Stirring Stew

A heaping helping of industry bits

-A suit for Warner Bros. says that shooting will start on The Dark Knight Rises" starting in May in the U.K., Los Angeles and "a third city"--thought to be New Orleans

-Actor-director  Bob Odenkirk is gearing up for his next feature "Annie Jenkins: A Not Very Romantic Comedy" reports The Wrap.

-Rising scribe Noah Oppenheim will write the adaptation of James Dashner's bestselling 2009 book The Maze Runner says the LA Times Catherine Hardwicke‘s signed on to direct the pic.

-January Jones says her Emma Frost costume in  X-Men: First Class will be very close to that seen in the comic which has made her "very body-conscious". Her transformations into diamond form will be entirely done by computer graphics.

-Producer Charles Roven says the goal is for Kathryn Bigelow's Triple Frontier to begin shooting around mid-March or April.. And also says that  Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises will NOT crossover with Zack Snyder’s Superman: Man of Steel

-Natalie Portman says that she expects to have a small role in the upcoming  Cloud Atlas adaptation, but deets are still being worked out

-A Brazilian trailer for J.J. Abrams's Super 8 indicates that the film may have a new title  "Darlings"  via MovieWeb

-Producer Scott Rudin says they're "pretty close" to signing a major director for the 3D movie version of  Cleopatra  with Angelina Jolie

-Joe Carnahan has received a green light to start production on his original screenplay The Grey.with his A-Team leading man Liam Neeson, reports Deadline. The story deals with rough neck oil-riggers in Alaska who are flying back to civilization when their plane goes down somewhere in the frozen tundra. As the group struggles to survive, they find themselves hunted by a pack of rogue wolves.Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Nonso Anozie, and Joe Anderson also star

-Night at the Museum" writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant a "The Wee McGinty" says Deadline.The story revolves around a wish-granting Leprechaun who loses his memory and decides to join the local firefighting squad. He is soon in danger of being discovered by other Leprechauns who will ostracize him forever. The pair will re-write Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin's pre-existing script while Garant will direct. Lennon will play a major supporting character in the pic

- Barbra Streisand is in negotiations to star in a new film adaptation of the Broadway musical - Gypsy reports The New York Times.

-Sam Rockwell has officially joined the cast of the comedy crime caper "Cogan's Trade" says Deadline."The Assassination of Jesse James" star Brad Pitt and writer/director Andrew Domini  wil reunite on the pic in which Pit plays a professional enforcer investigating a heist which takes place during a mob-run high stakes poker game. Josh Brolin, Bill Murray, Casey Affleck, Zoe Saldana and Mark Ruffalo are rumored but none are yet confirmed to co star.

-Ron Perlman tells The Examiner that he only has ten minutes of screen time in Marcus Nispel's Conan the Barbarian reboot as the father of the teenage version of Conan Leo Howard) in the pics early sequences. "I can’t tell everything, but the first sequence is huge. It’s epic. All I can tell you is that I work with the Conan who’s 11 years old. And there’s a jump cut to Conan the adult, and I’m no longer on the scene. I don’t want to give away anything" says Perlman who didn't get to work with Jason Momoa who plays the adult version of Conan.Perlman also spoke to io9 about At The Mountains Of Madness and a third  Hellboy flick

-Four new names have been linked to "Wrath of the Titans", the upcoming sequel to last year's "Clash of the Titans" redo reports The Wrap. Edgar Ramirez is in negotiations to play the God of War Ares, Toby Kebbell has been offered the role of Agenor . Bill Nighy is being courted to play Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the Gods, and Hayley Atwell iwould take over the role of Princess Andromeda which Alexa Davalos played in the original. Georgina Haig, Janet Montgomery, Dominique McElligott  are also being considered Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson are all set to return for the Jonathan Liebesman-directed sequel which will go into production shortly for release March 2012.

-Ricky Gervais will lend his voice to the character of Mole in the upcoming live-action/animatronic hybrid "The Wind in the Willows" reports Variety.The story follows "the anthropomorphised Mole as he ventures out from his underground home for the first time and encounters many a strange creature, including the water-loving Rat; the knowledgeable but curmudgeonly Badger; and the rich, jovial, but utterly foolish Toad."

-Eminem AKA Marshall Mathers is attached to star in the crime thriller "Random Acts of Violence"  reports Vulture. The rapper-turned-actor would play an ex-con caught between his former gang and the FBI, who want him to become an informant.

-Elle Fanning (Somewhere), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) and Omari Hardwick (Kick-Ass) have joined indie drama Pure Life. says The Playlist. The story follows 13-year-old Maya Donovan (Fanning), who desperately wants a romance like the kind in the Brat Pack movies. Mired in poverty with her brutally hard-working and short-tempered mother Trisch (Farmiga), Maya goes looking for a teen romance and finds a bad boy she deems worthy of taking her virginity. Van Fischer (Neo Ned) will direct from a script by Melora Donoghue (Abundant Sunshine).

-Johnny Knoxville, Andy Samberg and Shane Jacobson are on the shortlist to play Moe, Larry and Curly in Peter & Bobby Farrelly stalled Three Stooges film says  The Wrap

-Nicolas Cage says the origin elements of his Johnny Blaze character in the upcoming sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be completely fresh

-Johnny Depp says "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." will be a lot less confusing than Dead Man's Chest and  At World's End - "more character driven... more subject driven. It has a freshness... less mathematics" via Ace Of Showbiz

-Francis Ford Coppola's upcoming Twixt Now and Sunrise has a brief dramatic segment that uses 3-D to "serve the story" rather than as a gimmick Say What?. It will be the only sequence in the film in 3-D.via Bleeding Cool

-Sienna Miller has joined the ensemble cast of producer/director Garry Marshall's upcoming feature comedy "New Year's Eve" says Variety. Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vergara, Jessica Biel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Halle Berry and Zac Efron also star.

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