Eastwood Eyes Hoover, Da Vinci Knows Action and Several Release Date Updates

Eastwood Eyes J. Edgar Hoover Project: One of this year’s sure-fire Oscar contenders is Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter, merely because the name Eastwood is attached as director, and now we learn his next film is a biopic of controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. Oscar-winning Milk scripter, Dustin Lance Black, penned the screenplay based on Hoover, who was most recently depicted by Billy Crudup in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies.

Hoover was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935 and turned it into an efficient crime-fighting organization. He remained its director until his death in 1972, but his sculpted persona was already coming apart at the seams; he employed the FBI to harass political activists and used illegal methods to make secret files on leaders. Many biographies also assert the man was a closeted homosexual and cross-dresser. Speculation has it ending up at Warner Bros. for distribution. Looking at that picture of Hoover above, I must say, Toby Jones seems like the obvious choice to take on the role. [THR]

Martin is Having a Big Year: Steve Martin, fresh off his Oscar gig, is set to star opposite Jack Black and Owen Wilson in The Big Year for David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada). Howard Franklin penned the script adaptation of Mark Obmascik’s 1998 book “The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession” following three men who try to outdo each other in a bird-watching competition to spot the rarest birds in North America. The rivalry is an allegory for the challenges each faces in his own life. Martin is replacing Dustin Hoffman. [THR]

Da Vinci’s Code Now Spells Action-Adventure: Leonardo Da Vinci’s work was center stage for a few years there with the success of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code,” but now more than just his paintings will be the source of entertainment as Warner Bros. is setting up an action-adventure in which Da Vinci is the hero. The studio has picked up Leonardo da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever from producer Adrian Askarieh, who is teaming with Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Doug Davison. The project is said to be a cross between National Treasure and Raiders of the Lost Ark by way of Clash of the Titans and re-imagines Da Vinci as a member of a secret society who falls headlong into a supernatural adventure that pits the man against Biblical demons in a story involving secret codes, lost civilizations, hidden fortresses and fallen angels. The story is out to scripters now, but I can see this falling in Akiva Goldsman’s hands easily. [Heat Vision]

Fiennes’s Directorial Debut Begins March 17: Ralph Fiennes will make his feature film directing debut with Coriolanus, a modern day adaptation of Shakespere’s play with Fiennes starring as the Roman general Coriolanus with a script from John Logan (Gladiator). The story serves as Shakespeare’s study of how power corrupts. Coriolanus, who returns from war and is urged by his mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) to run for consul, but his ambition leads to his downfall. The cast includes Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, James Nesbitt, John Kani, Paul Jesson, Ashraf Barhom, Jessica Chastain, Slavko Stimac, Dragan Micanovic, Svetislav Goncic and Danijela Vranjes. Filming begins in Belgrade on March 17. [Screen Daily]

Wall Street 2 and Others Do the Release Date Shuffle: 20th Century Fox has moved Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps from its from April 23 release to September 24 with the expectation the film will debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Fox also moved the Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz-starrer Knight and Day to June 25 and ComingSoon reports they have also greenlit Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D for a December 16, 2011 release. On top of this news Disney will release Mars Needs Moms! on March 11, 2011 and First Independent will release Holy Rollers on May 21, 2010.

Additional release dates are as follows: