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Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock can easily be two of the most bankable actors in the Hollywood business, with several well-acclaimed movies. But other than that, they also share a very beautiful, decades-long friendship. The duo crossed each other’s paths while working on the 1994 release Speed and have been friends ever since.

They also collaborated for a second time in the 2006 movie The Lake House, and fans wondered if there was something more to this friendship. Not so surprisingly, their camaraderie could have turned into something more in the midst of the movie, but the timing was just not right.

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in The Lake House | Credits: Warner Bros. Pictures

So, they focused on being friends instead and are now, after several years, closer than ever. In this article, we will take a deeper look at the movies that they starred in together and what they...

Madrid-based sales outlet Latido Films has unveiled sales on key titles from its European Film Market and Malaga Film Festival (March 1-10) slates.

Beginning with films in pre-production, Jim Sheridan and David Merriman’s true crime courtroom docu-drama Re-creation starring Vicky Krieps has secured pre-sales for Greece (Spentzos) and Portugal (Outsider). The film sees a fictional jury assess the real-life unsolved murder of French TV producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who was found dead at her Ireland holiday home in 1996.

Spy thriller Raqqa from Oscar-winning producer-director Gerardo Herrero has pre-sold to the Middle East (Empire). Herrero’s previous feature, Under Therapy,...

‘Charming’, ‘Lovers Fare Goodbye’, ‘Memories Of A Burning Body’ win big at Buenos Aires market.

The 15th edition of Ventana Sur wrapped over the weekend with record attendance of more than 3,500 as prizes were handed out and deals concluded. However there was concern over the future of market co-host Incaa following inflammatory comments about public arts funding by incoming Argentinian president Javier Milei.

The president-elect, a fan of firebrand second term US presidential hopeful Donald Trump and ousted Brazilian premier Jair Bolsonaro, takes office next week (December 10) and has promised to undo decades of stagnation.

President-elect alarms industry

Milei has...

Buenos Aires — In one of the first deals to close at this week’s Ventana Sur market, Spain’s Latido Films has boarded “Lo Que Quisimos Ser,” written-directed by Alejandro Agresti, produced by Fernando Sokolowicz at Aleph Media, and Gastón Duprat, who have teamed as producer and co-writer-director on “The Distinguished Citizen,” “The Man Next Door,” and “The Artist.”

“Lo Que Quisimos Ser” marks the latest film from Agresti, one of Argentina’s most international talents best known for a Hollywood sojourn which saw him directing Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in “The Lake House” and writing Argentina-set, English-language “No somos animales,” with John Cusack.

Of his Argentine film, “Valentín” weighs in as a big-hearted coming of age tale of a cross-eyed and very lonely young kid. “Lo Que Quisimos Ser” also looks to wear its heart on its sleeve with a story of two characters who like in many...

Breaking through at 50 miles per hour, Sandra Bullock hasn’t slowed down since “Speed.” Although the veteran performer’s first acting credit belongs to a minor part in the 1987 thriller “Hangmen” (which she’d follow up with a handful of straight-to-video releases and TV projects), Bullock didn’t become a household name among movie lovers until the mid ’90s.

After dazzling audiences and the box office as bus-jumping hero Annie Porter in the 1994 smash hit “Speed” opposite Keanu Reeves, Bullock was regularly cast in action-packed suspense flicks and lighter rom-com fare. She’d lead in both Jon Turteltaub’s charming romance “While You Were Sleeping” and Irwin Winkler’s cybercrime thriller “The Net” in 1995. The following year, she’d star in rom-com “Two If By Sea,” legal drama “A Time to Kill,” and historical novel adaption “In Love and War.” Of course, the future two-time Academy Award nominee (one time winner) was just getting started.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSFilmmaker Bertrand Mandico has illustrated the 70th anniversary cover of Cahier du Cinéma, entitled "Gloria, angel of the history of the cinema." The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the lineup for the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films. Screenings will take place from April 28-May 8 through the MoMA and Flc virtual cinemas, and in-person screenings at Flc through May 13. The lineup of 27 features and 11 shorts includes Theo Anthony's All Light, Everywhere, Andreas Fontana's Azor, Alice Diop's We (Nous), and Jane Schoenbrun's We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Recommended VIEWINGAnother Gaze's free streaming project, Another Screen, has announced two new programmes: Hands Tied, about hands, and Eating the Other, about gendered notions of eating. The first official trailer for Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, which...

Mubi's retrospective New Argentine Cinema is playing from August 7 - September 28, 2017 in most countries around the world. La CiénagaBeginning in the mid-1990s, young directors, the majority of whom had graduated from one of many film schools in Argentina, began producing low-budget, independent films in a style that earned this group the classification of the New Independent Argentine Cinema.Part of this upsurge had to do with a small grants program that was initiated by the National Film Institute (Incaa) in the mid-1990s. These recent graduates have made short films (cortometrajes), and then have gone on to raise funds through co-production funding (Hubert Bals Fund at the Rotterdam film festival, the Visions Sud Est program from Switzerland, among others). They have relied on their own networks of like-minded young people rather than depend on the traditional film sector structure (the film union, established director’s associations, and the few...

