Kidman’s Pair: Nicole Kidman has signed on to two projects that sound pretty different! The actress will star alongside Clive Owen in HBO’s Hemingway & Gellhorn, an original movie produced by James Gandolfini (cool!) about the romance between Ernest Hemingway (Owen) and fellow novelist Martha Gellhorn (Kidman). She has also signed on opposite Nicolas Cage in Trespass, a Joel Schumacher-directed action-adventure film about a husband and wife taken hostage by four “brutal perpetrators” looking to make some money. This raises an interesting hypothetical: would you agree to be Clive Owen’s love interest if you knew you had to follow it up by playing Nicolas Cage’s? [Deadline, Variety]
McDad: Lasse Hallstrom will direct Tom’s Dad, with Patrick Dempsey attached to star in the film, which is set in 1962 Las Vegas. Dempsey will play a “successful character actor and vaudevillian nightclub performer” who is shaken by the arrival of his estranged son. Yes, that’s right: McDreamy is somehow going to be playing a campy lounge singer. [Risky Business/HR]
Rider Returns: As Vulture told you in April, Columbia was under pressure to get the Ghost Rider sequel going… and it appears they’ve done just that, as Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is coming together with Nicolas Cage in early negotiations to reprise his role as Johnny Blaze, and Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor in early negotiations to direct the film. Plot details are under wraps and the studio has not yet revealed if any other characters from the 2007 film will be back, which seems just cruel: we must know what characters will be back! [Heat Vision/HR]
Rider Returns: As Vulture told you in April, Columbia was under pressure to get the Ghost Rider sequel going… and it appears they’ve done just that, as Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is coming together with Nicolas Cage in early negotiations to reprise his role as Johnny Blaze, and Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor in early negotiations to direct the film. Plot details are under wraps and the studio has not yet revealed if any other characters from the 2007 film will be back, which seems just cruel: we must know what characters will be back! [Heat Vision/HR]
Monster Mania: Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the minds behind Smallville, will write the script for Monster High, a “monster musical” about the children of famous monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein who must deal with the ups and downs of high school. Meanwhile, cousins Mark and Brian Gunn will write the remake of The Monster Squad, which will be directed by Rob Cohen. The 1987 original was about a group of kids who discover a plot by The Wolf Man, Dracula and other high-profile monsters to try and take over the world. So we’ve got the High School Musical and the The Goonies of monster movies both given the green light on the same day. [HR, Heat Vision/HR]
Klaxons Go Surfing: British band Klaxons will be releasing the follow-up to their 2007 debut Myths of the Near Future with Surfing the Void, which will arrive August 23 in the UK. The confirmed album cover is worth checking out. [Pitchfork]
