-- Darren Aronofsky may be busy with "Black Swan" -- which sounds a lot like "Fight Club" with ballerinas to me -- but he's going to need something more grounded as a follow-up to 2008's Oscar-winning "The Wrestler." And here it is. The filmmaker has partnered with Time Inc. Studios and XYZ Films to direct/produce an "indie heist thriller" based on the 2006 robbery of the Securitas Depot in Tonbridge, England, in which thieves made off with roughly $85 million. (Variety)

-- Columbia Pictures has picked up the rights to Lucy Prebble's stage play "Enron," which chronicles the high-profile fall of the Texas energy concern. Prebble will adapt her script for film and Laura Ziskin will produce, though no additional cast or crew players have yet been revealed. (Variety) Read more...

It pleases me immensely that I'm able to type the following sentence: "28th century soldier Major Mitch Hunter leads a fight against an army of underworld NecroMutants." That's the one-line synopsis for "Mutant Chronicles," an upcoming sci-fi indie film that boasts an esteemed cast of no less than John Malkovich, Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman.

Based on an early '90s role-playing game, the movie finds four corporations duking it out over the planet's remaining resources when an errant bomb inadvertently unleaches a horde of mutants. Jane (as Hunter) must battle to save humanity, and along the way encounters Brother Samuel (Perlman) and Constantine (Malkovich). Got it? The film will premiere on HDNet Ultra VOD on Friday, March 27th, 2009, followed by a theatrical release in select cities on Friday, April 24. Click here or on the photo below for exclusive photos from "Mutant Chronicles."

There's a lot to enjoy in the Coen brother's deliciously diabolical new comedy, "Burn After Reading," but probably my favorite performance is the slow (and sometimes fast) burn of John Malkovich. As I've been saying since I saw it, any movie that ends with a scene involving Malkovich in a bathrobe with a gun in one hand and a drink in the other, is a movie I'm going to like. Malkovich tangles with Brad Pitt through much of the film, including one memorable squabble that ends with a punch to the face of the sometime sexiest man alive. Watch as Malkovich talks about the fears associated with said punch below.

It's a good time to be an Amy in Hollywood these days, with Adams taking off in "Enchanted," Sedaris going mainstream in "Shrek 3," and Smart continuing to line up indie gigs. The busiest actress out of them all, however, might just be Ryan.

Besides busting out in the recent critical fave "Gone Baby Gone," audiences have seen her this year in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and "Dan in Real Life." And these days, the New York native is happily working on the legendary Clint Eastwood's next high-profile flick.

"I've done one day, and I go back in December to finish...I have about a week and-a-half more to do," she explained of "The Changeling," a film that co-stars Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich. "I play a woman who befriends Angelina, when they're both in this dire situation."

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