Exclusive: Dutch producer to resume his long-standing relationship with Peter Greenaway.

Dutch producer Kees Kasander is to resume his long-standing relationship with British director Peter Greenaway – and they already have several new projects together in the pipeline.

Greenaway’s current production - Eisenstein in Guanajuato (sold by Rezo) - is the first film he has made without Kasander for many years. With Kasander unavailable, it was produced instead by fellow Dutch producers Femke Wolting and Bruno Felix of Submarine alongside Cristina Velasco.

Now, Kasander and Greenaway are back in business together and already looking a long way ahead with 15 projects together.

The next film they are making together is Walking To Paris, a biopic about artist Constantin Brancusi. When he was a young man, Brancusi walked all the way from Romania to Paris. Stealth are in talks to handle international sales. The aim is to start shooting in the autumn.

Kasander is producing...

Exclusive: Dutch producer to resume his long-standing relationship with Peter Greenaway.

Dutch producer Kees Kasander is to resume his long-standing relationship with British director Peter Greenaway – and they already have several new projects together in the pipeline.

Greenaway’s current production - Eisenstein in Guanajuato (sold by Rezo) - is the first film he has made without Kasander for many years. With Kasander unavailable, it was produced instead by fellow Dutch producers Femke Wolting and Bruno Felix of Submarine alongside Cristina Velasco.

Now, Kasander and Greenaway are back in business together and already looking a long way ahead with 15 projects together.

The next film they are making together is Walking To Paris, a biopic about artist Constantin Brancusi. When he was a young man, Brancusi walked all the way from Romania to Paris. Stealth are in talks to handle international sales. The aim is to start shooting in the autumn.

Kasander is producing...

Wildly successful Italian producer Pietro Valsecchi says he's eager for Antonio Banderas to star in biopic about the pontiff's younger years

Antonio Banderas is being tapped by one of Italy's most successful film producers to star as a young Pope Francis in a new biopic.

Pietro Valsecchi, the man behind popular comedies Sun in Buckets (Sole a catinelle) from this year and What a Beautiful Day (Che bella giornata) from 2011, broke the news in a television interview. The proposed film would most likely debut on the small screen in Italy.

Valsecchi's popular films, which star musician and standup comic Checco Zalone and are often directed by Gennaro Nunziante, are lowbrow comedies. But the producer certainly has the financial clout to get the biopic made, with his last two movies currently standing as the highest grossing films of all time in Italy, ahead of Roberto Benigni's 1997 Oscar winner Life is Beautiful.

The Pope will be the subject of two upcoming films.

The Argentinian and German movies will cover different periods in Pope Francis I's life, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Writer and director Alejandro Agresti's film - tentatively called Historia de un Cura (History of a Priest) - will centre around the future pontiff's life as a young man in Argentina.

The Motorcycle Diaries star Rodrigo de la Serna is reported to be playing Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the man who would become Pope Benedict XVI's successor.

Meanwhile, German writer and producer Christian Peschken is working on a $34 million (£21 million) production under the working title Friend of the Poor.

Agresti is best known in English language cinema for the 2006 Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves-starring romantic drama The Lake House.

Rome -- Pope Francis, the wildly popular pontiff who became the spiritual leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics six months ago after stunning retirement of Benedict XVI, is the subject of at least two major motion pictures, Italian newspapers said Thursday. Writer and director Alejandro Agresti, from Francis' native Argentina, is reported to be at work on a film tentatively called Historia de un cura (History of a Priest). It purportedly features actor Rodrigo de la Serna -- best known for his role opposite Gael Garcia Bernal in Walter Salles' Ernest "Che" Guevara 2004 biopic The Motorcycle Diaries -- playing a

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Pope Francis I has transformed into a media darling since becoming pontiff earlier this year, gaining both praise and criticism for his outspokenness about a number of issues facing the Catholic Church. But now His Holiness is set to play an entirely different role: biopic subject.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that there are currently two films in production that center around the life of Pope Francis. One, out of the pope's native Argentina, will focus on his life as a young priest, when he was still known by his birth name, Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The movie, written and directed by Alejandro Agresti ("The Lake House"), will be called "Historia de un cura" ("History of a Priest"), and star Rodrigo de la Serna ("The Motorcycle Diaries") as the young Bergoglio.

Meanwhile, in Germany, writer and producer Christian Peschken is working on a $34 million feature about Pope Francis called "Friend of the Poor.

Pontiff set for popcorn treatment as Argentinian director of The Lake House announces biopic starring The Motorcycle Diaries star Rodrigo de la Serna

Argentina's Alejandro Agresti is to bring the life story of Pope Francis to the big screen, reports Variety.

