BBC - Films -news article - High Noon

		Gore Returns To Caribbean Fresh from the success of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, director Gore Verbinski has signed up for the sequel. He'll be reunited with Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley, all of whom are set to reap the benefits of the first movie's treasures ($300 million in the US, £26 million here). Scribes Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott are currently working on the script, which Depp will then ignore and instead do his own sweet thing.

		He Shoots, He Scores Last week High Noon told you that Old School star Will Ferrell was fast becoming Hollywood's hardest-working actor (which is probably up there with 'Belgium's most interesting person' in the faint praise stakes). Well, now it's official. Soon to be seen in Elf and Anchorman, Ferrell has just signed up to play a dad who becomes the coach of his ten-year-old son's football (aka soccer) team. There he locks horns with his own ultra-competitive dad (aren't they all). We foresee a group hug at the end of 90 minutes. Ferrell will follow the as-yet-untitled comedy with Bewitched, in which he'll play Darrin Stephens to Nicole Kidman's nose-twitching Samantha.

		Kidman Eclipses The Sun Did someone mention Nicole Kidman? The Aussie redhead has just won an undisclosed five figure sum from Aussie-owned red top The Sun (we know, no shame) after it wrongly claimed she was having an affair with Cold Mountain co-star Jude Law. The Sun was forced to admit the allegations were false, and apologised for "the distress and embarrassment this article has caused". Law, of course, is currently in the middle of divorce proceedings from his wife, Sadie Frost. Kidman has pledged to give her damages to a charity that works with Romanian orphans.

		Stealth Gives Josh Wealth Ever heard of Josh Lucas? You've probably seen him playing second fiddle in the likes of Hulk, A Beautiful Mind and Alive, or as the southern hick in Sweet Home Alabama. Now Columbia Pictures plans to make him a STAR! Lucas will topline the big-budget actioner Stealth (change the title guys!), which will be directed by Rob (xXx) Cohen. The pic, set in the near future, sees Lucas' air force officer locking wings with an artificial intelligence pilot with a mind of its own. "We've watched Josh do romantic comedies and indie movies and felt he was just on the cusp of being a real leading man," a Columbia suit told Variety, bigging up their small star. The CGI-heavy Stealth (yep, definitely got to go) is scheduled for a summer 2005 release.

		Hollywood Gets A Talisman Oh goodie, another Stephen King adaptation (try and contain yourselves). This time it's The Talisman, an adaptation of the 1984 King/Peter Straub novel, about a 12-year-old boy who has to seek out a mystical talisman in order to save the life of his dying mom. The Talisman will be directed by Vadim Perelman (us neither), from a script by Ehren Kruger - thus conforming to Hollywood's latest rule, which states: Any Movie Of A Spooky Nature Must Be Penned By That Guy Who Rewrote The Ring.

		Jordan Monster Busy Irish director Neil Jordan will rewrite and direct Me And My Monster. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film is about a boy who "has a friendship with an extraordinary creature that changes the course of his life as he becomes an adult". The creature will be created by effects guru Stan Winston, although at the moment we can't get an image of the Honey Monster on a Hollywood film set out of our heads. Jordan has enjoyed/endured an idiosyncratic career, most recently winning plaudits for The Good Thief.

		Tut Tut Tut Independence Day director Roland Emmerich will revisit his Stargate days for Tut, an action adventure pic about the young pharaoh Tutankhamen. "Forget The Mummy, here's The Daddy of all Egyptian pics!" is just one of the taglines they won't be using for this big-budget pic, which chronicles Tut's attempts to reclaim his throne in Ancient Egypt. As well as being one of the big releases of 2005, Tut will also be a godsend for people who are hopeless at charades. Emmerich's next film is eco-disaster pic The Day After Tomorrow, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal.

		Cage Enters The Ring Adaptation. star Nicolas Cage is planning to make a movie about Billy Roth, a one-time pro fighter who voluntarily spent time in Louisiana prisons, teaching hundreds of prisoners how to box (and this was a good idea how?). "Billy Roth's story truly spoke to my heart," Cage says. "Despite the darkness and intense despair, an unlikely and flawed character is able to find and provide hope to others. And if this doesn't get me another Oscar, what will?" (Some parts of the above statement may be factually incorrect.) Cage is currently filming National Treasure for director Jon Turteltaub.

		Return Of The Jedi Liam Neeson has been dissing George Lucas' Star Wars franchise, calling the films "silly". Neeson played Qui-Gon Jinn in 1999's The Phantom Menace, but told Canadian paper The Toronto Sun that the films have "kind of got silly now, haven't they? That last one [Attack Of The Clones] was just pyrotechnics." Echoing comments by his young Jedi apprentice Ewan McGregor, Neeson added that acting with blue screen proved the hardest challenge, admitting that "we all come across as pretty wooden". Neeson did at least concede that he was glad to have made the movie. His bank manager was unavailable for comment.

		Hu Ha! X-Men 2 star Kelly Hu has joined the cast of the action comedy Underclassman (come back Stealth, all is forgiven!). The no-doubt-hilarious pic stars Nick Cannon (Drumline, which despite being a US hit will probably go straight to video here) as a detective who goes undercover at a posh private school. Hu's X-Men 2 co-star Shawn Ashmore has already been cast, so will be able to show her where the kitchen and toilets are.