Crowe Makes Himself at Home in a Zoo: Cameron Crowe is heading back to the director’s chair for the first time since 2005’s Elizabethtown with We Bought a Zoo, an adaptation of Benjamin Mee’s memoir, “We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals that Changed Their Lives Forever” telling the story of a family who move into a rundown zoo. Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) penned the first draft, which Crowe is now rewriting with the film already set for a December 23, 2011 release date from 20th Century Fox. [Variety]
Fox Preps Their Own 20,000 Leagues: With news David Fincher is set to direct a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea just last week, 20th Century Fox has thrown their hat in the ring as well with news Ridley and Tony Scott are set to put into production their own remake under the Scott Free banner. Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) is penning the script with the possibility Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) will direct. The difference between the two is Fox’s may be set in the future while still following the book’s narrative. [Heat Vision]
Brody Makes for Woody’s Paris: Adrien Brody has joined the ensemble cast of Woody Allen’s next film Midnight in Paris, a romantic comedy about a family traveling to the French capital for business. The party includes a young engaged couple forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better. Brody joins previously cast Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston, Kurt Fuller and France’s first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Production is set to begin in France this summer. [THR]
McGregor Joins Gilliam’s Quixote Project: The long defunct The Man Who Killed Don Quixote project Terry Gilliam has been looking to direct for about the last ten years and perhaps even longer appears to finally be getting underway. Originally Johnny Depp was set to star, but instead Ewan McGregor will be stepping into the role of a filmmaker (McGregor) who is charmed into joining Don Quixote’s (Robert Duvall) eternal quest for his ladylove, becoming an unwitting Sancho Panza. Gilliam is planning a September start date. [Empire]
Perelman To Direct Hopkins and Hoffman in Song: Vadim Perelman directed House of Sand and Fog and then poof, he pretty much disappeared with a little seen film in 2007 and that’s about it. Now he’s set to direct The Song of Names, an adaptation of Norman Lebrecht’s novel of the same name with Anthony Hopkins and Dustin Hoffman attached to star. Jeffrey Caine (The Constant Gardener) is adapting the novel for the screen, which tells the story of the story of two Jewish boys — the Brit Martin and Dovidl, a Polish refugee and violin prodigy. Dovidl vanishes on the eve of his international debut. 40 years later, Martin gets his first clue about what happened to him and begins to unravel the mystery. [THR]
Pirates 4 Will be Shot in 3D: Walt Disney Pictures has revealed that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will be filmed in Disney Digital 3D. Rob Marshall (Nine) is directing for a May 20, 2011 release.
Saldana Eyes Colombiana: Zoe Saldana is in early negotiations for a role in Olivier Megaton’s Colombiana, a drama to be produced by Luc Besson set in Latin America and the U.S. Saldana would play a young woman who, after witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to her ultimate target: the mobster responsible for her parents’ death. Besson and Robert Mark Kamen wrote the script. [Heat Vision]
Wayne McClammy Negotiating to Direct Fisher in Desperadoes: Wayne McClammy’s claim to fame is directing the “Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel” shorts “I’m F**king Matt Damon” and “I’m F**king Ben Affleck” and now he’s negotiating to direct Desperadoes at Universal with Isla Fisher expected to star. The film was listed on the 2009 Black List and centers on Wesley Robbins, a 30-something single attorney who thinks she’s found the perfect man. However, after sending an indignant email to her new beau, who has gone silent after they have sex, she discovers he’s comatose in a Mexican hospital. Panicking, she races south of the border with her friends in tow to intercept the email before he recovers. [THR]