Rodrigo de la Serna, best known for his award-winning role as Che Guevara's travelling companion Alberto Granado in The Motorcycle Diaries, will play the world's first Argentine pope. The film, titled Historia de un cura (A Priest's Tale) will tell the story of the man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio from his youth to his election in March as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Born in 1936 as the grandson of Italian immigrant parents in Buenos Aires, Francis became the first pontiff from the southern Hemisphere and the first of Jesuit origin earlier this year, as well as the first from any Latin American nation. Agresti's movie will tell...

Pope Francis is a man of firsts: the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, the first non-European, the first to be in a selfie, and the first to utilize Twitter, among other things. And all this while only being in power since March. So it's perhaps only fitting that the Holy Father will already get his own biopic, to be filmed in his native Argentina. Alejandro Agresti (The Lake House) is set to direct Historia de un cura (A Priest's Tale), which will follow the man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio from childhood to the papacy ...

We’ve all been fascinated by the newest leader of the Catholic church and with good reason: Pope Francis blesses motorcycles, performs accidental exorcisms, washes women’s feet, and is doing it all with only one lung. The man born Jorge Mario Bergoglio is so exceptional in fact that it was only a matter of time before the film industry got interested. And that time is now: It was announced Sunday at the Venice Film Festival that Argentinian director Alejandro Agresti (The Lake House) will take on the biopic Historia de un cura (A Priest’s Tale), which focuses on the life of Pope Francis from his childhood in Buenos Aires through the election that made him head of the Catholic Church. Rodrigo de la Serna (The Motorcycle Diaries) will play the pontificate.Agresti told Variety: “More than a rapid biopic of key events, I’m more concerned with getting inside this very singular person,...

Here are a few interesting and/or noteworthy projects that were recently added to IMDbPro's database of development titles.

Track Town— Here's an inspiring filmmaking story from down under. Noticing a lack of interesting roles being offered to her, Aussie actress Teresa Palmer is making things happen on her own. The I Am Number Four star will co-write, direct and star in this 1990s road movie she describes as a hybrid of The Wackness and Thelma & Louise.

Untitled Woody Allen Fall Project— Woody Allen's ready to conquer Rome. After leaving the island of Manhattan for European trips to Paris and Barcelona, the iconic New Yorker is reportedly setting his sights on the eternal city as the setting for his next film. Plot is unknown (che sorpresa!) with the script still in its early stages of development.

Dictablanda— John Cusack produces, co-writes and stars in this screwball comedy presumably about a South American dictator. Plot details were kept under wraps. Filming is underway in Argentina with Alejandro Agresti at the helm.

Highwaymen— John Lee Hancock directs this tale of notorious baddies Bonnie & Clyde (as told from the good guys who caught 'em) with a script by Young Guns scribe John Fusco. Casey Silver produces.

The Runner— Finding Neverland's Marc Forster's found Disney and Imagine Entertainment to produce his upcoming sci-fi flick co-created with Dave Andron (FX's Justified). Looking to find its way into all types of different mediums (TVs, cell phones, video games, etc.), the project centers on a group of post-apocalyptic survivors living in the mountains in the year 2027.

If you know of something in the works, you can submit it via our online submission form.

John Cusack will star in the comedy "Dictablanda" ("Soft Dictator").According to Variety, production is underway in Buenos Aires and Mar de Ajo, Argentina.No plot details have been given other than the film is a comedy that finds Cusack's character involved in international mayhem.Pablo Bossi's Pampa Films is producing along with Cusack through his New Crime Productions shingle and entertainment attorney Kevin Morris. Alejandro Agresti ("The Lake House") is directing from a script he co-wrote with Cusack, Morris and Paul Hipp.Hipp also co-stars in the film.Cusack was last seen in the MGM comedy "Hot Tub Time Machine" and recently wrapped James McTeigue's thriller "The Raven," in which he stars as Edgar Allan Poe.

The L.A. Times has the latest on The Expendables 2. It now looks like Sylvester Stallone won't be directing the sequel, but has instead been meeting with other directors about helming it. Ken Kaufman (Space Cowboys) and David Agosto have delivered the script, so it looks like Stallone (who co-wrote the original) won't be taking on that job either. Meanwhile, we're still waiting for plot details and any possible additions to the all-star cast. You may remember Stallone tweeting after the first film opened that he wanted Bruce Willis to return for a larger role as a "super villain."

Vulture reports a bidding war has broken out to bring an adaptation of the 1984 animated series Voltron: Defender of the Universe to the big screen. Conan the Barbarian reboot screenwriters Thoman Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer have been developing a script, with concept art leaking last fall. The report also notes that Voltron Force,...

John Cusack is almost exclusively known for his versatility and effortlessly charming screen-presence, and for possessing a talent which is too rarely the instrument of deserving big-screen material. And yet, he is still seeking that role that would catapult him into the elite bracket of actors, but an aspect of Cusack’s work that is rarely remarked upon has been his screenwriting. Although his most recent script, War Inc, a sprawling political satire, suffered badly both commercially and critically, his broader comedy writing- including credits for High Fidelity and Grosse Point Blank- has been his most successful.

Now Variety say Cusack is once again taking the lead on the page and screen with his latest film Dictablanda.

