Sienna Miller is set to star as Andy Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick in the forthcoming biopic Factory Girl. She had originally refused the role because she was due to play Celia in As You Like It in the West End. Director George Hickenlooper said she was offered the role again last month when Katie Holmes pulled out. Guy Pearce will play the pop artist, with Gwen Stefani playing fellow factory girl Richie Berlin.

Samuel L Jackson will star and produce in a live-action feature adaptation of Afrosamurai, a Japanese manga. The American actor will play a man who seeks revenge against those who murdered his father in front of him when he was a boy. Filming is to start next year, in time for a 2007 release.

Richard Gere is to play a federal agent tracking down a missing girl, whose disappearance he believes is connected with a paroled sex offender he is investigating. The Flock will mark the English-language debut for Wai Keung Lau, who directed the acclaimed Infernal Affairs films. The movie is based on a script by Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell, who between them wrote several blood-fuelled action films such as Anaconda and Highwaymen.

School for Scoundrels, the 1960 British comedy, is to be remade starring Billy Bob Thornton. He will play a teacher who runs confidence-building classes and competes with one of his students for the same woman. Todd Phillips, who wrote the script with Scot Armstrong, will direct. Both collaborated on last year's Starsky & Hutch adaptation and the gross-out comedy Road Trip. Filming will take place in New York and Los Angeles in time for a spring release.