James McAvoy Defends Wright Penn's 'Conspirator,' Eva Mendes One Of Adam McKay & Will Ferrell's 'Other Guys'

As rumored for a little while now, James McAvoy has been confirmed as the star of Robert Redford’s drama “The Conspirator,” where he’ll be joined by the newly announced Robin Wright Penn. McAvoy plays Frederick Aiken, a young Civil War veteran and lawyer who defends Mary Surratt (Wright Penn), the only woman charged with being involved in the death of President Lincoln. It sounds typically earnest from Redford, but so long as it’s closer to “Quiz Show” than “Lions For Lambs,” that’s no problem. As we reported a couple of days ago, filming will begin in Savannah, Georgia next month.

– Also imminently going in front of the cameras is Ed Zwick’s “Love And Other Drugs,” a romantic comedy set in the pharmaceutical world, and Gabriel Macht, Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria have joined leads Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway on the project. Macht plays Hathaway’s boyfriend, Platt is Gyllenhaal’s boss, and Azaria is “an unscrupulous doctor.” That’s a pretty neat cast, all in.

– Eva Mendes is now on board Adam McKay’s cop spoof “The Other Guys,” (formerly known as “The B-Team“) as are Michael Keaton and Damon Wayans Jr (“Dance Flick”). They join Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as a pair of cops stuck in desk jobs. There’s no news on who they’re playing, but at a guess? Mendes is a love interest, and Keaton is a senior officer, while Wayans Jr could be playing the role originally linked to Craig Robinson. We’re pretty excited to see this – particularly with Wahlberg involved – as anyone who’s seen “The Happening” knows, he has a real gift for comedy…

– Batman-voiced George Clooney-type Jeffrey Dean Morgan is set to bring up the average a ge on the cast of “Red Dawn,” joining the likes of future-Thor Chris Hemsworth and Adrianne Palicki of “Friday Night Lights.” Morgan will play the leader of a special forces unit that teams up with the guerilla teens. This sounds like the role that Kurt Russell was linked with at one stage, and we’d rather he was on board, but then, we’d rather that Kurt Russell had played Gandhi, quite frankly.

-From unnecessary remake to unnecessary sequel, BBC Films are producing a follow-up to 1999’s “East Is East,” cunningly titled “West Is West,” which will reunite original cast Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jimi Mistry and Emil Marwa, as the chip-shop owning Salford family move to Pakistan. We like the original just fine, and scribe Ayub Khan-Din is a great writer, but there’s definitely a whiff of “Gregory’s Two Girls” to this one. TV director Andy De Emmony takes the helm.

Also, we wanted to note in a Nikki Finke-style manner, but hopefully less obnoxious. That Variety “news” that Steven Soderbergh’s “Knockout” was picked up by Lionsgate? We already knew that and it was in our original reporting on the picture that will shoot in January. Lem Dobbs who wrote Soderbergh’s “Kafka,” and “The Limey” is writing this one, which said to be a mix of “La Femme Nikita” and ‘Bourne’ series. Dobbs is starting on the script as we speak. American Mixed Martial arts champion Gina Carano will star with name actors lending their weight in supporting roles.