When first news broke out that Albert Hughes would be directing, there was a mention of Chris Evans might be toplining the Black List revenge flick, but according to Variety, it is Dominic Cooper (who recently proved he could do gangster with a high pitched voice in The Devil's Double) who'll go behind bars for Warner Bros.' Motor City.

Since the Nicolas Winding Refn arty biopic (Bronson), nothing has thwarted Tom Hardy's rise to leading (muscle) man status. Upcoming 2011 and 2012 releases in Warrior, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, This Means War, The Wettest County in the World, The Dark Knight Rises and eventually Mad Max: Fury Road prove that bulking up can reward one with top commodity status in Hollywood. TTB reports that Hardy has added one more action-thriller project to his workload - Hummingbird could begin production as early as 2012, somewhere between when Nolan is finished with the actor and when George Miller begins the four film in the Mad Max franchise.

Following in the footsteps of fellow Quebecois filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee, Denis Villeneuve is capitalizing on the success of his internationally beloved Incendies to capture a Hollywood directing role. 24 Frames is reporting the Maelstrom helmer has just signed on to direct the long-in-development vigilante thriller, Prisoners.

Based on their upcoming 3D film Immortals, Relativity Media and Archaia Entertainment’s Black Label division have teamed up to produce and publish a graphic novel anthology of the same name.

For a woman most people have never heard of, hers is a story that’s been getting some serious attention from a couple of cinematic heavyweights over the last few months. Her life plays out like an Indiana Jones script re-written by the team behind Lawrence of Arabia.

The revolving door that is the cast of Sheldon Turner’s directorial debut seems to be finally slowing down. Beginning last year, both Colin Farrel and Eric Bana were in talks for By Virtue Fall with Hurt Locker’s Nicolas Chartier producing. Then it was speculated that Farrel was off the project with Jeremy Renner in to take his place.

We have been hearing casting rumours since early-February when Anton Yelchin landed the title role in Odd Thomas, and emerging from a long list of young starlets is Lily Collins, who has read for, and been extended an offer to play the female lead. Collins, daughter of singer/songwriter Phil, beat out a stellar shortlist that included Kat Dennings, Emma Roberts, Addison Timlin and Portia Doubleday to play Stormy Llewellyn, the girlfriend of Yelchin’s Thomas.

Paramount had to look no further than Magnolia Pictures for their latest project – an adaptation of Billy Corben’s documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Optioned awhile back with names like Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg attached, it is now World Trade Center writer Andrea Berloff who'll take over script duties from Generation Kill writer Evan Wright, whose book on the subject, American Desperado: My Life — From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset, will be published in November.

After slowly emerging from bankruptcy under the leadership of Spyglass partners Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber and converting it’s enormous debt of $4.25 billion into equity, MGM is now looking to be make it’s first major franchise play with a remake of an old cashcow: Robo Cop. Deadline is reporting the studio is in talks with Brazilian director Jose Padilha to revitalize the futuristic 1987 film originally directed by Paul Verhoeven that spawned two sequels, a variety of television adaptations, video games and a great deal of merchandising.

Could Emily Blunt be the new "go-to" girl for futuristic sci-fi films? With Universal currently getting ready to push her presence in The Adjustment Bureau and fresh from her gig on Looper, it appears Blunt might be in talks to star opposite Keanu Reeves in Passengers -- the Universal project is slated to be directed by Gabriele Muccino.

Perhaps we'll be seeing the comic timing of In Bruges' Colin Farrell in a 2009 Black List script that appears to be nearing a production start date. Seth Gordon who has moved into a career split between docs films with a funny bone and studio comedies (upcoming Horrible Bosses) was recently tied up to direct, and Farrell might topline the what is being called a romantic dramady in Celeste and Jesse Forever. An April start date is apparently the aim.

Sony has made a low-figure development buy for the English-language remake rights to Austrian helmer Benjamin Heisenberg's Der Rauber. We're not sure if the new film will be going by the simple title of The Robber, but we do know that Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin is heading the project.

Despite recently acting as a producer to help other Mexican filmmakers rise to prominence, it has been a long wait for a new film by Children of Men helmer Alfonso Cuaron. The wait will not last much longer. His next effort, Gravity, has attracted some big names along the way – Angelina Jolie, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. Now, perhaps the biggest name of all, George Clooney, will join Sandra Bullock in the expensive sci-fi thriller and finally allow the film to enter production.

Hollywood casting agents can now look no further than Jeopardy when searching for smart, young talent. Thirteen year-old Thomas Horn has signed on to star in Stephen Daldry’s film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” after winning $31,800 in prize money on Jeopardy back in October.

Days before The Black List reveals their most liked unproduced screenplays of 2010, The Tracking Board have released their very own version of a best of list, with a different kind of science and mandate: focus on spec scripts (those that circulate without representation). David Guggenheim's Safe House was the top vote-getter and has an interesting story itself which was featured in the L.A Times at the beginning of the year.

Call this the "Social Network" week for casting. Armie Hammer gets cast in a film for Eastwood. Jesse Eisenberg is working on an indie film right before the holidays, and post Xmas, we can expect to see Max Minghella join the great ensemble in The Ides of March which was formerly known as Farragut North. Minghella has landed the role of Ben Harper.

Armie Hammer’s role as both Winklevoss twins in The Social Network continues to earn praise (unfortunately not enough for any Best Supporting mentions) and now it’s earned him a prestigious role in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar Hoover biopic, currently titled “J. Edgar.” Hammer will play Clyde Tolson, a lawyer who entered the FBI as a clerk and worked his way up to Associate Director and ultimately became Hoover’s protégé.

The revival of John Hillcoat’s The Wettest Country in the World continues as news surfaces that Tom Hardy will join Shia LaBeouf to play two of three brothers in the director’s follow-up to The Road. Based on the Matt Bondurant novel of the same name, the adaptation, penned by The Proposition writer Nick Cave, fell apart after The Road underperformed and caused Hillcoat’s financial backer on both projects, Millenium Films, to downsize.

Cate Blanchett will be reprising her role of Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit, New Line, Warner Bros. and MGM announced Tuesday. Also on board are Ken Stott (Charlie Wilson’s War) as Dwarf Lord Balin, Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who #7) as wizard Radagast the Brown, LOTR bit-player Jed Brophy as dwarf Nori, William Kircher as dwarf Bifur, Ryan Gage as Drogo Baggins and finally Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt to play shape-shifter Beorn. We imagine that the cast will appear in both portions.

It worked once before, so why not try again? This is the thinking behind writer/director Neill Blomkamp’s next sci-fi feature project, Elysium. With District 9, Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson adapted themes from the director’s short Alive in Joburg and hired long-time friend Sharlto Copley to star.