BBC - Movies -news article - High Noon

		Bardem Takes Five, Ditches Nine Javier Bardem has quit his leading role in Nine. He had been gearing up to shoot this adaptation of the Broadway musical late last year, but the writers' strike meant it was postponed. Now the Spanish star is said to want a break from making movies and may even take as long as a year to 'recharge his batteries' after an exhausting run in Hollywood. "Javier personally asked me if we could move production to February," says exec producer Harvey Weinstein, "but we just couldn't do it. He is an amazing talent and I know we'll work together in the future, very soon." Perhaps an advert for Red Bull?

		Gandolfini On A Loop James Gandolfini has been brought Into The Loop by BBC Films. It's a political satire from Armando Iannucci and the rest of the team behind award-winning BBC TWO sitcom The Thick Of It. Producer Adam Tandy says the film will be "set in the same world" as the sitcom - that is, the backrooms of Whitehall - but he won't reveal whether the same characters will be involved. He's also keeping the plot under wraps. There is no word on Gandolfini's role. Of course he's best know for playing Tony Soprano, a brash, slightly bumbling American tyrant who wouldn't think twice before bringing out the big guns. Hmm…

		Carrey Cares For Santoro Rodrigo Santoro will steal Jim Carrey's heart in I Love You, Phillip Morris. He's best known for playing a rather camp Xerxes in 300, and in this comedy from Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Bad Santa) he'll pucker up as the titular prison inmate. Carrey's character is a married father who falls for Morris after being sent to jail. After the young man is released, he makes several escape attempts just to be with him. Leslie Mann (who played Debbie in Knocked Up) is already on board to play Carrey's cuckolded wife. Hide the garden shears.

		Kingsley & Cruz Air The Elegy Sony Pictures have nabbed the rights to Elegy starring Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley. Spanish helmer Isabel Coixet has already called it a wrap on this drama based on Philip Roth's short novel The Dying Animal. Kingsley plays a literature professor who has an affair with Cruz playing a beautiful young student. The professor struggles to make a commitment and, years later, is faced with the consequences of his indecisiveness. We're guessing, he dies? The film premiered to much acclaim at the recent Berlin Film Festival. Rounding out the cast are Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson, Peter Sarsgaard and Deborah Harry of Blondie fame.

		Clock Goes Big Time Clock Tower is the latest videogame to get the big screen treatment. Martin Weisz has been hired to direct this spooky thriller following a woman who is committed to an insane asylum and, according to the blurb, 'is haunted by a horror she does not understand'. Perhaps she was forced to sit through The Hills Have Eyes 2, the last film directed by Mr Weisz. No doubt Jessica Alba is sitting by the phone, bosom frantically heaving, as we speak.