John Travolta has been dropped from the “Dallas” movie after being promoted as the project’s anchor for more than two years.
Insiders tell Page Six that Travolta, who was just nominated for a Golden Globe for donning a fat suit for his drag role in “Hairspray,” was “let go about two weeks ago. He had the [...]

Michelle Williams is in final negotiations to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife in Martin Scorsese’s mystery drama “Shutter Island” for Paramount. The actress also will join Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley in the film, adapted by Laeta Kalogridis from Dennis Lehane’s 2004 novel.
Peter Jackson is set to reteam with his performance-capture muse Andy Serkis for DreamWorks’ [...]

Russell Crowe will replace Brad Pitt in “State of Play,” saving Universal and Working Title’s delayed political thriller from shutting down. Pitt pulled out of the movie two weeks ago, citing script concerns that made him uneasy about toplining the picture. That brought him to loggerheads with the studio, which was adamant about going ahead [...]

 
Christian Bale is in negotiations to star in “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,” the fourth installment of the hit science fiction series. McG is in negotiations to direct the movie, which is being made by the Halcyon Co. and will be distributed by Warner Bros.
(Source: Hollywood Reporter)

“Milk,” one of two long-gestating biopics about slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk, will begin principal photography in January on location in San Francisco. Sean Penn will star as the title role in Gus Van Sant’s feature for Groundswell Prods. and producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen of the Jinks/Cohen Co. Bruna Papandrea of Groundswell, [...]

 
SO THIS is it, the legendary piece of soft furnishing on which stars are made. The casting couch I’m sitting on is blue leather, and sinks squashily on contact. It has, as the casting director opposite informs me from a lounging position, “been totally bummed” to the point of collapse.
I am pretty sure that this [...]

Naomi Watts will star and Martin Campbell is in negotiations to direct Universal’s new version of “The Birds.”

Steve Buscemi and Daniel Bruehl (“Good Bye, Lenin”) have joined the cast of “John Rabe,” Florian Gallenberger’s true story about a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese lives during the Nanjing massacre carried out by Japanese [...]

The relatively unknown actor Chris Pine has been confirmed as the new Captain Kirk in JJ Abrams’s forthcoming Star Trek reboot, ironically by the director whose project he has quit to take up the post. 
Joe Carnahan - of Narc and Smokin’ Aces notoriety - yesterday posted on his personal blog a thinly-veiled confirmation of [...]

Nicolas Cage will star in “The Vanished” for Focus Features. Thriller, penned by Larysa Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan, concerns a father who goes in search of his college-aged American-born Muslim son, who’s missing overseas.

Taylor Hackford will direct Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci in “Love Ranch,” a drama about a couple who opened the first legal [...]

Columbia Pictures has acquired Empire, a drama that John Logan (Gladiator) will write for Michael Mann to direct and Will Smith to topline, says Variety. The trade says that Smith is expected to play a contemporary global media mogul. 
Warner Bros. is developing a big screen version of Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North,” with Leonardo [...]