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The Rock has signed on to star in a live-action version of 1960s cartoon The Adventures Of Jonny Quest.

Hanna-Barbera's original animation revolved around an 11-year-old boy called Jonny, who accompanied his doctor father on a series of extraordinary adventures.

Speaking to Moviehole, the former wrestler, real name Dwayne Johnson, confirmed that he will play Race Bannon, a special agent who is hired by Jonny's father to act as his son's bodyguard.

"I don't know if you've read the latest [draft] but it's awesome and it's badass and I...hadn't read an action script like that in a long time. And that action was unbelievable. That will happen," he said.

Quest could see Johnson reunited with his Game Plan director Andy Hickman, who has been tipped to helm the project.

High School Musical star Zac Efron has reportedly emerged as the studio's favourite to play Jonny, despite being ten years older than the original character.

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Madonna has said that she wants to play Wallis Simpson in a film about the American socialite who had an affair with Prince Edward.

The singer is said to see similarities between herself and Simpson, The Sun reports.

King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936 so that he could marry Simpson, who has been played by Faye Dunaway, Cynthia Harris and Joely Richardson in past dramatisations of her story.

A friend said: "Madonna sees Wallis Simpson as her next big film project. She is as passionate about it as she was about playing Eva Peron in Evita.

"Madonna said she is fascinated about this American commoner who refused to conform or offer explanations for her tangled love life."

The friend claimed that the film was being planned before the star's divorce halted proceedings, but said that Madonna is now keen to restart the project.

Last week, a naked photograph of the 'Miles Away' singer sold for $37,500 (£26,100) at an auction at Christie's.

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Keri Russell will join Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser in the cast of CBS Films's Crowley.

The movie, based on a true story, will focus on John (Fraser) and Aileen Crowley (Russell), whose two children suffered from a fatal neuromuscular disorder. While Aileen attempted to give her sick children a stable upbringing, John and maverick scientist Robert Stonehill (Ford) searched for potential cure for the disease.

"At the heart of this story is an exemplary mother in Aileen Crowley," said CBS Films president Amy Baer. "It was important that we find an actress who could portray incredible maternal sensitivity combined with the steadfastness of a woman on a mission. Keri has the talent to depict both with striking balance."

Tom Vaughan (What Happens In Vegas) will direct the drama, the first from CBS's newly-formed film division.

Russell, who rose to prominence in J.J. Abrams's TV show Felicity, has recently appeared in Bedtime Stories, Waitress and Mission Impossible III.

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Anvil played a surprise show at the British premiere of the documentary film about their career.

The band performed four tracks at the screening of Anvil! The Story Of Anvil at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.

The showing was part of the Secret Cinema series, NME reports.

Anvil played 'This Is Thirteen', '666', 'White Rhino' and 'Metal On Metal' and were joined by Scott Ian of Anthrax on the final number.

Frontman Steve Kudlow said: "We did this recently in LA and you guys smoked them!"

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil is directed by Sacha Gervasi and charts the ups and downs of the Canadian metal band, who are now in their 50s but still follow their rock dreams.

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Paul Rudd is in negotiations to join the cast of Jay Roach's comedy Dinner With Schmucks, reports Entertainment Weekly.

The long-in-development DreamWorks project is based on Francis Veber's French movie Le Diner de Cons, where guests are invited to bring the stupidest person they know to dinner. After their companions leave, they take a vote on who brought the least intelligent person.

Rudd will play a self-absorbed man unaware that his hosts are judging him.

Sacha Baron Cohen was earmarked for a role back in 2006, but dropped out due to scheduling problems. Steve Carell has been offered a part, though he has yet to accept.

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Jeffrey Dean Morgan has hinted that there will never be a sequel to forthcoming superhero movie Watchmen.

The actor plays The Comedian in the highly-anticipated blockbuster, which follows a group of vigilantes working in the Cold War period of 1985.

Speaking to Moviehole, he said: "We are all signed for sequels... but I’d say unless Alan Moore says he’s gonna write something, we’ll never see Watchmen 2.

"I doubt [director] Zach [Snyder] would do another and without him, I wouldn’t go back, and I can’t imagine any of the other actors would want to either."

He added: "I’d love to be a fly-on-the-wall in the meeting in which someone brings up a Watchmen sequel, especially if it happens with Zach around, because he won’t want any part of it. I think this is it; what you see, is what you get. It was always a oner for me."

Watchmen is released in the UK on March 6.

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Angela Bassett has blasted Woody Allen for the lack of African Americans in his movies.

