Guillermo del Toro, the director behind Blade II and The Devil's Backbone, has signed a deal to write - and possibly direct - a mixed live-action and CGI version of Kenneth Grahame's children's classic The Wind in the Willows, according to Variety. The Disney project is the latest in a long line of adaptations of the story on TV and the big screen. Prior to Willows, Del Toro will busy himself with Hellboy, a comic book adaptation due to shoot in Prague and expected to open in cinemas next year.
Robert Downey Jr and Alan Arkin will appear in Steven Soderbergh's segment of Eros, a multi-director project featuring a series of short, ertotically-themed films. Other directors include Michelangelo Antonioni and Wong Kar-wai, and Soderbergh replaces Pedro Almodovar in the line-up.
Sam Rockwell, who recently collected a best actor award at the Berlin film festival for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, has told of the breadth of influences which inspired him and first-time director George Clooney. In an interview with today's Independent, Rockwell said working with Charlie Kaufman's script "was a strange job to get.
Charlie's screenplay read like Inspector Clouseau meets Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now meets Elvis Presley meets Travis Bickle. But George and I decided to make the tone more like Dr Strangelove meets Carnal Knowledge - something with a juicy dramatic undercurrent." Phew! Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, an autobiographical account of the life of US game show host Chuck Barris - with added CIA assassinations - opens here on March 14.
Jennifer Love Hewitt is in talks to star in the live-action version of the Garfield comic strip. 20th Century Fox wants the actor to play the love interest to Garfield's long-suffering owner, Jon Arbuckle. The Hollywood Reporter says Breckin Meyer (Kate & Leopold, Go) is being pursued for the role of Arbuckle. The story has the world-weary feline fly into a jealous rage when a lame-brained dog named Odie arrives at the residence, sparking a bitter rivalry between the two pets. Production is due to begin later this year.
George Clooney has hit out at former friend and talk show host Jerry Springer, saying his show was "coarsening" America. Clooney's father Nick gave Springer his first job in TV but the presenter's show, which routinely ridicules guests and exposes lurid details about their love lives, has overstepped the mark as far as Clooney Jr is concerned. Speaking on the Richard and Judy Show, Clooney said: "There was a time when we were friends but Jerry went too far, literally using the misery of others as entertainment. He's no friend of my family any more." Clooney stars in Steven Soderbergh's remake of the sci-fi classic Solaris which opens here today. He added: "He's smart enough to know better than put wireless mikes on people and set up fights. I have no time for Jerry Springer."
Jenny Agutter has told the Mirror she decided to set up an official website when she heard that a convicted paedophile was posting pictures of her as a child actor in her name. The man is now in prison, but Agutter said, " This is one reason I need to set up my own official website. If you are in the public eye you come to expect people to use and abuse your name. It is important steps are taken to stop people using the net for perverse or corrupt purposes."
