Behold the teaser for The Lady!

Possible Best Actress contender? Take a look:

The "other" Jeff Buckley biopic has gotten its lead actor?

Apparently so, according to Deadline:

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Darkstar Reeve Carney has signed on to play Jeff Buckley in the untitled film about the late musician that Welcome to the Rileyshelmer Jake Scott is putting together for a November shoot. Carney, who performed the Bono/The Edge-pennedSpider-Man single Rise Above 1 at the American Idol finale, will do all the singing to bring to life the music of Buckley, who was just getting started as a solo artist when he drowned at age 30.

Considering that Buckley had only released a single album when he died in 1997 after getting caught in the wake of a passing boat in Tennessee’s Wolf River, it seems amazing that there are not one but three feature films about him. The first one to start production will be Greetings From Tim Buckley, the Dan Algrant-directed indie film that starts a four-week shoot Monday in Brooklyn. Conventional wisdom that the first film out of the gate wins doesn’t necessarily apply here; these two projects tell very different stories about Buckley. Scott is making a biopic, while Greetings From Tim Buckley stars Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley as a pre-fame Jeff Buckley who reconnects with his estranged father Tim by singing at a tribute concert for his folk-singer dad. In Algrant’s film, that short adventure forged Jeff Buckley’s own solo aspirations. The other Buckley film is called A Pure Drop and it is being mounted by Mad Bastards director Brendan Fletcher. The title comes from the book A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley.

Carney will star in what Scott hopes will be a definitive film about Jeff Buckley’s life, and WME is raising funding. They have exclusive rights to Buckley’s music and personal archives, including the nod from Sony to use Leonard Cohen’sHallelujah, which is perhaps Buckley’s best-known tune from his first albumGrace. A second album, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, was released after Buckley died. Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, has also thrown in with Scott’s project and is executive producer. The script by Ryan Jaffe (The Rocker) was informed by the David Browne book Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley.

Helen Mirren replaces Bette Midler in HBO's Phil Spector biopic...

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Helen Mirren has replaced Bette Midler in HBO Films’ Phil Spector telefilm.

Midler was forced to bow out of the project, written and directed by David Mament, as it was already in production after suffering a herniated disc that may require surgery.

Oscar-winner Mirren (The Queen) will play Linda Kenney Braden, a defense attorney who represented the producer during his first trial for murder, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Al Pacino will play Spector.

Barry Levinson will executive produce alongside Mamet and Pacino. The cast includes “Arrested Development’s” Jeffrey Tambor, who will play Bruce Cutler, an attorney on Spector’s defense team.

Mirren won an Emmy in 2005 for HBO’s miniseries “Elizabeth I;” her television work also includes her Emmy-winning performance in the 2006 telefilm Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act, where she reprised her role as Detective Jane Tennison.

David Strathairn joins Steven Spielberg's Lincoln project...

...and The Hollywood Reporter has the story:

David Strathairn has been cast in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.

Strathairn will play William Seward, who served as Lincoln’s Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869. Seward was a passionate abolitionist and fiercely loyal to Lincoln as he served in his cabinet during the Civil War.

Strathairn joins the previously-cast Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field on the DreamWorks Studios picture. Day-Lewis will play the titular character, and Field his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.

“Throughout his career, David Strathairn has consistently delivered performances of strength and character. That's why I am so pleased that he will portray the Secretary of State, who became such a dominant figure in Lincoln's ‘team of rivals’ cabinet," director Spielberg said.

Playwright Tony Kushner wrote the screenplay, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s best-selling book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. The book focuses on how Lincoln worked with his former rivals during his presidency.

Barry Levinson and Al Pacino have a film planned together before their Gotti movie?

Deadline says yes:

Before Al Pacino and director Barry Levinson re-team forGotti: Three Generations, the duo will first reunite on an adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Humbling, which has been set for a fall start and will be financed by Avi Lerner's Millennium Films/Nu Image. It is just the latest in a period of extreme productivity for Levinson, some of it directly attributable to the acclaim he got for directing Pacino's Emmy-winning turn as Jack Kevorkian in HBO's You Don't Know Jack.

