After wowing crowds on the West End in Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Anna Friel will be back on the big screen now that she’s signed up for the Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro thriller Dark Fields.

The Hollywood Reporter has claimed that Friel will be playing Cooper’s ex-wife alongside Abbie Cornish who is rumoured to be playing his current girlfriend.

The film follows Cooper as a struggling writer who discovers a new superdrug that gives him everything he wants. But as the side effects start to take hold and Cooper must hold onto his sanity.

THR describes the side effects that the character experiences as “including “trip-switching,” a phenomenon in which time moves with a stop-motion quality.” It’s not known if actual stop-motion techniques will be used but it should be an interesting effect nonetheless.

Friel’s last cinematic outing Land of The Lost wasn’t met with too much enthusiasm but here’s hoping that a thriller will serve her better. It’s safe to say that none of this would be happening had Friel not starred in the hit fantasy series Pushing Daisies, which opened her up to US audiences, but she couldn’t ride that pony forever and luckily the film world seems to have taken her in.

Friel has more movies on her slate than TV as she’ll be starring in London Boulevard, a Brit movie with Ray Winstone and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger.

Not everyone looks good with a pasty complexion and some canine dental issues, but it’s all good when you’re playing a vampire.

You might think R-Pattz has the market cornered but before he came along with his sparkly skin and whatnot, my favourite sexy vamp was Stephen Dorff’s Deacon Frost in Blade.

After that, I really thought we’d see Dorff taking on the big roles for years to come, but somehow he got lost in a cinematic wilderness and ended up making a string of duds. But now, according to Variety, he’s signed on for Tarsem Singh’s War of The Gods and Hollywood might remember who he is.

Dorff will be playing master thief Stavros that will help Theseus defeat the ancient Titans from taking over power from the Greek Gods.

He’ll be joining Twilight star Kellan Lutz in the Greek war epic. Slumdog Millionaire beauty Freida Pinto and Iron Man 2’s Mickey Rourke will also star.

The House Bunny and Scary Movie star Anna Faris has signed up for Private Benjamin, a remake of the Goldie Hawn classic comedy.

Risky Business Blog reports that Faris will take on the title role in a modern re-telling of the original. The movie follows a high society woman who joins the army after her husband dies on their wedding night during sex.

The character was never a dumb blonde, something Faris is used to playing, but more of a fish-out-of-water, having no idea what army life would be like.

Private Benjamin will be the second Goldie Hawn movie remake announced this month after I previously reported that Jennifer Lopez will appear in an Overboard revamp.

New Line is behind the movie and is apparently keen to dig into the goldmine that is 80s cinema for remakes; they’re also going to be giving new life to Vacation and Police Academy.

Does Anna have the chops to carry this off though? Underneath the madcap comedy routines she’s used, to there’s actually a good actress but she’ll have a way to go before she can top Goldie. Private Benjamin may have earned itself three Oscar nominations but I don’t have high hopes for the remake.

Chuck Dixon is set to pen a miniseries comic to accompany Sylvester Stallone’s action flick The Expendables.

There will be four issues in the series and will follow the same characters that appear in the movie. Dixon’s previous work includes Batman, Conan and The Green Arrow characters so he’s well versed in tough guys and heroics.

Dixon told Newsarama,

“The Expendables is a collection of professional soldiers who share a history of dangerous military adventures. In the great tradition of these kinds of the stories, each of the guys has a specialty. Martial arts, handguns, explosives etc… This limited series is a prequel that shows them on an earlier adventure. Lots of violence committed by guys who, while not morally ambivalent, they are certainly morally expedient. The restraints are off a bit more here. The action more bloody. The settings more realistic.”

When asked what his favourite image is from the comics, Dixon replied,

“Mickey Rourke, by himself, fighting a small army of thugs sent to kill him by a Mexican drug cartel.”

Screw the comic, I want to see that on the big screen!

I don’t to get my hopes up just yet but I thought you ought to know that there are conversations going on right now about a possible 3D conversion for all of the Harry Potter movies.

And I’d only just calmed down from hearing that the Deathly Hallows will be in an extra dimension. I must stress that it is NOT confirmed that we’re getting a completely 3D series, but it’s a possibility.

MTV spoke to Potter producer David Heyman about a 3D conversion.

Those discussions haven’t yet happened, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. You know what? I actually shouldn’t say that. Who knows? It would be great. You can never tell. I hope so.

Well that gives us a 50/50 chance, right? Not everyone is jazzed about the constant 3D conversions of movies but come on, wouldn’t you want to see the Basilisk from The Chamber of Secrets in 3D? Or the Triwizard tournament tasks from The Goblet of Fire?

Admittedly, the CGI effects in the first few movies weren’t amazing and could do with a touch up but still, it would be cool to have all the movies in 3D.

On converting the Deathly Hallows Part I, Heyman seems confident that it’ll look fantastic in 3D.

Frankly, we are still in the process of discussing methodology, but clearly one of the advantages we have is that we have quite a long time before the release of the film. So we have quite a lot of time to work and hone and hopefully perfect each and every sequence. We are not on a compressed schedule. This is something that was built-in very early on, and we think we will achieve the very best quality we can.

If you’re wondering why they didn’t shoot in 3D in the first place then Heyman’s got the answer.

