Eric Lavallée

To those who thought making films with Star Wars figurines was a tad too infantile, today principle photography will begin on Joe Cornish’s alien invasion comedy feature film debut. The Adam & Joe Show creator who got his start by toying around, will re-team with Nick Frost on what is also being dubbed as an action adventure film, and the non-zombie flick lead and leader of a pack comes in the shape of Jodie Whittaker, whose body of work includes some feisty characters in Venus (the film that Peter O'Toole was nominated for at the Oscars - see pic below) and more recently, the horribly plain gangster film Perrier's Bounty.

Proving that the most difficult cinema to find financing for is national cinema (usually comprised with long takes, non-actors, low-budgets, cultural uniqueness, 35mm, and sublime cinematography), Cannes' 2010 L'Atelier Edition, now in its 6th year, contains some surprising names in vets Shinji Aoyama (middle), Nabil Ayouch, Jaime Rosales and Rithy Panh (left).

What happens when you become box office poison? You make adjustments to the career path and hope that an indie role in a dark comedy that was a featured as a 2008 Black List does the trick. That's what Will Ferrell did late last year, by signing up for Dan Rush's Everything Must Go - which was supposed to receive a green light early this year, but is obviously still in the casting stages. Today's add-on in Rebecca Hall points to a probable Spring start date.

You might not know it yet, but Chastain is the next best thing - especially if Terence Malick's The Tree of Life turns out to be golden. She has now been added to Ami Canaan Mann's The Fields as the film's co-lead.

Jennifer Connelly might rejoin her What's Wrong with Virginia? co-star Ed Harris in George Ratliff's Salvation Boulevard. Variety reports that Connelly, Greg Kinnear and possibly Marisa Tomei might join the already cast Pierce Brosnan, Jim Gaffigan and Harris in the film which will begin shooting next month.