Van Sant, Coppola and Condon as Breaking Dawn Director Contenders: A bit of two day old news here, but yesterday I neglected to report Gus Van Sant (Milk), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) and Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) have all been reportedly approached by Summit to gauge interest in directing The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, the upcoming fourth installment in the Twilight franchise, which will see The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hitting theaters on June 30. Van Sant’s reps confirmed he’s been approached and Kristen Stewart confirmed the rest of the story was true. Of course, this is just an interest gauging exercise and no formal offers have been put on the table and probably won’t be until screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg finishes the script on what is expected to be a two-film finale. Unfortunately for me, Rosenberg is going to be here in Seattle for a New Moon DVD release party this weekend and I will be out of town and unable to interview her. That’s the way the cookie crumbles, but if Rosenberg’s people want to get in touch with me I’m open for phoners… Gimme a buzz, I don’t bite. [EW]
Hobbit To Shoot in July?: Ian McKellen updated his personal website saying The Hobbit will “start shooting in New Zealand in July.” The report went on to say filming will take over a year and the first draft of the script “is crammed with old and new friends, again on a quest in Middle Earth.” However, a New Line spokeswoman told Variety, “We have not set a start date yet.” [Ian McKellen]
Azaria and Mays Join The Smurfs: Neil Patrick Harris joined The Smurfs as the first live-action human character and now “Glee” star Jayma Mays has also joined the cast as the pregnant wife of Patrick Harris’s character. Also, Hank Azaria will play Gargamel, the sworn enemy of the Smurfs. Katy Perry was previously announced as part of the voice cast and today it was confirmed she will be voicing Gargamel’s creation, Smurfette. The story takes place in Central Park in New York City and centers on the happy expectant couple’s (Patrick Harris and Perry) lives being turned upside-down upon meeting the blue creatures. Strangely enough, Gargamel will be an animated character according to reports, which is interesting considering the film will mix live-action and CG-animation and I would have thought that character would be live-action as well. Raja Gosnell (Scooby-Doo) is directing for an August 3, 2011 release. [THR and EW]
Seyfried and McG Con The Ivy League: Amanda Seyfried will reportedly star in The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League for director McG, a film based on the “Rolling Stone” article by Sabrina Rubin Erdely telling the story of Esther Reed and how she went from being a high school dropout and created the ultimate fake ID, scammed her way into Harvard and Columbia, and became the target of a nationwide manhunt. You can read the “Rolling Stone” feature article here. [Production Weekly]
Cornish Joins De Niro’s Dark Fields: Abbie Cornish (Bright Star) has joined Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper in The Dark Fields to be directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist). The thriller centers on a down-and-out New York City writer (Cooper) who comes into possession of the experimental designer drug MDT that gives him newfound intelligence and success. De Niro will play a brilliant financial mogul who begins pursuing Cooper’s character. Cornish will play the female lead opposite Cooper. [Variety]
Reitman, Kutcher and Portman Team for Rom-Com: 63-year-old Ivan Reitman hasn’t directed a film since the 2006 bust My Super Ex-Girlfriend and with the expectation he would come back to direct Ghostbusters 3 for Columbia Pictures and now rumors saying the studio wants a younger director, perhaps he is trying to prove something with a new rom-com with the working title Friends With Benefits at Paramount. The film will star Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman and while the story is being kept quiet, it it said to revolve around the ease with which men and women become sexually involved, but have a far more difficult time establishing emotional bonds. Paramount has already set a January 7, 2011 release. [Variety]
Eric Christian Olsen Joins The Thing Prequel: Eric Christian Olsen (Fired Up!) has reportedly joined the cast of The Thing, Universal’s prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter classic. The new film will on a Ph.D. candidate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead ) who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When a trapped organism is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Joel Edgerton) to stop the rampage. Shooting will take place in both British Columbia and Toronto. [BD]
Goldsman Directing Man and Wife: Earlier this week people confused Akiva Goldsman signing on to produce Paranormal Activity 2 as news, but today he is actually attached to direct something, a movie in fact, for Fox titled Man and Wife, which follows a seemingly everyday husband who is actually a professional killer and what happens to both sides of his life when his wife begins to suspect something. Yeah, it’s another Mr. and Mrs. Smith, or even more closely, True Lies, and it even has something in common with this year’s Ashton Kutcher/Katherine Heigl feature The Killers. Get excited! It’s the same story like you’ve never seen it before! [Los Angeles Times]
Moore and Stewart Head to Backwoods: Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart will reportedly star together in Backwoods with Moore’s husband Bart Freundlich directing. Plot details are being kept quiet, but apparently the story concerns the end of the world. Shooting is expected to begin this summer. [Showbiz411]
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