Category Archives: Movie Gossip

Hilary Swank is to play a femme fatale in The Black Dahlia, according to Variety.

The feature, helmed by Brian De Palma, revolves around two boxers-turned-cops investigating the brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, a crime that rocked 1940s Los Angeles. Swank’s character is a dead ringer for the victim who became known as the Black Dahlia and proves a dangerous seductress to the cops.

Swank joins Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johansson in the drama. “This has shaped up to be a strong young cast with material and themes that play to Brian’s strengths,” said producer Art Linson. Shooting starts April 4 in Bulgaria.

‘The O.C.’ star Mischa Barton is in talks to join the cast of Dino De Laurentiis’ adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century literary classic The Decameron, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Barton would play Pampinea in the period piece about a group of young Florentines who take refuge in the Italian countryside, amusing one another with stories of love and adventure, as the black plague devastates the city.

The film is expected to shoot next year in Florence and Rome, with David Leland at the helm.

Director Matthew Vaughn is in talks to helm Warner Bros. Pictures big-screen adaptation of the classic TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., says the Hollywood Reporter.

The series, which ran on NBC from 1964-68, featured the espionage adventures of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, agents of United Network Command for Law Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.) who fight the forces of T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity).

Jennifer Lopez is said to have taken a substantial pay cut in order to play her new role as a down-on-her-luck mum in Miramax’s An Unfinished Life.

Past poor film performances with films such as Gigli and Jersey Girl are thought to be the reasons for Lopez’s usual salary of $12 million dropping to $4 million, according the New York Daily News.

“She felt the role would prove she could act,” a source told the paper.