Samuel L. Jackson to Work With Children

Jackson Rocks the Cradle: Samuel L. Jackson toplines New Line’s Man That Rocks the Cradle, playing a “kid whisperer” hired by a harried father of four. While it may be hard to conceive of Jackson as a soothing presence, we take comfort in knowing that if we don’t like one Samuel L. Jackson movie, there’s always another one opening in a couple of weeks. [Variety]

Shelton at Bat for Shadows: HBO Films hires Ron Shelton to direct a film about San Francisco Giants hitter Barry Bonds, based on Game of Shadows, Mark Fainuru-Wada and Lance Williams’s nonfiction chronicle of the nutrition company that distributed steroids to many prominent sports figures. Shelton will shortly begin the casting search for two leads, one to play young, thin, happy Barry Bonds and another to play hulking, humungous-headed, rage-addled Barry Bonds. [Variety]

Minogue to Conquer Europe: Kylie Minogue announces a 24-date European tour to kick off in 2008, featuring a new show concept called “KYLIEX2008,” which will probably not be as pornographic as it sounds. [Billboard]

Schreiber Dances the Mambo: Liev Schreiber joins the cast of Universal’s Repossession Mambo as the boss of a futuristic credit union dealing in artificial organs who pursues an employee (Jude Law) who still owes money for his new synthetic organ. Variety is unspecific about which organ Law has had replaced, but we at Vulture pray it’s not that gorgeous mug! [Variety]

Opera on Demand: The Metropolitan Opera signs a deal with In Demand Networks to offer eight operas from the second season of Metropolitan Opera: Live in High Definition to on-demand subscribers within 30 days of their theatrical release. So if you’ve always wanted to watch Placido Domingo at four in the morning, well … you’re weird, but you’re in luck. [NYT]