BBC - Films - High Noon - 19th February 2004

		Batman's Boss Morgan Freeman has joined the cast of Batman: Intimidation (aka Batman V) as Lucius Fox, the head of Bruce Wayne's mega-conglomerate, based in Gotham City. It's also been revealed that Liam Neeson will play villain Ra's al Ghul, a wealthy international terrorist. The movie, which sees Christian Bale star as the caped crusader, begins shooting in London on 16th March with Christopher Nolan (Insomnia) at the helm.

		Good Knight Don't expect too much romance from Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur. Welsh thesp Ioan Gruffudd, who plays Lancelot, has been speaking out about Jerry Bruckheimer's take on the Arthurian legend. "It's not about the romantic triangle we've all read about," he says. "Rather, it focuses on seven guys given this mission from hell to capture a young boy who the Pope has deemed to be next in line for the throne." And what about concerns that Jerry Bruckheimer will distort the time-honored legend to make room for superfluous explosions? "It's a real portrayal of this 6th century time period," Gruffudd reckons, "definitely not a glamorised Hollywood version of it." Yeah, and we thought Pearl Harbor was a documentary...

		Sony Declares Open Season Sony Pictures Animation has given the green light to its debut tooner, Open Season. Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, and Debra Messing (Along Came Polly) will lend their vocal talents to the CGI comedy about a 900-pound domesticated grizzly bear named Boog (Lawrence) and a one-horned mule deer named Elliot (Kutcher), stranded together in the woods during hunting season. Messing will voice a forest ranger who rescued Boog as a cub and raised him. Let's just hope Phil Collins is unavailable.

		Viva La Revolution! Occasional director Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line) will helm Che, a biopic of the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, from his own script. Benicio Del Toro is set to topline as the man best known for adorning cheap t-shirts worn by shiftless students the world over. The project has been in gestation since 1967, when the Bolivian army murdered the 39-year-old radical while Malick was in the country reporting on events for The New Yorker. Javier Bardem (The Dancer Upstairs) will take a supporting role in the film, which rolls into production in July, somewhere in South America. We're guessing, not Bolivia.

		Hayek Plays House Salma Hayek adds another string to her bow, penning the script for The Man In The House Across The Street. The comedy - which she'll either star in and/or direct - centres on a Mexican woman married to an American dope dealer who is being investigated by a retired cop, himself a drug addict. It's scheduled to start shooting in Mexico and LA this autumn, and if Hayek does helm, it won't be the first time. She made her directorial debut with the TV movie The Maldonado Miracle, which earned her a standing ovation at last year's Sundance Film Festival. You go girl, etc.

		Elektra Sparks Into Life Rob Bowman (Reign Of Fire) is in negotiations to helm Elektra, a Daredevil spin-off that will see Jennifer Garner reprise her role as the PVC-clad assassin who falls in love with Ben Affleck, and then tries to kill him. (Fickle as J-Lo.) Based on the graphic novels The Elektra Assassin and The Elektra Saga, the story will pit the titular superheroine against The Hand, an organisation of killers that trained her and then betrayed her. Garner will be greased and squeezed into her catsuit in time for a May shoot.