The actress, who can currently be seen playing late rapper Biggie Smalls's mother Voletta Wallace in Notorious, told The Daily Telegraph that she is unhappy with the portrayal of a black woman in Allen's latest film Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

She said: "I mean, to have one black cast member for the whole film seems rather strange, and, oh yes, she's a prostitute, of course.

"Don't get me wrong, I love Spain and it looked beautiful, but that part of the world is so diverse and, really, what is that about?"

Bassett, who won an Oscar nomination for playing Tina Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It, added that she has no desire to work with Allen.

"I wouldn't want to. He's a little weird," she said.

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Hasbro's musclebound toy Stretch Armstrong will become the star of his own movie.

Steve Oedekerk (Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty) has been commissioned by Universal to write a script based on the action figure, whose limbs can stretch up to four feet.

Hollywood has been trying to make a Stretch Armstrong movie for more than ten years, with Disney at separate times hiring Danny DeVito and Jackie Chan to lead the proposed blockbuster.

Last year, Universal inked an exclusive partnership deal with Hasbro to make movies from their toy and board game brands. The agreement was prompted by the success of Transformers and Paramount's decision to make a film from the G.I. Joe toy line.

Other Hasbro movies in development include Ridley Scott's Monopoly, Candy Land and Ouija.

"This is a new well from which to draw intellectual properties that bring a pre-awareness and nostalgia," Stretch Armstrong producer Bennett Schneir told Variety. "They are drawing filmmakers who find a real emotional connection and resonance, and this is proving to be a compelling driver for motion pictures."

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Emily Blunt has praised her Young Victoria co-star Rupert Friend, describing him as "the definition of a real man".

The Devil Wears Prada actress stars opposite Friend in the upcoming biopic, which documents the budding romance between the Queen (Blunt) and Prince Albert (Friend).

"I tell you, hearts will melt over Rupert. He is the definition of a real man in the film," she reportedly told Harper's Bazaar.

"He has such dignity about him naturally. He brought a likeability and selflessness to Albert without making him look weak."

Earlier this week, Blunt's co-star Harriet Walter confessed that she "fell in love" with the British actor during filming, joking: "I wished I'd been 20 years younger and Rupert Friend was a possibility!"

The Young Victoria will be released in the UK on March 6.

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A farmhouse made famous as Uncle Monty's cottage in Withnail And I has been bought by a local Cumbrian resident.

Sleddale Hall was put up for auction by former owners United Utilities with a guide price of £145,000.

After hearing of the sale, fans of the cult film launched an online campaign in the hope of saving the piece of "Britain’s cultural history" from falling into the hands of developers.

The organisers of the auction have now confirmed that a local resident has purchased the property, says ITN.

Withnail And I followed actors Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and Marwood (Paul McGann) on a ill-fated trip from Camden Town to Uncle Monty's (Richard Griffiths) countryside cottage.

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Madonna has reportedly written to the Queen to gain permission to make a film about Wallis Simpson.

The singer is said to want to play the role because she sees similarities between herself and the American mistress to the former Prince Of Wales.

The 50-year-old has researched the part thoroughly and has her heart set on playing Simpson, whose affair with King Edward VIII caused him to abdicate the thrown in 1936, reports the Daily Mail.

Although Madonna apparently put plans to make the film on hold during her divorce, she is still reported to be passionate about the project.

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Halle Berry has signed up to star in fact-based heist movie Who Is Doris Payne?, according to Variety.

Scripted by Eunetta Boone, the project will follow the career of international jewel thief Doris Payne, whose criminal career stretched five decades.

Payne, who is still alive, committed a string of major robberies at jewellery stores such as Tiffany's in New York and Cartier in Monte Carlo. She never carried a gun and always preferred to use her smooth talk and good looks to walk away with expensive items.

She was eventually arrested in 2003 and served a two-year sentence.

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Elton John will executive produce an alien-themed adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice.

The popstar's Rocket Pictures company has picked up Will Clark, Andrew Kemble and John Pape's script Pride And Predator, which sees the Bennet sisters and Mr. Darcy fighting an alien that crash lands in Longbourn.

Clark will direct the movie, with Rocket partners Steve Hamilton Shaw and David Furnish producing.

"It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect," Furnish told Variety.

Pride And Predator is not the first film project to put a fresh spin on Austen's story. Last week it emerged that several Hollywood studios were bidding for the film rights to Seth Grahame-Smith's parody novel Pride And Prejudice And Zombies.

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Jennifer Aniston's He's Just Not That Into You has debuted at number one at the Aussie box office.

The ensemble rom-com took over $3 million in its opening week, knocking Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino into second place.

Ricky Gervais's comedy Ghost Town climbs 15 spots to third, while thriller My Bloody Valentine debuts at six.

