Her marriage to Guy Ritchie probably made Madonna think that she can direct a movie too. According to Variety, Madonna is going to direct W.E., a biopic that will revolve around the affair between King Edward VIII and the American widow Wallis Simpson.

Up in The Air’s Vera Farmiga is in talks to play Simpson’s role. The actor who will play the part of King Edward is yet to be determined.

King Edward and Wallis Simpson’s affair caused quite a stir in the 1930s, and many consider it a great love story for a king to step down from his throne in order to marry the woman he loves.

Aside from directing, Madonna will also write the script Alex Keshishian.

Apparently, two pivotal events in the book will not be shown in the movie adaptation. One is the battle that takes place inside Hogwarts, and the other is Dumbledore’s funeral.

According to producer David Heyman, the battle was deliberately left out because they didn’t want a repetition of a key event. In the seventh book, there is also a battle inside the school grounds and they feel that this is the more important event. The funeral scene on the other hand, was left out because the film team felt that the ending they had thought up for the movie is the right one.

What do you guys think? A wise move or a catastrophic omission?

The movie is about the 1968 riots of the Democratic convention and its aftermath. This will be Stiller’s first time to direct a drama. He has been a very successful director of comedies like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. But he does have the eye for making movies of a different bent as he has also directed the Gen-X movie Reality Bites and the dark comedy The Cable Guy. He also starred in the drama Permanent Midnight.

Del Toro’s imagination is just so out of this world wild that anything he puts his opinions on will get a lot of mileage among film buffs, sci-fi/fantasy geeks and even the general media. During the Hellboy II premiere, Del Toro was asked about his vision for the Frankenstein film that he plans on doing. And he dropped the bomb, so to speak.

Del Toro wants Doug Jones to play Frankenstein’s monster.

Jones has been a perennial Del Toro performer, having worked for him as early as Mimic. He currently plays Abe Sapien in the Hellboy series. Del Toro justifies his choice, saying that he has always related to the Berni Wrightson version of the Frankenstein monster–”lanky, long and gorgeous in a tragic way.” He feels that Jones has those same qualities and will do a great job as the monster.

He declined to give his choice for Dr. Frankenstein though, adding that if he did, people will know what he plans to do.

Eccleston is set to play the role of Fred Noonan, who was Earhart’s navigator and was the other person who disappeared along with her when she attempted to circumnavigate the world.

Eccleston will be joining Richard Gere, Virgina Madsen, Mia Wasikowski and Ewan McGregor. This is the first movie of McGregor and Eccleston together after appearing in Christopher Doyle’s Shallow Graves.

Yes, the NC-17 rated crime classic directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Harvey Keitel is going to be remade and it is going to star Nicolas Cage. I have no idea what made them think that a film as perfect as the original movie should even be considered for a remake. Keitel was awesome as the depraved NY policeman. He completely owned that role and I don’t see anyone else doing his role justice.

One thing that has at least stopped me from completely freaking out is that Werner Herzog is going to direct the remake. But Nic Cage? Is he even willing to go full frontal or even masturbate just like Keitel did?

Connor Cruise, the adopted son of both Tom and Nicole Kidman, has finished filming for his non-speaking part in the dramatic vehicle Seven Pounds. Connor, who is 13 years old, plays the young Will Smith. The movie is still being shot with The Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino, helming this one, too. Rosario Dawson costars in the movie. The movie tells the story of a man who has somehow affected the lives of seven people.

Barnett is going to be relied on to help kick WWE Films into overdrive as it announced that it will start producing a minimum of one theatrical release and four straight-to-DVD movies annually. Mr. Kennedy Ken Anderson is going to be the latest WWE superstar to make the transition to movies as he prepares to star in Behind Enemy Lines 3: Colombia. Other projects in the works include John Cena’s new movie 12 Rounds, which will be directed by Rene Harlin.

That’s why I’m anticipating the release of Superhero Movie — another spoof that follows in the tradition of the Scary Movie franchise. Heck, they even have some of the former Scary Movie stars in this installment like Simon Rex, Craig Bierko, and Regina Hall. I’ve been hearing though that this installment has moved away from the Zucker school of movie spoofs by incorporating numerous unrelated gags a la Meet The Spartans or Epic Movie, both of which suck. I hope that this is not true though.

Anyway, we’ll find out in a couple of weeks when the movie is finally shown in theaters.

Warner decided to cancel the project a month ago mainly because of the writers’ strike. The studio has said that they do not want to go on with the project until the writers had another run through of the script. The writers for the Justice League project are Kieran and Michele Mulroney. The cancellation has also resulted in the cast options to end and expire. The writers are now expected to be back in the studio in the next couple of weeks to run through the script once again. The actors have now been advised to continue training for their respective roles. Adam Brody has been locked in for the Flash role with Common getting the Green Lantern part. Lesser known actors will inhabit the Batman (Armie Hammer Jr.) and Wonder Woman (Megan Gale) roles.

I hope that this new Justice League project will be a quality release from Warner especially since the company plans for this movie to be the launching pad for spin-off superhero projects.

Red hot director/creative genius JJ Abrams is generating a lot of interest for his projects. First up is his top secret film that is just known as Cloverfield (the name of his production outfit). This purported monster movie is getting a lot of attention because of the veil of secrecy surrounding it.

But probably the most anticipated project from JJ Abrams is his retooling of the Star Trek mythos through a new movie that is set during the early years of the Capt. Kirk command. Yes folks, it’s Capt. Kirk as a greenhorn.

A lot of actors are being cast left and right and are getting their equal share of attention from the press and from legions of Trekkies. Chris Pine has been cast as Capt. Kirk, Karl urban as McCoy and Simon Pegg as Scottie. Eric Bana has also been confirmed as the villain.

Now, you can add Winona Ryder to that list as she has recently been cast as the mother of Spock. For those who are still unfamiliar with Trek lore, Spock is the offspring of a Vulcan father and a human mother. This really turning out to be a great reboot of Star Trek. Let’s see if Ryder can pull her role off and if Abrams will follow established Trek canon or if he will really re-envision Star Trek for the new millennium.

UK, November 9, 2007 – Another day, another Star Trek casting story. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that Bruce Greenwood has landed the role of Captain Pike, we’ve heard today that Winona Ryder has joined the production and is set to play… wait for it… Spock’s mother!

Didn’t see that one coming? Variety broke the news about Ryder’s casting. Spock is the offspring of a Vulcan father, Sarek, and a human mother named Amanda Grayson. The casting of Sarek has not been revealed yet.

Ryder made her name in the ’90s with roles in Edward Scissorhands, Dracula and Scorsese’s Age of Innocence.