Up-n-coming, 3/22.

Kung Fu Cult Cinema has news of Pen-ek Ratanaruang's next project. Fortissimo co-chief Wouter Barendrecht describes Ploy, set in a hotel, as "intimate yet provocative." Lalita Panyopas and Ananda Everingham are on board, and Anthony Kaufman passes along word from Screen that the film may join "a rumored selection of Asian cinema that promises to be the strongest in years" in Cannes.

Updated.

"George Clooney's plans to bring John Grisham's nonfiction book The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town to the big screen are moving ahead with indie filmmaker David Gordon Green in final negotiations to write and direct the movie." Gregg Goldstein for the Hollywood Reporter.

Steven Zeitchik: "Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the team behind Half Nelson, will write and direct a pic about Dominican baseball." Also in Variety: "Emily Blunt, who made waves Stateside with her performance in The Devil Wears Prada, is set to star in The Young Victoria. Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group and Martin Scorsese are producing." Paul McClintock reports.

A casting update from Erik Davis at Cinematical: Barry Levinson will direct Robert De Niro, Catherine Keener, Robin Wright Penn, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro and Kristen Stewart in an adaptation of Art Linson's memoir, What Just Happened?.

"After the success of The Queen, it was probably inevitable," writes Duncan Campbell. "Thatcher - The Movie is under way." Michael White and Natalie Hanman comment.

Also in the Guardian: Tom Cruise and United Artists might distribute Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth: "If indeed the studio buys the film, it would be a neat reversal of roles for Cruise and Coppola: the Godfather director hired Cruise for a tiny part in his 1983 film The Outsiders." Nope! See update below.

Alison Willmore has more - and more! - news of what's up-n-coming at the IFC Blog.

Update: Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North American rights to Youth Without Youth.

Posted by dwhudson at March 22, 2007 3:28 PM