The top ten in full:

1. (-) He's Just Not That Into You - $3,083,321
2. (1) Gran Torino - $959,749
3. (18) Ghost Town - $793,385
4. (2) Slumdog Millionaire -$741,489
5. (3) Transporter 3 - $504,060
6. (-) My Bloody Valentine 3-D - $485,989
7. (4) Changeling - $452,428
8. (5) Bride Wars - $299,376
9. (9) Australia - $254,838
10. (6) Valkyrie - $245,453

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Robert Downey Jr and Reese Witherspoon are in talks to star in science fiction movie The Days Before, according to Production Weekly.

The story concerns a race of aliens who travel back in time and invade Earth in an attempt to wipe out the human race. Downey will play a man who must stay one step ahead of the time-travelling extraterrestrials to warn the world of their imminent arrival.

Witherspoon's role is unknown at this point, though the actress recently voiced her desire to star in an action movie.

Timur Bekmambetov, the director behind last summer's Wanted, has been approached to helm the Warner Bros film.

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Megan Fox has been named the sexiest sci-fi actress of all time.

The Transformers star nabbed 33% of the vote, beating competition from Halle Berry and Natalie Portman to top the poll carried out by MSN Movies.

"There's no denying Megan Fox is a compelling choice for a new generation of sci-fi fans," said SFX Magazine editor David Bradley. "She sizzled on screen in Transformers.

MSN Movies editor Ed Holden added: "Sci-fi is full of strong female characters that capture the imagination of the movie-going public. When Transformers was launched just two years ago Megan Fox was an instant hit with fans."

X-Men actress Halle Berry claimed 26% of the vote to rank second, while Milla Jovovich's performance in The Fifth Element was placed third with 17%.

Over 59,000 movie fans completed the survey, which also saw Star Wars actresses Natalie Portman and Carrie Fisher secure 8% of the vote to tie for fourth place with Aliens star Sigourney Weaver.

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Oscar-winning Departed screenwriter William Monahan is to pen Shia LaBeouf thriller The Associate, reports Variety.

The John Grisham adaptation will see LaBeouf take on the role of a Yale graduate who is blackmailed into working for a prestigious law firm and given sensitive information about a multi-billion dollar suit.

LaBeouf's interest in the book was sparked when he read the then-unpublished manuscript on the set of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who also oversees the robot franchise, quickly snapped up the movie rights for Paramount and secured LaBeouf for the lead role.

Monahan will begin work on his directorial debut London Boulevard this summer. He is also attached to helm crime movie Heist.

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Isla Fisher has revealed that she met spending addicts to research her role in comedy Confessions Of A Shopaholic.

Speaking at the UK press conference to promote the movie, Fisher said: "I researched the shopping end of the character by visiting some overspender-underearner groups, who are essentially shopaholics."

The Australian actress admitted that she found their plight upsetting and chose not to bring that element to her character Rebecca Bloomwood.

"Rather sadly their lives have become unmanageable because of their shopping addiction," she added. "I didn't want to focus on that side of it, it's supposed to be escapist fun."

Confessions Of A Shopaholic, based on Sophie Kinsella's best-selling novel, is released in cinemas tomorrow.

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Isla Fisher has credited fiancé Sacha Baron Cohen for her successful movie career.

Fisher, who stars in this week's rom-com Confessions Of A Shopaholic, revealed that Borat creator Cohen encouraged her to pursue comedy roles after she found it difficult to win parts in weighty dramas.

"Sacha was the reason I got into comedy," she said at Shopaholic's UK press conference. "I was actually auditioning for a lot of dramatic roles and having no success at all and losing confidence in my abilities when he recommended that I do comedy.

"He always felt that I was really funny and when someone as funny as him recommends that, I listen to him. I auditioned for Wedding Crashers, which ended up being my big break."

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Joss Whedon has confessed that studio executives kept him "completely in the dark" when he worked on a proposed Wonder Woman movie.

The Dollhouse creator suggested to Maxim that Warner Bros and producer Joel Silver were at fault for the blockbuster's demise because they refused to tell him what they wanted.

"I have no idea the status of the movie and, honestly, I never did," he said. "I was told they were very anxious to make it. I wrote a script. I rewrote the story. And by the time I'd written the second script, they asked me... not to."

Whedon added that Warner Bros's indecisive approach to making the superhero movie left him baffled.

"They didn't tell me to leave, but they showed me the door and how pretty it was. Would I like to touch the knob and maybe make it swing?" he joked.

"I was dealing with them through Joel Silver who couldn't tell me what they wanted or anything else. I was completely in the dark. So I didn't know what it was that I wasn't giving them. I've moved on."