What's next for Viola Davis?

From Variety:

As The Help rides high at the box office, thesp Viola Davis is turning her attention to the small screen, shepherding a possible half-hour vehicle for herself at HBO.

Pay cable is close to finalizing deals for the untitled project Davis is developing with Pariah-helmer Dee Rees, scribe Margaret Nagle and John Lesher.

Series is said to be a look at the corruption of a city through the eyes of the headmaster of an exclusive prep school who has her eye on bigger things. Davis would play the headmaster, though sources cautioned that there is no deal yet in place for her to star.

Rees is penning the script and co-writing the story with Nagle, an HBO vet who mostly recently wrote for the network's period drama “Boardwalk Empire.” Rees may also direct the pilot once the final deals are hammered out.

Davis, Nagle, Lesher and his producing partner Adam Kassan would serve as exec producers, with Rees as a co-exec producer.

Rees made a mark at this year's Sundance fest with the LGBT-themed drama Pariah, which was scooped up by Focus Features (Daily Variety, Jan. 31).

Take a gander at our first look at Tom Hanks and Thomas Horn in 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'...

It's not much, but there you have it...thoughts?

Warner Bros. will release both J. Edgar and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in 2011...

...putting them square in the Oscar race (and proving me right in heavily favoring them in my early predictions...huzzah). The Playlist has the details:

With The Weinstein Company busy over the last few weeks getting their Oscar season in order, Warner Bros. is following suit setting (vague) dates for two of their big prestige films of the year.

First up, Clint Eastwood‘s “J. Edgar” will hit theaters in a to be determined date in October. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and he’s got a great supporting cast around him. b> Armie Hammer, the breakout star of “The Social Network,” will play Clyde Tolson, Hoover’s assistant/lover, while Naomi Watts will play Helen Gandy, Hoover’s personal secretary. The film will also star Judi Dench, Stephen Root, Ed Westwick, and Josh Lucas. Of course, the big question is not if the film will be Oscar bait, but just what categories in can contend in. Even “Hereafter,” released in the same frame last year largely to muted reviews, wound up with an nomination for Visual Effects so anything is possible.

Next up, is Stephen Daldry‘s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and with Warner Bros setting it for sometime in December, they are clearing putting most of their Oscar push behind this one. Based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer, the story focuses on Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy from Manhattan whose father died on 9/11. Two years later, the boy discovers a key belonging to his father, which sends him on a search through the city. Newcomer Thomas Horn will play Oskar, with Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks as his parents, and John Goodman as a doorman who aids Schell on his quest. Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Max Von Sydow and James Gandolfini round out the cast.

Best selling and critically acclaimed book + three time Best Director Oscar nominee + five time nominee and two-time Oscar winning actor + Best Actress winner = instant awards horse. They would have to screw the pooch pretty hard to mess this one up.