The Humbling revolves around Simon Axler (Pacino), a famous stage actor in decline who is revived when he retires to his upstate New York farmhouse and takes up with a much younger woman. It has a script by Buck Henry, Michal Zebede and Levinson. Levinson will be looking to quickly cast the young female lead, the actor's agent, and several other eccentric characters you would expect in a Roth novel. Levinson committed to this movie after completing production on the low-budget eco-horror film The Bay, which he shot on hand-held cameras and which Lionsgate will release. He just spent time at the Cannes Film Festival to help stir interest in the offshore rights of the Gotti movie; and he's right now in China, heading the jury at the Shanghai Film Festival.

Aaron Sorkin's project about John Edwards may be evolving...

...as The Wrap points out:

Two decades after Aaron Sorkin's famous lawyer drama "A Few Good Men" scored at the box office, it looks the writer might have to return to the courtroom with his forthcoming John Edwards' drama.

The two-time presidential candidate was indicted by by a grand jury in North Carolina on Friday. He faces charges that he violated campaign finance law during his 2008 presidential campaign and used that money to hide an extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter.

Entitled "The Politician," the film is an adaptation of campaign aide Andrew Young's memoir of his time spent at Edwards' side.

It now looks like Sorkin may have found the setting for another "You can't handle the truth" moment. Edwards makes his first appearance in federal court in Winston-Salem, N.C., this afternoon.

Could Martin Scorsese be looking to make a movie about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor?

Deadline seems to think so:

Paramount Pictures is finalizing a deal to develop a feature about the romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as a directing vehicle for Martin Scorsese. The film will be produced by Julie Yorn, Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff of Krasnoff Foster Productions, and Scorsese through his Paramount-based Sikelia banner. They are assembling the resources to tell Hollywood's most famous star-crossed love story.

They've optioned Furious Love, the book by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger that was published by HarperCollins last year. At the same time, the producers have a rights agreement with Burton's estate, and a pledge of cooperation from his widow, Sally Hay Burton, to make his library available as a resource. The filmmakers have also reached out to the estate of Taylor with the same hopes. A screenwriter will be hired shortly.

A biopic is in the works of the boxer who inspired Sylvester Stallone to write Rocky?

Indeed it is, according to Variety:

Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber and Christina Hendricks are set to star in boxing drama "The Bleeder," helmed by Jeff Feuerzeig.

Pic, which Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Intl. is shopping to buyers in Cannes this week, is based on the true story of former New Jersey heavyweight boxer and womanizer Chuck Wepner who boxed 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali and inspired Sylvester Stallone to pen "Rocky."

Feuerzeig, who won the 2005 Sundance documentary directing award for "The Devil and Daniel Johnston," co-penned the script with Jerry Stahl.

Mike Tollin and Carl Hampe are producing, with Amritraj and Matty Beckerman serving as exec producers.

Pic is being financed by Linda Zander's Maxar Pictures which was advised in the deal by Philip Fier of Focus Advisory Services, who will also serve as exec producers.

Hyde Park's sales slate includes Sony's "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 3D," toplining Nicolas Cage; spy thriller "The Double," starring Richard Gere and Topher Grace; Jason Statham starrer "Echelon"; and Paul Rudd starrer "Our Idiot Brother."

-Joey's Two Cents: Could this be Schreiber's big Oscar role? Perhaps...thoughts?

Barry Levinson steps in to direct the John Gotti biopic?

Apparently so, according to Variety:

Barry Levinson is ready to return to crime, as the "Bugsy" helmer is in negotiations to direct Fiore Films' mob drama "Gotti: Three Generations."

Nick Cassavetes was previously onboard to direct before scheduling issues with his indie drama "Yellow" forced producers to release him from his contract.

John Travolta is set to play John Gotti Sr.., and Mafia movie fixture Joe Pesci will co-star as Gotti deputy Angelo Ruggiero.

Lindsay Lohan signed on to play John Gotti Jr.'s wife Kim Gotti as part of a two-pic deal with Fiore on April 20. Ella Bleu Travolta will also appear in the film, which focuses on the relationship between Gotti Sr. and his son, who chooses to turn his back on the mob code he grew up around.

