Javier Bardem has bowed out of Nine the musical based on the Federico Fellini film 8189Bardem told director Rob Marshall he is too exhausted from projects and awards season and wants to take a break from acting for up to a yearHe initially signed onto the musical last year but the start of production was delayed due to the writers strikeBardem was slated to star as Guido Contini a film director who tries to balance his work with a bevy of women and numerous personal crisesPenelope Cruz Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren are already signed to star in the show JR Whalen
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Catherine Zeta-Jones will not be playing Claudia in a big-screen adaptation of the musical Nine, now that Rob Marshall (who directed the Welsh stunner to an Oscar in Chicago) has declined to beef up the role. As of now, says the New York Daily News, Javier Bardem is on board as Guido, Sophia Loren his mother and Penélope Cruz his mistress. The short list to replace CZJ includes Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley and Kate Hudson. (Um, let's hope the costume designer hadn't gotten started yet.)
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Someone wake up Farrah Fawcett. On second thought, we don't have time for that. A reboot of 1976's Logan's Run is back on track, with Joseph Kosinski now at the helm. Long in gestation, the project has had at different times the likes of Bryan Singer (who bailed to do Superman Returns) and James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) attached to direct.... Also per the Reporter, former model Natalie Martinez is in talks to play the romantic lead opposite Jason Statham in Death Race, Paul W.S. Anderson's remake of the cult classic.... Per Variety, Peter Berg will adapt and direct Lone Survivor, based on the story of Marcus Luttrell, a Navy SEAL who led a mission into Afghanistan to kill a Taliban leader but was the only one to emerge alive.... Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Javier Bardem are the latest names being eyed for Rob Marshall's Nine.
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Per Variety, DreamWorks Animation has moved up the release of Monsters vs. Aliens, its first pic produced in stereoscopic 3-D, to May 15, 2009 — a week before James Cameron's 3-D Avatar is set to bow.... John Leguizamo has joined M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, playing Mark Wahlberg's best friend.... Ron Howard is set to direct an adaptation of The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud's novel about Ivy League grads snobbing up Manhattan.... Oscar-nominated screenwriter Michael Tolkin is penning Rob Marshall's big-screen take on Nine.
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Casting is under way for director Rob Marshall's adaptation of the musical Nine, and thus far Katie Holmes, Demi Moore and Chicago's Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones have thrown their hats into the ring, says the New York Post.... Woody Allen hopes that his new (of course) untitled film, starring Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and (of course) Scarlett Johansson, will do for Barcelona what Manhattan did for the Big Apple.... Richard Roundtree has boarded the Wachowskis' live-action Speed Racer, playing a driver turned commentator who's a hero to Speed and a sex machine to all the chicks.
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