In spite of a commercially belligerent name- which means “Soft Dictator”- the film is described as a “screwball comedy of manners,” and will be produced in collaboration between Cusack’s own company,...

Variety reportedly said John Cusack’s starring in a new feature called Dictablanda (Soft Dictator), a screwball slapstick comedy of manners including an international conspiracy and intrigue.

Cusack co-wrote the script with entertainment attorney Kevin Morris, as well as actor Paul Hipp (”The Funeral,” “Face/Off”), who will also play in the film, and plus Alejandro Agresti. The latter, Agresti, the Argentine director of Valentin and The Lake House, is helming the lens. Production is already ongoing in Argentina, with sponsorship from local Pampa Films, and will continue through April.

The working title of the movie is “People don’t die, they get killed.”

John Cusack has just preoccupied playing Edgar Allan Poe in a period thriller called The Raven, inspired by the life and mysterious death of a magnificent American poet.

Cusack has been blessed enough to enjoy more than one period of career soaring. He had the top...

John Cusack has signed on to star and produce Dictablanda, ”a screwball comedy of manners which finds the thesp embroiled in international mayhem.” The film has the tagline, "People don't die, they get killed," and will be filmed on location in Buenos Aires and Mar de Ajo, Argentina throughout March and April.

Production is underway already with Pablo Bossi's Pampa Films. Cusack is producing through his New Crime Productions banner, along with prominent entertainment attorney Kevin Morris and Bossi. Alejandro Agresti (The Lake House) is set to direct based on a script he co-wrote with Cusack, Morris and Paul Hipp, who co-stars.

I am looking forward to seeing the recently wrapped James McTeigue's thriller The Raven, in which Cusack stars as Edgar Allan Poe. Cusack also has Mikael Hafstrom's beautiful looking Shanghai awaiting release from The Weinstein Co.

I enjoy just about all films that Cusack stars...

John Cusack (2012, Igor) will star and produce a movie that's a collaboration among his friends. Dictablanda (which means "soft dictator") was written by Cusack, his entertainment attorney Kevin Morris, director Alejandro Agresti (The Lake House) and actor Paul Hipp. Agresti is directing, Hipp is co-starring and Morris is co-producing. Variety describes the project as "a screwball comedy of manners" that finds Cusack's character "embroiled in international mayhem."...

John Cusack is getting a little wacky, starring in the international screwball comedy Dictablanda (meaning ‘Soft Dictator’), which comes with the tagline “People don’t die, they get killed.” Directed by Alejandro Agresti, an Argentinian director who most recently gave us The Lake House, the film starts shooting this month through April in Buenos Aires and Mar de Ajo, Argentina.

The script is written by Cusack, entertainment attorney Kevin Morris (more on that in a minute), Paul Hipp and Agresti as well.

Morris, the lawyer, is also Cusack’s partner in New Crime, the actor’s new production banner. Pablo Bossi is also producing through his Pampa Films. [Variety]

This doesn’t sound too far off from Cusack’s recent passion poly-satire War Inc., which came and went with not so much as a whimper. That said, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Screwball’s been stigmatized these days as archaic,...

Briefly: John Cusack has been lucky enough to enjoy more than one period of career high. He had career spikes in the early '80s and a great run from the mid '90s to 2000. The last decade hasn't produced a High Fidelity, but it had some solid gigs. He keeps working and even taking unexpected roles, such as playing Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven, which is in post-production now. (Strangely, he's also got two unreleased films sitting around: Shanghai and The Factory.) Now to follow The Raven John Cusack has got Dictablanda, which he'll also produce. Variety [1] says the film is " a screwball comedy of manners which finds the thesp embroiled in international mayhem" with a provocative tagline: People don't die, they get killed. That all sounds like a film very much in the Grosse Pointe Blank mode, which is promising. Granted, War, Inc. was also in the...

John Cusack will star in Dictablanda ("Soft Dictator"), a screwball comedy of manners directed by Alejandro Agresti. that finds the actor entangled in international mayhem. Pampa Films has started production on the Dictablanca which Cusack produces via his New Crime Productions alongside Kevin Morris and Pablo Bossi of Pampa Films. Agresti (The Lake House) helms from a script he co-wrote along with Cusack, Morris and Paul Hipp, who's also in a co-starring role in the film. Dictablanca is taglined with "People don't die, they get killed" and is being shot on location in Buenos Aires and Mar de Ajo, Argentina...

John Cusack will star in Dictablanda ("Soft Dictator"), a screwball comedy of manners directed by Alejandro Agresti. that finds the actor entangled in international mayhem. Pampa Films has started production on the Dictablanca which Cusack produces via his New Crime Productions alongside Kevin Morris and Pablo Bossi of Pampa Films. Agresti (The Lake House) helms from a script he co-wrote along with Cusack, Morris and Paul Hipp, who's also in a co-starring role in the film. Dictablanca is taglined with "People don't die, they get killed" and is being shot on location in Buenos Aires and Mar de Ajo, Argentina...

John Cusack is set to star in the screwball comedy of manners "Dictablanda" ("Soft Dictator") for Pampa Films and New Crime Productions reports Variety.