Fiore Films acquired life rights last year from John Gotti Jr., the son of the late head of the Gambino crime family. Deal marked the first time a member of the Gotti family agreed to tell their story on the bigscreen.

Jeremy Renner is trying to make a Steve McQueen biopic...

...according to The Hollywood Reporter:

Jeremy Renner continues his march toward Hollywood domination.

The two-time Oscar nominee, who has been on an upward trajectory since starring in best picture winner The Hurt Locker, has formed The Combine, a production company he will run with partner Don Handfield. And the company is hitting the ground running, developing a Steve McQueen biopic that will serve as a starring vehicle for the actor.

James Gray, who wrote and directed We Own the Night, is attached to write the McQueen screenplay, which will be based on the two books by Marshall Terrill: Portrait of an American Rebel and The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon. Video director Ivan Zacharias is attached to make his directorial debut on the project.

Renner and Handfield will produce the McQueen project with Hurt Locker producer Greg Shapiro, Cross Creek Pictures’ Brian Oliver (one of the producers of Black Swan), and Zacharias’ producing partner Nick Landon.

CAA packaged the project, repping Renner, Grey, Zacharias and the producers, and will also rep the North American distribution rights.

Renner seems like a great fit for the iconic '70s star, with the right rugged looks and all-man attitude (even if his reputation isn't as messy as McQueen’s). But the project is in the development stage and Renner, who’s become one of the most sought-after and busiest actors in Hollywood since his back-to-back Oscar nominations for Hurt Locker and The Town, has plenty on his plate to keep him occupied until it’s ready.

With Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol already in the can, he is currently in Berlin shooting Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters for Paramount, after which he will segue to Marvel’s The Avengers, which just got under way in New Mexico with Joss Whedon directing. He's also weighing an offer to star in The Bourne Legacy for Universal, which would shoot in the fall, and then he may next go into Sheldon Turner's By Virtue Fall in February. Additionally, he just signed on to lend his voice for Fox’s latest installment of the Ice Age animated franchise.

Robert Pattinson could be playing Jeff Buckley?

The Playlist reveals that he's met with Buckley's mother about the role:

We guess the producers behind the upcoming Jeff Buckley biopic aren’t laughing anymore. Earlier in the year, a report popped up in the U.K. press that Robert Pattinson was being considered to take on the role of the late singer. When we reached out to one of the producers on the film at the time they denied those rumors saying, “I did see [the U.K. report], it’s pretty funny.”

Well, it looks like there is actual movement happening on that front (though he’s probably just one of a handful of young actors taking meetings). In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer (via Bleeding Cool) Pattinson revealed, “I met his mom [Mary Guibert] who’s really great.” As for whether or not he’ll get the part, it’s too early to tell. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s really not up to me. I love Jeff’s music. He was amazing.”

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the long-gestating biopic was finally moving forward with Jake Scott (”Welcome To The Rileys”) directing. The film will use David Browne‘s book “Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley,” as a resource and will have a script by Ryan Jaffe (”The Rocker”) with full access to Buckley’s catalog of music to tell his tragic tale.

Sally Field is finally confirmed for Spielberg's Lincoln film?

Indeed, and here's the press release to prove it:

Two-time Academy Award winner Sally Field will star as Mary Todd Lincoln, wife to the 16th President of the United States, in DreamWorks Studios’ “Lincoln” to be directed by Steven Spielberg. The announcement was made today by Spielberg and Stacey Snider, Co-Chairman and CEO of DreamWorks Studios.

Sally Field joins Daniel Day-Lewis, who has been cast to play Abraham Lincoln in the Spielberg film.

"I'm excited to be working with Sally for the first time,” said Steven Spielberg. “I've admired her films and she has always been my first choice to portray all the fragility and complexity that was Mary Todd Lincoln."

“To have the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis and to play one of the most complicated and colorful women in American history is simply as good as it gets,” said Sally Field.

Based on the best-selling book, Team of Rivals, by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, the screenplay has been written by the Pulitzer Prize winner, Tony Award winner, and Academy Award nominated writer Tony Kushner. It will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg.

It is anticipated that the film will focus on the political collision of Lincoln and the powerful men of his cabinet on the road to abolition and the end of the Civil War.

A biopic of Jeff Buckley is finally moving forward...

