking for his real parents. It is not known if he will be as much of a fat doofus as the one presented in the original.

David Hasselhoff, Lucas Grabeel and Lin Chiling are set to star in the sequel that is expected to open in May 2009.

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Screenwriter making her directorial debut is always an exciting venture for those who understand what it takes to get in that position as a woman.

Looks like Massy Tadjedin got herself all set for her movie, Last Night, with stars like Keira Knightly, Eva Mendes, Sam Worthington and Guillaume Canet.

The story takes the path of a married couple who part for one night as the husband takes a business trip with a colleague to whom he’s attracted — whoa!

Yet, he resists temptation, but his wife encounters her past love — double whoa!

Apparently the script is awesome — Go Girl!

Thanks to wire image for the photo

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Nicole Kidman is attached to star in The Eighth Wonder, a pitch from Simon Kimberg that is an action adventure.

Overall details are hush-hush; however, the story focuses on an archaeological discovery that sets off a globle-spanning race.

Apparently, Kimberg is trying to achieve a movie that will be to Raider of the Lost Ark what the Bourne movies are to James Bond movies — you do the math–.

Put two and two together, a character driven, treasure-hunting thriller.

Kidman and Kimberg set sights on working together for some time; since Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which Kimberg wrote.

Kimberg will write Eighth Wonder this fall.

20th Century has picked it up.

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Boston Teran’s “God is a Bullet” is next for Transformers 2 scribe Ehren Kruger, who will be adapting the novel into a screenplay.

The story follows a California lawman as he goes undercover to rescue his daughter who has been kidnapped by a gang of criminals.

Kruger is doing the project with his producing partners Daniel Bobker and Bradley Bell. It is hoped that he will direct and produce the project with a production company, much like the arrangement that was made last year with StillKing Films to adapt “The Keep”.

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The Green Lantern franchise is one that is yet to be translated into a big-screen or adapted in live-adaptation. While the project was announced almost a year back, with Greg Barlanti directing and Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green penning the scripts, no updates were made until today.

Guggenheim spoke to ComicCon.com, revealing that he has been working his “ass off” for the project, adding that the film will feature an “incredibly faithful rendition of [Hal Jordan’s] character.”

“It honors everything everyone loves about the hero. We approach it from a fan’s perspective. Every step of the way, we ask ourselves what we want to see and what the fans will want to see. I think we have a script that will actually satisfy on those levels.”

More on the movie as it develops.

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Some time ago we reported that Kevin Eastman, co-creator of TMNT, was looking to get a live-action film based on the turtles. MTV News sat down with Peter Laird, the other creator of the franchise and its current owner, to talk about the movie.

Laird reveals that while Eastman is not involved in the process, there have been several meetings with interested people and he believes that they are pretty close to making a deal. He notes that further details are to be expected soon.

As for the film itself, don’t expect it to be full live-action. “We have pretty much decided that the next “TMNT” movie should be what we’ve been calling a “hybrid” — that is to say, live-action humans and sets combined with very realistic CGI Turtles (and possibly some other CGI characters),” Laird revealed.

The storyline for the film is yet to be finalized, he disclosed, adding that his preference would be a story that fits into the TMNT movie continuity. In the case of casting, he would like to see Chris Evans and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who voiced Casey and April in TMNT, reprise their roles “in the flesh”.

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Wes Anderson of The Royal Tenenbaums will pen the script for My Best Friend for Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, reports Variety.

The film will be a remake of the 2006 French comedy Mon Meilleur Ami. The original told the story of a cranky antiques dealer who learns from his closest acquaintances that none of them really like him because of his rude manners and selfishness. When his business partner bets him a valuable vase that he can’t produce a best friend, the dealer tries to get a cab driver to pose as his buddy.

Anderson is also looking to direct the film, though that is unconfirmed at the time.

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Talking to Sci-fi Wire, Stephen J. Cannell, creator of the cult ‘80s TV series The Greatest American Hero, has confirmed that a feature film is in the works.

“We’ve written a screenplay, and we’ve hired a director, and we’re in the midst of putting this together for the future,” he announced at the Screen Actors Guild foundation’s 75^th anniversary on Sunday.

He would not offer any further details on the project, though he did mention that the original cast will be back in some form.

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While Duke Nukem Forever is yet to be fully revealed, Max Payne film producer Scott Faye talked about a possible film adaptation on the timeless series, though he doesn’t offer anything new in terms of information.

“I’m working diligently at making a Duke Nukem movie scenario that will live up to the character and its [importance] in the videogame world,” he said. “As is the case with all of my game adaptations, I’d rather not make the movie than make a poor adaptation.”

Faye additionally claims that he is actively developing the story and will not shop the film around in Hollywood until all those involved feel the story is solid.

Meanwhile, the Duke Nukem Forever game rots somewhere in development hell and oblivion, begging 3D Realms to let it out.

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In today’s first bit of funny news, Screen Daily reports that producer Don Carmody is in negotiations with Sam Raimi to adapt stage play Evil Dead: The Musical into a 3D movie.

Originally a camp stage interpretation of the legendary horror movie, the play has gone on to shows in Broadway. It was conceived by George Reinblatt, Christopher Bond, Frank Cipolla and Melissa Morris.

The 3D film will be co-directed by Bond and Hinton Battle, with the duo expecting to shoot by next Spring with some of the original cast.

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