The title is a piece of political terminology used to describe dictatorships with a high regard for civil liberties.

Alejandro Agresti ("The Lake House") directs from a script he co-wrote with Cusack, Morris and Paul Hipp. Cusack, Pablo Bossi and Kevin Morris are producing.

The film is being shot on location in Buenos Aires and Mar de Ajo, Argentina throughout March and April.

John Cusack doesn't always make the greatest movies in the world, but the guy is so incredibly likable that it's even easy to sit through some of the worse ones (*cough*2012*cough*) . That in mind, when Cusack gets something great to work with - like Grosse Pointe Blank or High Fidelity - it becomes something truly special. Dictablanda sounds like it could fall into the latter category. Variety has learned that Cusack has signed on to star in the aforementioned film (which translates from Spanish into "Soft Dictator") that is described as "a screwball comedy of errors." Directed by Alejandro Agresti and based on a script by Agresti, Cusack, Kevin Morris and Paul Hipp, the actor plays a man caught up in an international situation. Hipp, who previously starred with Cusack in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil will co-star. Sold with the tagline "People don't die, they...

Now that he's done Poe'n it up, actor John Cusack is looking to embroil himself in some "international mayhem" in the screwball comedy Dictablanda. Alas, "international mayhem" is all Variety is giving us to go on. The film will be directed by Argentinian filmmaker Alejandro Agresti (The Lake House) from a script he co-wrote with Cusack, prominent entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris (entertainment lawyers are writing films now?), and actor Paul Hipp...

Can you see John Cusack starring in a screwball comedy about a dodgy dictator? The actor clearly can, as he’s signed on for a new film called Dictablanda.The title translates to Soft Dictator and will find Cusack in the lead of what Variety reports will be a comedy of manners about international mayhem.That’s about it for plot details, though the tagline is apparently, “People don’t die, they get killed.” Which makes it sound a little like misfiring 2008 comedy War, Inc. all over again. Though the producers (including Cusack himself) are probably hoping it’ll make a bit more money.Alejandro Agresti, last found directing 2006’s Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock time-twisting romance pic The Lake House, is on to make the movie from a script he wrote with Cusack, Kevin Morris and Paul Hipp, who has snagged one of the supporting roles.Cusack and co are...

John Cusack has been announced as the lead of Dictablanda , a comedy from The Lake House director Alejandro Agresti, Variety reports. Cusack was involved with co-writing the script, alongside Agresti, Kevin Morris and Paul Hipp (who will also appear). The title is a political term used to describe dictatorships with a high regard for civil liberties and is described as being a "screwball comedy of manners." Production on Dictablanda is set to begin immediately, shooting this month and the next in Buenos Aires and Mar de Ajo, Argentina.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing a Polanski film in utter innocence. As the result of a rare set of circumstances, I found myself in the wrong cinema in front of a film which had a very restricted title sequence, so that I knew the title of the film from the beginning, but didn’t learn the director’s name until the end. I had of course heard that Polanski had a new film out, but not feeling particularly interested in the film’s political theme, I had forgotten about it. After the shock of realising that I was in the wrong cinema, I assumed that the film I was about to see was most likely a product of Hollywood: I was sitting in a multiplex with a relatively large audience, after all. The film’s European title, “The Ghost,” gives much less away than the American title, “The Ghost Writer,...

While listed as "horror", Alejandro Agresti's latest sounds so utterly profound, I'm betting it will cross into some serious arthouse territory. We ran across this project a couple of days ago, and Agresti has been kind enough to share some information on what he calls his "obsession". I'll leave the synopsis below in his own words and while I can't tell you who he's currently in talks with, we'll say that he's an Oscar winner/genre film favorite for the lead.

Synopsis:

The main character, Samuel Hogben, creates the device [television] two decades before the Official History tell us. He doesn't know what to do with it. He shares it with his friend Pablo Picasso who seems to find an application since the distortion on the primitive monitor inspires him to create Cubism. Hogben goes around with his invention, he meets Lenin, Freud, etc etc. His mental state deteriorates. He decides to kidnap people,...

Imagine if criminal genius Lex Luthor had a family he actually cared about. Now imagine a movie where, instead of trying to kill Superman and take over the world, he tried to reconcile with those loved ones over his past misdeeds.

That’s what the premise of the upcoming comedy Father of Invention sounds like to us, although it probably doesn’t help that Kevin Spacey, who recently played Lex Luthor in Superman Returns, is among the ensemble cast. Spacey plays an inventor-turned-billionaire and world-class egotist who serves a prison term after one of his inventions (Let’s guess which one it was: Giant robot? Orbiting death ray beam? Super-intelligent android with a heart made of Kryptonite?) goes crazy.

After being released from the slammer, the character tries to rebuild his fortune as well as repair his fractured relationship with family members—the latter proving much trickier. According to The Hollywood Reporter,...

