• Bruce Willis is looking around for a new co-star for his latest film, following the shock departure of Edward Norton from the project, due to that old favourite "creative differences". Willis has drawn up a list of young actors he wants to work with on Hart's War, a second world war drama about an American who becomes a prisoner-of-war in Europe. The film was due to have begun shooting in Prague in January but has been delayed because of recasting.
• Rising star Billy Crudup is set to appear alongside Oscar-nominated Cate Blanchett in a screen adaptation of the Sebastian Faulks novel Charlotte Gray. Crudup, who has received much critical acclaim for his role as a rock journalist in the forthcoming Almost Famous (released here at the end of the year), will play a second world war British air force pilot shot down over France. Blanchett will play his girlfriend Charlotte, who goes in search of him. Oscar and Lucinda director Gillian Armstrong will direct and shooting begins in February.
• The increasingly sombre Wes Craven has signed up to direct Drowning Ruth, a thriller based on the novel by Christina Schwartz. The story is based on a family living in rural America in 1919 and centres around two sisters and the mystery which surrounds one of their deaths. This will not be his next project though; The Nightmare on Elm Street creator will first work on an adaptation of his novel Fountain Society, which tells the story of a scientist who is given the opportunity to cure his cancer through a experimental cloning procedure.
• James Cameron is planning a trip into space, according to Ananova. The Titanic director has apparently undergone medical tests at the Russian Institute for Medical and Biological problems, so he can visit the Russian space station Mir. According to sources within the Institute, he was been passed fit and well and is hoping for a lengthy mission.
• Goldie Hawn looks set to follow in her daughter Kate Hudson's footsteps and star as a rock groupie in her next film. According to Mr Showbiz Hawn is close to signing up with Susan Sarandon to star as a pair of ageing rock groupies in a film called The Banger Sisters. Hawn would play a tough waitress still yearning for her wild past, while Sarandon would play a primmer character who would rather forget it all happened.
