— Dito Montiel showed real promise with his debut film “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” but stumbled with his follow-up, the super-cliched, hilariously-titled “Fighting.” According to a Tweet from Production Weekly, he’s reteaming with the stars of that film, Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard, but also adding a very exciting pair of actors to the mix: Robert De Niro and James Gandolfini. Details are thin on the project, but an interview we found with Montiel’s editor Jake Pushinsky reveals that it’s “a thriller-drama about a cop whose past is coming back to haunt him.” It’s unclear who’s playing the lead role — we guess Tatum, but it could really be any of those four actors.
— Production Weekly are on form, actually: they also revealed yesterday that Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson are teaming up for the comedy-thriller “The Guard.” The project is written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, the brother of “In Bruges” helmer Martin McDonagh, and writer of Gregor Jordan’s “Ned Kelly,” and will film in Ireland soon. Again, this is an exciting pairing — as Steven Soderbergh says, “If you have the opportunity to put Don Cheadle in your movie, you should put Don Cheadle in your movie.” Even if that movie is “Hotel for Dogs,” apparently.
— Following his success with “Hairspray,” director/choreographer Adam Shankman will adapt another Broadway smash for the screen: the musical “Rock of Ages,” which follows two people who fall in love at a Sunset Strip club, and features 80s rock from the likes of Journey, Joan Jett, Bon Jovi and Pat Benatar. Shankman says “When i watched “Rock of Ages,” I was struck by the fact that not only had much of the audience seen it more than once, every guy in the audience knew the words to the songs. What an extraordinary opportunity to open the genre to an audience that otherwise wouldn’t go see a musical.” There are literally no circumstances under which we would see this movie.
— Having a made a deal with HBO to turn their “Modern Love” column into a “Sex and the City” style series, The New York Times have now struck a first-look deal with Columbia Pictures, giving the studio the rights to adapt specific ‘Modern Love’ columns into romantic comedies. We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait for “Yes, We Do. Even at Our Age,” the motion picture. Almost certainly to star Diane Keaton.