Assault on Precinct 13: "Maria Bello and John Leguizamo are circling roles in "Assault on Precinct 13," the Focus Features remake of John Carpenter's 1976 thriller. Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne star. "Sopranos" thesp Drea de Matteo has been added to the cast. Jean-Francois Richet is helming. Filming begins April 4th in Toronto..." (more info).

Lawyerland: "Filmmaker John Walter ("How to Draw a Bunny") is teaming with John Malkovich's production company Mr. Mudd on an adaptation of Lawrence Joseph's novel "Lawyerland," which Walter will write and direct. Published in 1997, the novel --often mistaken for nonfiction -- chronicles Manhattan lawyers and lawyer-speak in the late 1990s..." (more info).

River King: "Nick Willing's "River King," starring Ed Burns, has been rescued by U.K. film financier Movision and will start shooting March 16 in Nova Scotia. Directed by Willing and adapted by David Kane from Alice Hoffman's novel, the supernatural thriller concerns a small-town cop probing a suicide at a posh kids school. Jennifer Ehle also stars..." (more info).

Spanglish: " With Anne Bancroft ("The Miracle Worker") out of "Spanglish" due to surgery, Cloris Leachman ("The Last Picture Show") takes over the role of Tea Leoni's mother in the Columbia comedy. The pic's directed by (Oscar winner) James L. Brooks..." (more info).

The Da Vinci Legacy: "Mark Burnett has found God. The unscripted guru has optioned the rights to "The Da Vinci Legacy" and "Daughter of God," a pair of novels from scribe Lewis Perdue that explore the connections between the art world and Christian theology. Burnett -- who has been looking to move into the feature world -- snapped up the books with an eye on developing them as features..." (more info).


Chaos: "Wesley Snipes, Ryan Phillippe, Jason Statham and Justine Waddell are teaming to star in the Tony Gigolo-directed action thriller starting next week in Vancouver. The story follows a rookie and veteran cop, played by Phillippe and Statham, respectively, in pursuit of bank robber (Snipes) who knows too much about the inner workings of the police department..." (more info).

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: "Corbin Bernsen has been cast in the Shane Black-directed action vehicle. "Kiss" is the tale of a thief who poses as an actor and then teams up with a private eye and a frustrated actress to solve a murder. Bernsen will play an actor-turned-entrepreneur who may know more about the murder than he lets on..." (more info).

Paramount Slate: "Entertainment giant Viacom Inc. is changing the release strategy at its Paramount film studio to allow for more expensive and riskier productions, chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone said Monday..." (more info).

The Fast & The Furious III: "Universal, which will release Diesel starrer "The Chronicles of Riddick" on June 11, has begun to rev up the "Fast" team by hiring Chris Morgan to pen a script that would accommodate Diesel's return to the street-racing franchise. The studio said no deal is in place with the actor, adding that it is "looking to bring back certain elements from the first two films..." (more info).

Adam Sandler's Next: SF Chronicle reports that Zhang Ziyi ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") has been announced as Adam Sandler's co- star in a film to be directed by Wayne Wang. Zhang's character is to be a mail-order bride.

Back to Gaya: Pics from the first fully CG animated German film are up at MySan.

Bond 21: Work began on the script a fortnight ago, see Empire Online for more.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory: This is York reports that the Tim Burton film might actually be using a real chocolate factory for the fiiming of the Depp/Burton Willy Wonka adaptation. The Nestle-Rowntree factory in York, England, which is still a working factory, has apparently been approached by Warners with the possibility of some location shooting.

Chronicles of Riddick: Details of the anime DVD prequel are up at Amazon.

Doctor Who: The BBC reports that the writers behind "The League of Gentlemen" and "Coupling" are joining the team working on the new series of Doctor Who, producing scripts for the 13-part series for BBC One. Filming starts in Cardiff this Spring, for transmission in 2005.

Dukes of Hazzard: Jessica Simpson talked more about her involvement to MTV.

DVD News: Details are up for Miracle, Love Actually & You Got Served.

I Am Legend: Mathieu Kassovitz ("Gothika") would like to direct a movie based on the famous Matheson novel, though much will depend upon the legal issues.

King Kong: An image of a large ship currently docked in Wellington that's rumored to be used in a 'spectacular explosion' during the film is up at The One Ring.

Mission: Impossible III: Phillip Seymour Hoffman has the offer to play the villian 'Vanning' though it's all dependent on scheduling and the script. On the former, there's no schedule, just a general idea of beginning in July. On the later - it's STILL being written.

MI5 (aka. Spooks): Daytime actress Olga Sosnovska of ABC's "All My Children" will replace Keeley Hawes as the new female lead in the third season.

Schindler's List (DVD): Steven Spielberg talks about today's special edition disc release at DVD Fanatic.

Spartan: Six clips from the Val Kilmer thriller are up at CineMovies.

Star Wars: Episode III: A look at the evil Anakin is now up at The Movie Box.

Thunderbirds: Heaps of new pics from the big-budget sci-fi film are up at Japanese site.

TV Animated News: Warners will bring the animated "Batman", "Teen Titans" and "Superman" shows to DVD in season box-sets, whilst descriptions for all of the last 10 chapters of "Star Wars: Clone Wars" are up at ToonZone.

Thanks to 'The Butler is In', 'yakobusan', 'Will', 'Leslie', 'George', 'Chele', 'Underwear', 'Greg C.', 'Lisa', 'Antoine', 'Richard', 'Xoanon' & 'Nuanda'