I think that there’s no question that shooting a film in 3-D is a great thing. I think it was just impractical.

It would have taken much, much too long. Shooting in 3-D is slower. Some people say shooting in 3-D is the only way to go, and some people are more open to the other. It’ll be interesting as it develops to see whether shooting in 3-D becomes the norm or not, because clearly it’s more expensive, partly because shooting takes longer.

After Jonathan Ross announced he was leaving Film 2010 I got a nervous feeling up my spines. While I may not always agree with Wossy about films or appropriate hairstyles, having him hosting the show was a case of ‘better the devil you know.’

Then there was suddenly a vacancy and I was sure that it was going to go to a respected film critic like Mark Kermode, but no such luck. It has been announced that Claudia Winkleman will take over hosting duties when she’s not off riding one of the four horses of the Apocalypse. Okay, that’s a bit overboard but I had higher hopes for this appointment.

Mostly known for bland TV reporting, Winkleman has almost no background in film and a lot of fans are wondering how the show will change now that she has the job.

Winkleman is quoted in The Guardian as saying,

“Everyone has an opinion on film and I’m looking forward to debating the biggest news and releases with a whole variety of guests each week. I am completely over the moon about being given this enormous honour and am incredibly proud to be to be presenting the new look Film 2010. It’s an honour to follow on from the brilliant Jonathan Ross.”

Glad someone’s happy about it. Only time will tell if she’ll be a good host but until then stick to the Breadline, I’ll take care of you.

For anyone who shelled out to see Battlefield Earth, firstly, why? Could you not see that this movie was going to be utter pants?

Secondly, the writer of the movie (if you can call it that) has issued an apology.

J.D. Shapiro has publicly apologized for this cinematic turd after it was named the Worst Movie Of The Decade at this year’s Razzie awards.

The film is based on the Scientology novel of the same name and starred famed ’sci’ supporter John Travolta. Oh and Forrest Whittaker was in it as well.

In the New York Post, Shapiro wrote,

“Let me start by apologizing to anyone who went to see Battlefield Earth.

It wasn’t as I intended — promise. No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn’t really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those.”

We appreciate his honesty. He goes on to blame his willy for causing the whole thing in the first place because he had heard that the LA Scientology centre was ‘a great place to meet women.’ Shapiro wasn’t too bothered by the lack of attractive females as he was more upset by how his original screenplay was butchered.

“My script was very, VERY different from what ended up on the screen. My screenplay was darker, grittier and had a very compelling story with rich characters. What my screenplay didn’t have was slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs.”

Ooh er. Shapiro also sent his Razzie acceptance speech to Deadline Hollywood which showed that not everybody’s mother is their biggest fan.

“And my favourite quote of all time: ‘This is the worst f**king piece of sh** movie I’ve ever seen in my entire f**king life.’ That quote was from my mother.”

In the tail-end of the award season, Empire had a good old knees up at their own award ceremony. There was booze and gongs galore as the big names of cinema were given awards based on your votes.

The Empire awards, sponsored by Jameson, has a wider range of nominees than the BAFTAs or Oscars and gave other movies a chance to get noticed amongst the Blind Sides of this year’s movies.

We all know Avatar didn’t win big at the Oscars but it looks like the fans have spoken and apparently you all went mad for James Cameron and his little blue friends. Though I may not agree with you on that, I can understand but Jude Law as hero of the year? Really?

Let’s take a look at those lucky winners.

Best Film
Avatar

Best Director
James Cameron
Do It!

After my initial excitement over the news of a Maleficent movie died down it was piqued again this morning over news that Angelina Jolie might be involved in the movie.

According to the LA Times, Jolie is interested in the project but not confirmed to play the wicked fairy from the Disney classic Sleeping Beauty. Disney first struck gold with their glamorous witches in Snow White and who could be more glam as Maleficent than Jolie?

There’s still no word on Tim Burton’s supposed involvement in the project but what a wonderful combination that would be. She doesn’t have too full a slate on her hands to make this an impossible choice either; she’s currently finishing filming on The Tourist with Johnny Depp and she’ll taking up voice-acting again with Kung Fu Panda 2.

Playing Maleficent would be Jolie’s first Disney character but could prove the point that she’s really only suited to dark, seductive roles.

Diablo Cody made her name with the hit teen dramedy Juno and after the bump in the road known as Jennifer’s Body, she pulled herself together and now she’s got several scripts on the go.

The latest addition to the slew of scripts she’s working on is called Young Adult which Diablo described to Vulture as

“…A movie about a woman who’s stalking her high-school sweetheart. It has elements of humor, but it’s pretty serious and f*cked up.”

THR gave this synopsis of the movie. ‘A thirtysomething, divorced, young-adult fiction writer in Minneapolis who returns to her hometown to chase the ex-boyfriend, who’s now married with a kid, that got away.’

On her thoughts on women in movies Diablo said,

“You don’t get to see women be anti-hero that often, where it’s like somebody like Mickey Rourke, who gets a comeback in The Wrestler.

It’s rarer that you’ll have a studio say, “Let’s have an actress come back and be ugly!”

Aside from having Young Adult on her slate, Diablo’s also adapting the Sweet Valley High book series and will be producing Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament.

She’s also still working on her hit US show United States of Tara starring Toni Collette which has just started its second season.