Scarlett Johansson is studying up to take "The Psychopath Test," Deadline reports. The actress will lead the Jay Roach ("Game Change," "Meet The Fockers") directed movie, based on Jon Ronson‘s book about "how the medical community tries to diagnose and classify an elusive group: remorseless, deadly psychopaths." Kristin Gore (David O. Russell‘s aborted "Nailed" aka "Accidental Love") penned the script for the psychological thriller, which is set up at Universal.
Deadline also reports that Jerry Lewis is joining the Nicolas Cage movie "The Trust," playing the latter’s father. Whoa. Elijah Wood and Sky Ferreira co-star in the movie about "two corrupt cops who are stuck working the evidence room of the Las Vegas police department. When one discovers there is a vault full of drug money sealed in the back of a convenience store, both cops team up to pull a heist. Lewis will play the father of Cage’s crooked cop character." Production is now underway.
Phillip Noyce is out and Ewan McGregor is in to direct the forever developing adaptation of Philip Roth‘s "American Pastoral." McGregor will still star but also will helm his feature debut, with Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning in supporting roles, in the tale that follows Seymour ‘Swede’ Levov (McGregor), a legendary high school athlete who grows up to marry a former beauty queen (Connolly) and inherits his father’s business. Swede’s seemingly perfect life shatters when his daughter (Fanning) rebels by becoming a revolutionary and committing a deadly act of political terrorism during the Vietnam War. Lensing will begin September.
In today’s WTF news, Charlotte Rampling, Willie Nelson and Sophie Lowe will star in "Waiting For The Miracle To Come." Wim Wenders and Bono are producing, with the U2 frontman also writing a tune for the film, about a young woman whose quest for gold takes her on a far more rewarding journey than she could have ever imagined. Following the death of her father, aspiring trapeze artist Adeline Winter (Lowe) discovers a cryptic letter he once wrote directing her to a goldmine in a remote California desert. Upon arriving in a mysterious town, she finds herself at the gates of “The Beautiful Place,” a house occupied by retired vaudeville stars Jimmy and Dixie Riggs (Nelson and Rampling). As she gets to know this mysteriously eccentric couple, Adeline discovers that her father’s posthumous words were directing her to a reward far more valuable than gold. The magically surreal movie will film on Nelson’s ranch next month, with Lian Lunson directing.