...and it even has a director now, according to Deadline:

Welcome To The Rileys helmer Jake Scott has been set to direct an untitled film about Jeff Buckley, the rising star musician who died tragically at age 30 in 1997. Scott will direct a script by Ryan Jaffe (The Rocker). Michelle Sy and Orian Williams are producing, and Buckley's mother Mary Guibert will be exec producer. Buckley, son of the famed but troubled folk musician Tim Buckley, became an influence on musicians from Kurt Cobain to Coldplay. He shunned the spotlight, though, preferring to play small clubs and who for a long time played as a session guitarist to make a living. He recorded one hit album, Grace, and was on his way to doing another when he jumped into Tennessee's Wolf River, fully clothed, for a spontaneous swim. He got caught in the wake of a passing boat and drowned.

Robert Redford will star in a Branch Ricky/Jackie Robinson flick!

From The Los Angeles Times:

He starred in one of the most famous fictional baseball movies of all time. Now Robert Redford looks to play one of the most famous real-life baseball figures of all time.

The "Natural" star is on board to play Branch Rickey in a long-gestating, recently jump-started version of a historical drama involving the Brooklyn Dodgers executive and Jackie Robinson, the black player he famously signed.

The as-yet untitled film will be financed by Thomas Tull's Legendary Pictures, which has a first-look deal with Warner Bros. and a long history of co-financing pictures with them. Robinson's part is not yet cast.

"L.A. Confidental" and "Mystic River" writer Brian Helgeland will write and direct the film, Redford said, penning a draft of an earlier version written by, among others, "John Adams" scribe Kirk Ellis. A Helgeland representative declined to comment. A source close to Legendary said that Helgeland will be offering an original take.

John Travolta is going to be playing John Gotti...

...under the direction of Nick Cassavetes, according to The Hollywood Reporter:

John Travolta is set to play John Gotti Sr., the mobster known as the Dapper Don, in the indie pic Gotti: Three Generations.

Nick Cassavetes will direct the screenplay by Leo Rossi, which focuses on the relationship between John Gotti Sr., the head of the Gambino crime family who died in prison in 2002, and his son John Gotti Jr., who took over the family business for his father, served time in prison, but then successfully escaped conviction in four subsequent racketeering trials.

Marc Fiore is producing for his Fiore Films. Marty Ingels, the former comic turned talent broker, has come on board the project as executive producer.

Bill Murray to play FDR!

Via Vulture:

Our spies tell us that it’s official: Bill Murray has agreed to star as FDR in an adaptation of the British radio play Hyde Park On the Hudson to be directed by Morning Glory's Roger Michell. The project, set up at Focus Features and the UK's Film4, recounts the quasi-incestuous love affair between the president and his distant cousin, Margaret Stuckley, and takes place on the June 1939 weekend that the British King and Queen visited Roosevelt at his upstate New York cottage, in the first-ever visit to America by a member of the United Kingdom monarchy.

The movie will start shooting in July, with a script by Richard Nelson; he adapted his own 2009 BBC radio play, which aired in the U.K. on the 70th anniversary of the royal's famous trip. The film will be produced by In the Loop's Kevin Loader.

Fox Searchlight wants David O. Russell to make a Russ Meyer biopic?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Mark Ruffalo will play the legendary jazz pianist Joe Albany...

...via Variety:

Coming off his Oscar-nominated turn in "The Kids Are All Right," Mark Ruffalo is set to play jazz pianist Joe Albany in the indie pic "Low Down."

Ruffalo will also exec produce the period film, which explores Albany's relationship with his 11-year-old daughter, Amy.

L.A.-set story will be told from the child's point of view as she watches her talented and charismatic but strung-out father interact with other eccentrics in cocktail bars and transient hotels during the late '60s' and early '70s.

Albany found early success playing with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus but struggled with heroin addiction later.

Epoch Films partner Jeff Preiss, who has a background in commercials, will make his feature directorial debut on "Low Down." Topper Lilien and Amy Albany wrote the script based on the latter's memoir of the same name. Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa produce via their Bona Fide Prods. banner along with Epoch Films' founder Mindy Goldberg ("Junebug"); Amy Albany and Carlo Martinelli will co-produce.