Thanks to AFM, the project announcements are coming fast and furious, so we're just gonna drop a few of them in here so we can all catch up…
First up, Gael García Bernal and Alice Braga ("I Am Legend," "On The Road") are set to star in "The Ardor." The film comes from Argentinean helmer Pablo Fendrik ("Blood Appears"), and the story follows an Amazon shaman (Bernal), who takes up with a tobacco farmer and his beautiful daughter (Braga). But one day some deforesters (ENVIRONMENTALISM ALERT!) come along and destroy their land and kill the father in front of the daughter. A tale of survival and vengeance ensues. Described as an "action packed Western," lensing begins in March on location in the Amazon with a quick turnaround planned and a fall festival premiere in the cards. [Variety]
Next, Amanda Seyfried and Patrick Dempsey feel pretty "Wonderful Tonight." J. Mills Goodloe ("The Mountain Between Us" with Michael Fassbender and Gerardo Naranjo attached) penned the script that Christine Jeffs ("Sunshine Cleaning") will direct about a couple who have a one-night stand, resulting in a baby, and the ensuing battle they have over expectations from the relationship and themselves. And this is supposed to be a romantic comedy. "Knocked Up Again"? [Deadline]
From "Wonderful Tonight" to simply, "The Wonder." Karl Urban will star in this curious-sounding 3D family adventure movie that follows 14-year-old Rachel (to be played by Willow Shields of "The Hunger Games" fame) who, along with her classmates, follows a rainbow only to find it leads them to China. Pursued by officials and other mysterious folks, they find assistance from Consul William Stanley (Urban), but unwittingly set off a natural disaster (what?). They team with a character played by Leehom Wang ("Lust, Caution") to try and fix everything and get back home. We still don't understand what we just wrote. [THR]
Lastly, Stellan Skarsgård has joined the comedy "Hector and the Search For Happiness." Peter Chelsom (“Hannah Montana: The Movie,” “Serendipity”) co-wrote the script and is also directing the adaptation of a François Lelord novel that stars Simon Pegg as an eccentric yet irresistible London psychiatrist in crisis: he’s going nowhere and his patients are just not getting any happier. Until one day, armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, Hector breaks out of his sheltered vacuum of a life into a global quest to find out if happiness exists. More importantly, if it exists for Hector. And so begins an exotic, dangerous and hysterical journey. Rosamund Pike, Christopher Plummer and Marianne Sägebrecht round out the cast. [ComingSoon]