Craig Robinson, Heather Graham, Johnny Knoxville and Camilla Belle will star opposite Kevin Spacey in "Father of Invention," an ensemble comedy that Spacey is independently producing via his Trigger Street banner.

The story follows a humble inventor-turned-egomaniacal billionaire (Spacey) who spends eight years in prison when one of his inventions goes awry. Upon release, he is seeks to rebuild his reputation and fortune but finds that easier than salvaging his relationship with his family.

Robinson will play the husband of the former billionaire's ex-wife who now lives in his house and drives his car and helps Spacey get back on his feet after he gets out of prison.

Belle will play his daughter, a social worker hesitant to trust her father, while Graham is her lesbian roommate who sleeps with the father. Knoxville will play a store manager who hires Spacey's character after his prison stint.

Dana Brunetti, Jonathan Krane...

I scanned this Variety article in vain, looking for some mention that Cecil B. DeMille had arisen from the grave purely to revive bombastic Biblical epics. But no. Nor is it April 1, so this has to be legitimate, as unlikely as it seems.

Apparently, Aloe Films is producing a film called Mary, Mother of Christ with Camilla Belle in the title role. But it's the rest of the cast and characters that sends this into truly "Whoa, really?" land. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is signed to play the duel roles of Gabriel and Lucifer, while Peter O'Toole will be playing Symeon. Currently in talks to join in are Al Pacino and Jessica Lange, who are interested in playing King Herod and Anna the Prophetess.

Start to think that over in your mind -- the crazy eyed Rhys Meyers as archangel and devil, and Al Pacino as King Herod. That's like John Wayne /Greatest Story Ever Told territory,...

Here's your dose of daily film news for Feb. 6, 2009:

• Mickey Rourke is set to star in Walter Hill's thriller "St. Vincent," about a hit man who returns to the Big Apple to finish a failed attempt to murder an informant. Cameron Young wrote the screenplay. Hill also directed the excellent television western "Broken Trail." (Variety)

• Ralph Fiennes will make his debut as director with "Coriolanus," the big-screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's Roman tragedy. According to Variety, Fiennes will also play the "contemptuous soldier spurred on by his ambitious mother to run for the Roman Senate, which ultimately leads to his downfall."

• Camilla Belle, Peter O'Toole, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are set to star in Alejandro Agresti's "Mary, Mother of Christ." Belle will play Mary, and Meyers is set for the roles of Gabriel and Lucifer. Pacino plays Herod, with Lange starring as...

"10,000 BC" actress Camilla Belle is set to play the mother of Christ in a New Testament picture by Aloe Entertainment. "Mary, Mother of Christ" will also star Jonathan Rhys Meyer.

Argentine director Alejandro Agresti, of the "Lake House" fame, will helm the film, which will begin production in May in Morocco.

As per Variety, Meyers will play the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer. Peter O'Toole is also on board as Symeon. Hollywood heavyweights Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play Herod and Anna the Prophetess respectively.

MGM is planning to release the film in over 2,000 theaters on April 2, 2010, coinciding with Good Friday.

Aloe Entertainment has put together its New Testament ensemble for "Mary, Mother of Christ," with Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) starring as the titular character. Belle will be joined by Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer and Peter O'Toole as Symeon. Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play Herod and Anna the Prophetess. Argentine helmer Alejandro Agresti (Valentin, The Lake House) is directing the film, which begins lensing in Morocco in May. MGM plans to release the film wide in 2,000-plus theaters April 2th, 2010, which coincides with Good Friday.

Aloe Entertainment has put together its New Testament ensemble for Mary, Mother of Christ , says Variety . Camilla Belle ( Push , 10,000 BC ) will star as the titular character and will be joined by Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the dual roles of Gabriel and Lucifer and Peter O'Toole as Symeon. Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are in talks to play Herod and Anna the Prophetess. Mary Aloe is producing along with Dune Films ( Hidalgo , upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ). Argentine helmer Alejandro Agresti ( Valentin , The Lake House ) is directing the film, which begins filming in Morocco in May. MGM plans to release the film wide in 2,000-plus theaters April 2, 2010, which coincides with Good Friday.

Camilla Belle is leaping from being a girl with psychic powers in "Push" to portray the mother of Jesus in "Mary, Mother of Christ". In the latest casting report related to the 22-year-old actress, Belle has been said to be cast as the titular character in the New Testament project by Aloe Entertainment.

The Jill Johnson of "When a Stranger Calls" is joining Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who has been tapped to star as both Gabriel and Lucifer, and Peter O'Toole, who is set to play Symeon, the man who meets Mary and her family in the temple shortly after Jesus' birth. While Belle has been cast for the titular role, Al Pacino and Jessica Lange are reportedly in talks to play Herod and Anna the Prophetess.

"Mary, Mother of Christ" will be produced by Mary Aloe and Dune Films. "The Lake House" helmer Alejandro Agresti has been picked up to direct the project,...

