News: Rachel Weisz

After this week’s odd sci-fi, The Fountain, Weisz’s turn in the comedy/romance Definitely, Maybe, written and directed by the writer of Bridget Jones 2 and Wimbledon will come as a bit of a break. But then it’s back to the experimental, with a role in cult director Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones as a woman taking a road trip across the US, and co-starring the likes of Jude Law, Tim Roth, Natalie Portman and Ed Harris. She’ll be teaming up with Wong Kar-Wai again in 2008 for a remake of Orson Welles’ classic The Lady From Shanghai, with Weisz set to take the Rita Hayworth role.

Before that, though, it’s back to comedy, with a part in the Paul Giamatti and Vince Vaughan-starring festive bit of fun Fred Claus, due Christmas 2007, as well as another return to Africa following Weisz’s superb, Oscar-winning turn in The Constant Gardener. This time it’ll be a period piece, with Weisz playing the object of Colin Firth’s affections in the 19th century historical drama The Colossus,covering the final years of Cecil Rhodes’ regime in what is now Zimbabwe. Sir Ian McKellen will take on the role of the imperial hero/scoundrel.

News: Ben Affleck

Affleck’s next project, following his moustachioed turn in this week’s Smokin’ Aces, is going to be from behind the camera. As writer/director of Gone, Baby, Gone, he’ll be hoping to revive some of the Oscar-winning success he had as co-screenwriter (with best buddy Matt Damon)  of Good Will Hunting, and has cast his brother, Casey Affleck in the lead. Based on a novel by the same person who wrote the book on which the Oscar-winning Sean Penn flick Mystic River was based, the Boston-set detective thriller revolves around the kidnapping of a four-year-old girl, and also features the likes of Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Mark Wahlberg’s oft-forgotten brother Robert.

News: Rachel Weisz

Brit lovely Rachel Weisz is just one of the big names in this week’s kids’ fantasy Eragon, though she’s only on voice duties. We’ll soon be seeing a lot more of her, however, with a number of big parts in big movies due over the next weeks, months and years.

Due in January, after a perhaps appropriately insanely long wait, is oddball director Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain – a much-delayed, hugely ambitious sci-fi/fantasy romance spanning 1,000 years and three separate, if linked, storylines revolving around Hugh Jackman’s efforts to find Weisz, his one true love. It has been slated at least as much as praised by those who have seen it so far, so could prove interesting.

Then will come more standard fare, with Weisz’s turn in the comedy/romance Definitely, Maybe, written and directed by the writer of Bridget Jones 2 and Wimbledon. But then it’s back to the experimental, with a role in cult director Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones as a woman taking a road trip across the US, and co-starring the likes of Jude Law, Tim Roth, Natalie Portman and Ed Harris. She’ll be teaming up with Wong Kar-Wai again in 2008 for a remake of Orson Welles’ classic The Lady From Shanghai, with Weisz set to take the Rita Hayworth role.

Before that, though, it’s back to comedy, with a part in the Paul Giamatti and Vince Vaughan-starring festive bit of fun Fred Claus, due Christmas 2007, as well as another return to Africa following Weisz’s superb, Oscar-winning turn in The Constant Gardener. This time it’ll be a period piece, with Weisz playing the object of Colin Firth’s affections in the 19th century historical drama The Colossus,covering the final years of Cecil Rhodes’ regime in what is now Zimbabwe. Sir Ian McKellen will take on the role of the imperial hero/scoundrel.

News: Ben Affleck

Having got a fair amount of Oscar buzz for his turn as former TV Superman George Reeves in this week’s Hollywoodland, Affleck’s next step for his career revival masterplan is a turn as a mustachioed hitman in Smokin’ Aces, a comedy crime caper that could, at a push, pass as a parody of the kind of Tarantino-lite flicks (like Get Shorty) of the mid-1990s. Or it could be a genuine attempt to make that kind of film a decade after they went out of fashion… Due out in the UK in March 2007, whether it’s going to be any good or not is anyone’s guess, but the trailer can be found <a href=”http://www.smokinacesmovie.net/teaser/&#8221; target=”_blank”>here</a>.

Likely to be more promising for Affleck’s future is his planned team-up with best buddy Matt Damon – with whom he won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for Good Will Hunting all those years ago. As yet untitiled, the pair will star as a couple of lawyers who toil for fifteen years to save the life of an innocent man on death row, and is apparently based on a true story. Quite when (or if) it will see the light of day is unclear, considerin Damon’s hectic schedule these days.

Also showing potential is Gone, Baby, Gone – written, produced and directed by Affleck, and starring his younger brother, Casey, alongside Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. Based on the <a href=”http://www.dennislehanebooks.com/books/gone/&#8221; target=”_blank”>book</a> by Dennis Lehane, the author of the book Sean Penn got his Oscar-winner Mystic River out of. Set around the kidnapping of a four-year-old girl in Boston, it looks set to be rather more serious than most of Affleck’s recent outings – and could, if he’s as good a director as he used to be a writer, prove rather good.

News: Diane Lane

The actress probably still best known for either 1983’s The Outsiders or the 1989 Western TV mini-series Lonesome Dove is on good form in this week’s Hollywoodland, although the role is probably too small to see her land another Oscar nomination to add to her one for 2002’s Unfaithful.

She has a fair few more projects in the works, however, including the potentially promising action thriller Killshot, where she’ll play one half of a couple in a witness protection programme who are tracked down by hitmen Mickey Rourke and the insanely promising star of last year’s superb high school noir flick Brick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with additional roles for the likes of Rosario Dawson and Jackass‘ Johnny Knoxville.

Also sounding promising is Ed Harris’ directorial follow-up to his critically-acclaimed 2000 biopic Pollock. Other than Harris, who will star as well as write and direct, Lane will appear alongside Viggo Mortensen in the Western Appaloosa, based on the novel by Robert B. Parker about two friends appointed to police a small town, which is set to start filming in Autumn 2007. We need more Westerns these days – it’s amazing after the success of TV show Deadwood that more aren’t on the way.