Catherine Hardwicke has added the Gothic version of “Little Red Riding Hood” — produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way — and the Jonah Hill scribed “Bad Boys” meets John Hughes film adaptation of “21 Jump Street” to her directorial slate. The director is currently working on a modern day adaptation of “Hamlet” starring Emile Hirsch. [Variety] *Update*: Hardwicke’s reps tell MTV it’s “too early” to say anything and that she isn’t yet “attached” to the Jonah Hill project.
Billy Bob Thornton is attached to star in “Pound For Pound,” a boxing drama based on an F.X. Toole (“Million Dollar Baby”) novel. Ron Shelton will direct the project which centers on parallel lives of a retired and widowed boxer (Thornton) suffering from depression and an up-and-coming teenage Latino fighter from a difficult background. Their paths of course will inevitably cross. Yawn. [THR]
Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson will star in an adaption of the Cormac McCarthy play, “The Sunset Limited,” for HBO which Jones will also direct. Production will begin next month where Jackson will play a man who saves another man (Jones) from a suicide attempt. This starts an exchange of ideologies as the two debate the worth of their own lives. [BFDealMemo]
Karl Urban’s previously teased graphic novel role has been revealed to be that of the main antagonist in Scott Stewart’s adaptation of “Priest.” The film will be set in a world ravaged by war between man and vampires that features Paul Bettany as a warrior priest and vampire fighter, Cam Gigandet as a sheriff and Maggie Q as a warrior priestess. [THR]
Judy Greer has joined the cast of Ed Zwick’s “Love And Other Drugs,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in their “Brokeback Mountain” reunion. The film will center on a salesman (Gyllenhaal) who competes in the cutthroat world of pharmaceuticals to hawk a male performance enhancement drug and enters into a relationship with a woman (Hathaway) with Parkinson’s disease. Greer will play a pharmaceutical company trainee instructor. [Variety]
IFC Films has acquired rights for U.S. distribution to Corneliu Porumboiu’s “Police, Adjective,” Romania’s entry in the foreign-language film race for the upcoming Oscars. Written and directed by Porumboiu, “Police” concerns an undercover cop who has a crisis of conscience and will debut at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival. [Variety]
