With controversy still raging around The Da Vinci Code, director Ron Howard is moving on to his next project. He will direct the rather less contentious-sounding The Look Of Real for Universal, about a group of young women in the clothing industry. Winnie Holzman, who created My So-Called Life, is penning the screenplay.

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria will star in the Southern drama Deep in the Heart of Texas. Longoria will play a spoilt Beverly Hills advertising professional who discovers her roots when she is dispatched to run an office in a Spanish-speaking region of Texas. Longoria most recent project sees her starring opposite Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland in Washington-set thriller The Sentinel, which opens in the US this weekend.

Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro, whose fantasy horror Pan's Labyrinth will be one of the leading candidates for the Palme d'Or in Cannes next month, is putting together Chilean horror project The Call of the Sea. According to reports, the story tells of a marine biologist who finds a link between her family and the legend of a ghost shop that hunts the souls of fishermen. Del Toro will serve as executive producer with the project's star Leonor Varela. The filmmaker's previous credits include the Hollywood releases Hellboy and Blade 2.

Brendan Fraser has signed on to star in an updated Jules Vernes story from the makers of recent global smash The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. In Journey in 3-D Fraser will play a geologist who finds the key to a previously undiscovered world. Walden Media, the producers behind Narnia, Around The World In 80 Days and Holes, are teaming up with New Line on the production.