Once again I bring you the best round-up of all the movie updates announced in this past week's trade reports. Why read a Ton of articles when you can read just one? This week we get new cast members added to films such as Law Abiding Citizen and Carmel. An unlikely trio may team up for a DreamWorks Animated feature. John Carpenter returns to the director's chair with Amber Heard who will also join Johnny Depp in Rum Diary. Jennifer Lopez may be in another movie and that Judy Garland biopic may be quite good. Oh, and Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are teaming for a new film and check out the casting on Mary, Mother of Christ, that could potentially be a decent little flick. Check out the full list and links are available if the film is in the database already. Enjoy! Title: Law Abiding Citizen

Studio: Overture...

Camilla Belle (Push, 10,000 BC), Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Peter O'Toole will star in Aloe Entertainment’s faith-based film Mary, Mother of Christ. Belle has been cast as Mary. Jonathan Rhys Meyers will take on the double role of Gabriel and Lucifer, while Peter O'Toole is set as Symeon, who meets Mary and her family in the temple shortly after Jesus' birth. The filmmakers are also seeking Al Pacino and Jessica Lange for the respective roles of Herod and Anna the Prophetess. Earlier this week Pacino signed on to star in a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Argentinean director Alejandro Agresti (The Lake House) will direct the film, scheduled to begin shooting in May in Morocco with production partner Dune Films. Benedict Fitzgerald, who co-wrote Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, wrote the screenplay with Barbara Nicolosi. The film will follow Mary's youth, young love, her life...

In a bid to attract the same faith-based moviegoers that made "The Passion of the Christ" a smash in 2004, Aloe Entertainment is producing "Mary, Mother of Christ," which MGM will release in spring 2010.

Camilla Belle, who is onscreen in "Push," which opens Friday, has been cast as Mary. Jonathan Rhys Meyers will take on the double role of Gabriel and Lucifer, while Peter O'Toole is set as Symeon, who meets Mary and her family in the temple shortly after Jesus' birth.

The filmmakers are seeking Al Pacino and Jessica Lange for the respective roles of Herod and Anna the Prophetess.

Argentinean director Alejandro Agresti ("The Lake House") will direct the film, scheduled to begin shooting in May in Morocco with production partner Dune Films. Benedict Fitzgerald, who co-wrote "Passion," wrote the "Mary" screenplay with Barbara Nicolosi.

Mary Aloe and Rodrigo Berlanga are producing. The executive producers are Mike Dolan,...

More a valentine to Chicago's architecture than the aching love story it purports to be, "The Lake House" is a slow-moving, never-igniting tale of calendar-crossed lovers that grows less convincing as it proceeds.

Facing no direct competition from romantic dramas and boasting the marquee allure of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, it will entice initial interest, particularly among women, before word travels that this tale of frustrated love is an unfulfilling fantasy, lovely to look at and confounding to the core.

Time-slip sagas have a built-in intrigue, and film is a perfect medium for exploring ruptures in the temporal continuum. But concept alone isn't enough. The not-quite fully baked idea at the center of "Lake House" is an appealing metaphor for romantic destiny: Two lonely souls who live in the same house at different times begin communicating across a distance of two years. Adoring shots of building facades notwithstanding, the story's passion is subdued to the point of absence. And even within its wobbly framework of metaphysical logic, the payoff is such a cheat that viewers who aren't punch-drunk from being pingponged between the film's two time periods will be left only with questions -- but not the kind that will bring them back for second viewings.

Adapting "Il Mare", a 2000 South Korean fantasy/romance, Argentine director Alejandro Agresti ("Valentin") and screenwriter David Auburn ("Proof") strain for a sense of portent and wonder. Auburn forsakes dramatic tension and pacing to fill characters' mouths with dialogue that spells out his themes with such obviousness that Vanna White or Akeelah wouldn't be out of place. He further lards the proceedings with forced literary and cinematic allusions.

With the help of Rachel Portman's restrained score, Nathan Crowley's production design and the elegant, sumptuous precision of cinematographer Alar Kivilo's compositions, "Lake House" does capture the way certain places become imbued with feeling. The titular abode is a breathtaking glass box on stilts (built for the film), whose symbolism is helpfully explained by characters using words like "disconnected" and "incomplete." Moving from the North Shore retreat to take a hospital job in Chicago, Dr. Kate Forster (Bullock) leaves a letter for the next tenant requesting that her mail be forwarded. The note's recipient, Alex Wyler (Reeves), having moved into the "abandoned dump" his father designed years earlier, is baffled by her claims. But soon they're exchanging daily missives via the house's mailbox, only to discover that he's writing from 2004 while she lives in 2006.

Introspection and solitude are rich cinematic subjects, but here the reunited "Speed" stars play characters whose personalities are so recessive that they inspire only indifference. Bullock is quite good at conveying Kate's discontent without overstating the matter, even if the script does, pushing the worn notion that single career women are the saddest people on the planet. Kate plays chess with her dog; her only real-world contacts are unsatisfying exchanges with an ex-boyfriend (Dylan Walsh), her mother (Willeke van Ammelrooy) and a colleague (Shohreh Aghdashloo).

