• Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett are attached to Skinny and Cat, which would be Barbra Streisand‘s first film as a director since 1996′s The Mirror Has Two Faces. Scripted by producer Linda Yellen, the film would trace the real-life romance between writer Erskine Caldwell (Firth) and photojournalist Margaret Bourke White (Blanchett). EW had confirmed the film is in active development, but financing has yet to be fully secured, and the film does not yet have a greenlight. [L.A. Times/Showbiz 411]
• Type casting alert. Charlie Sheen will play the President of the United States in director Robert Rodriguez‘s exploitation thriller sequel, Machete Kills, Rodriguez announced Thursday on Twitter. The film will follow ex-Mexican Federale Machete (Danny Trejo) as he takes on a drug cartel for the U.S. government. Mel Gibson, Jessica Alba, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, and Zoe Saldana costar. [@Rodriguez]
• Reese Witherspoon is an alien! Specifically, a Venusian. The actress is attached to a feature adaptation of Dr. John Gray’s mega-bestseller Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Commercial director Bryan Buckley will make his feature directing debut with the film, which was adapted by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (Leap Year, Made of Honor). [Deadline]
• Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry, and Amanda Peet have joined The Way, Way Back, the coming-of-age dramedy penned by recent Oscar winners Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (The Descendants). The pair will also make their directorial debut with the project, as well as star in two small supporting roles. The cast also includes Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, and Liam James (AMC’s The Killing), in the lead role of a teenager who spends a summer at a local water park. [Deadline]
• Max Minghella (The Social Network) is in preliminary talks to star opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in director Shawn Levy‘s comedy The Internship. Minghella would play an ambitious intern who squares off against Vaughn and Wilson, playing has-been salesmen who try to reboot their careers by taking internships at a technology company. [Variety]
• Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), Michael Gladis (AMC’s Mad Men) and Matt Letscher (ABC’s Scandal) have all signed onto the West Memphis Three film Devil’s Knot. Greenwood will play the presiding judge in the case that controversially sent three Arkansas teenagers to jail for the murder of three young boys; Gladis and Letscher would play defense attorneys in the case. Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) is directing. [THR, Deadline]
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