Michael Moore last night predicted his anti-George Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11 will do three times as well at the box office as Bowling for Columbine, the documentary for which he won an Oscar two years ago. After receiving a standing ovation following a special screening for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, Moore revealed his new film will open in between 500 and 1,000 American cinemas on June 25, an almost unprecedented number for a documentary.

Viggo Mortensen is in talks to head the cast of A History of Violence, the forthcoming adaptation of John Wagner and Vince Locke's graphic novel, which is set to be directed by David Cronenberg. The project will reunite Mortensen with the New Line Cinema studio which backed The Lord of the Rings. The actor, now engraved on the global consciousness as Aragorn, would play a father who receives unwanted media attention after killing a man in self-defence following an altercation at the diner where he works.

Keira Knightley is to star in a big screen adaptation of the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice. The Pirates of the Caribbean actress will play Elizabeth Bennet, the second of five sisters whose mother wants to marry them off to eligible bachelors. The movie is being made by Working Title films and will be directed by Joe Wright, who took charge of the recent BBC miniseries Charles II.