Reeves, who like his co-star has done his most interesting recent work in small independent films and whose true forte is comedy, brings an inscrutability to Alex That's a detriment. He's an architect who, unlike his younger brother (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), has taken a gauche detour into condo development. Agresti stops the action, as it were, so that Christopher Plummer, as their imperious father, can deliver a lecture on the quality of light with a mad-artist twinkle in his eye.

But there is no illumination at the end of this time-lapse tunnel, whose participants sense a connection that the audience never does. Though it's not without lovely moments -- a tree Alex plants for Kate in 2004 suddenly appears before her, full-boughed -- too much of this would-be love story unfolds via voiceover readings of letters loaded with backstory, trying to fill in what the film can't bring alive in the present.

THE LAKE HOUSE

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Village Roadshow Pictures a Vertigo Entertainment production

Credits:

Director: Alejandro Agresti

Screenwriter: David Auburn

Based on the motion picture "Il Mare" produced by Sidus

Producers: Doug Davison, Roy Lee

Executive producers: Erwin Stoff, Dana Goldberg, Bruce Berman, Mary McLaglen

Director of photography: Alar Kivilo

Production designer: Nathan Crowley

Music: Rachel Portman

Co-producer: Sonny Mallhi

Costume designer: Deena Appel

Editors: Lynzee Klingman, Alejandro Brodersohn

Cast:

Alex Wyler: Keanu Reeves

Kate Forster: Sandra Bullock

Simon Wyler: Christopher Plummer

Henry Wyler: Ebon Moss-Bachrach

Kate's mother: Willeke van Ammelrooy

Morgan: Dylan Walsh

Anna: Shohreh Aghdashloo

Mona: Lynn Collins

MPAA rating PG

Running time -- 97 minutes...

Nip/Tuck star Dylan Walsh has joined the cast of Il Mare for Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow. Walsh will play Morgan in the film, which stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves and is loosely based on the Korean hit Siworae. Walsh steps into the role for which John Corbett had been announced. Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ebon-Moss Bachrach, Willeke van Ammelrooy and Christopher Plummer also star. Il Mare, which is shooting in Chicago, is directed by Alejandro Agresti and produced by Doug Davison and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment. Vertigo's Sonny Mallhi is co-producer. The executive producers are Mary McLaglen, Erwin Stoff, Robert Kirby and Bruce Berman. The screenplay is by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn (Proof). Repped by UTA, manager Bob McGowan and attorney Rick Genow, Walsh has appeared in films including We Were Soldiers. He is shooting David Mamet's latest feature, Edmond, with William H. Macy and Julia Stiles.

Christopher Plummer has joined the cast of Warner Bros. Pictures' Il Mare, which Argentinian helmer Alejandro Agresti is directing. Plummer will play the father of Keanu Reeves' character in the film, which co-stars Sandra Bullock. Il Mare is a remake of a Korean film, Siworae, which also was released under the title Il Mare. The new film is being produced by Doug Davison and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment. Village Roadshow is co-financing the movie. A romantic comedy, Il Mare revolves around a lonely doctor (Bullock) and a frustrated architect (Reeves) who live in the same house, only two years apart. They fall in love via letters they exchange through a mailbox that mysteriously links the two of them. Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn wrote the script. Mary McLaglen will executive produce, and manager-producer Erwin Stoff will get an unspecified production credit. Plummer's recent credits include Alexander and National Treasure. He is represented by ICM.

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves have signed on to star in Il Mare for Warner Bros. Pictures. The project will mark the first reteaming of the actors since their 1994 action thriller Speed. A remake of the Korean feature Siworae, which also has been known by the title Il Mare, the romantic drama follows a lonely doctor (Bullock) who begins exchanging love letters with a frustrated architect (Reeves), but they then discover they are separated in time by two years. Based on a screenplay by David Auburn (Proof), Il Mare will be directed by Argentinean helmer Alejandro Agresti (Valentin) and produced by Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment. Erwin Stoff also will receive a production credit. The executive producer is Mary McLaglen. Il Mare is set to begin production in March in Chicago and will be released worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures. Reeves has appeared in Warners' The Matrix trilogy and will be seen in the upcoming Warners release Constantine. Bullock, another Warners mainstay, stars in the upcoming Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Both actors are repped by CAA.

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves have signed on to star in Il Mare for Warner Bros. Pictures. The project will mark the first reteaming of the actors since their 1994 action thriller Speed. A remake of the Korean feature Siworae, which also has been known by the title Il Mare, the romantic drama follows a lonely doctor (Bullock) who begins exchanging love letters with a frustrated architect (Reeves), but they then discover they are separated in time by two years. Based on a screenplay by David Auburn (Proof), Il Mare will be directed by Argentinean helmer Alejandro Agresti (Valentin) and produced by Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment. Erwin Stoff also will receive a production credit. The executive producer is Mary McLaglen. Il Mare is set to begin production in March in Chicago and will be released worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures. Reeves has appeared in Warners' The Matrix trilogy and will be seen in the upcoming Warners release Constantine. Bullock, another Warners mainstay, stars in the upcoming Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Both actors are repped by CAA.