Film News: Craig Make Take On Paranormal Foes; New Basterds Trailer; Heigl, Efron and Reynolds Tackle New Projects

- Daniel Craig in early talks to star in Dream House as a lead character that would be his biggest departure from "action hero" since taking on the iconic role of James Bond. Described as a psychological thriller, Dream House is about "a man who moves his family to an idyllic small town, only to find his house haunted by its former inhabitants, who were murdered there." [Hollywood Reporter]

- A new trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is online for your Brad Pitt viewing enjoyment. Basterds is set to open in US theaters on August 21, 2009.

- Katherine Heigl will co-executive produce and star in the drama Life as We Know It. The Grey's Anatomy star will play one of "two single people who suddenly become caregivers to an orphaned girl after the parents, their mutual best friends, are killed in an accident." The drama is a change from the comedies such as Knocked Up and 27 Dresses that have turned Heigl into a box office draw. [Hollywood Reporter]

- Zac Efron continues to work on building a career outside of the High School Musical franchise with a new big screen project. Efron is partnering with Juno producers Mandate Pictures and will executive produce and star in a project currently described as a sexy thriller. [Entertainment Weekly]

- Fresh off of his box office successes with The Proposal and Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds has chosen his next career move -- an indie thriller titled Buried. Reynolds will star as a civilian contractor working in Iraq who is kidnapped. When he awakens, the character finds himself buried in a coffin in the desert with nothing but a cell phone, a candle and a knife. Production is set to begin this month in Barcelona. [Variety]

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Film News: Bruno Crashes Into MTV Movie Awards, Another Alien in the Pipeline

- The MTV Movie Awards were held Sunday night, with sparkly vampire flick Twilight raking in a slew of awards including Best Movie, Best Female Performance (for actress Kristen Stewart), Breakthrough Performance - Male (for actor Robert Pattinson), Best Kiss and Best Fight. High School Musical actors took home two awards: Breakthrough Performance - Female (Ashley Tisdale) and Best Male Performance (Zac Efron). The biggest moment of the night however, was Sacha Baron Cohen (in character as gay fashionista Bruno) dive bombing straight into Eminem's lap while wearing chaps . . . and nothing underneath them. Needless to say, the following clip is NSFW. [MTV.com]

- Tony Scott, brother of Alien director Ridley Scott, has confirmed that 20th Century Fox is making a prequel to the 1979 sci-fi horror classic. In an interview with Collider website after the junket for his new film The Taking of Pelham 123, Tony Scott named Carl Rinsch as the new director and said that he hopes shooting on the film will begin by the end of the year. And that sound you hear? I'm pretty sure it's Pop Wench Joia railing at the heavens against this news . . . [Collider.com]

- Angelina Jolie was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure on Friday after suffering a slight injury while filming an action sequence. The brief hospital examination Jolie received after suffering a bump to the head did not hold up production on the upcoming action thriller Salt for long. Columbia Pictures' spokesman said that the actress was back on the set on Friday and filming resumed later that day. [Associated Press via Yahoo! News]

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- Steven Spielberg's 3-D motion-capture film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has been slated for a December 23, 2011 US release by Paramount and Sony studios. The 2011 Tintin movie is intended to be the first of a series produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) will star as the young, world-traveling reporter Tintin. Daniel Craig (playing nemesis Red Rackham), Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg costar. [Hollywood Reporter]

- A few days after Paul Verhoeven signed on to direct The Surrogate, it's been announced that Oscar-winner Halle Berry is in talks to topline the thriller. Berry would be one-half of a couple "who hire a surrogate to carry their child and fnd out mid-term that the surrogate is insane." [Variety]

- Natalie Portman has joined the cast of Your Highness alongside Danny McBride and James Franco. Portman plays a warrior princess and McBride's romantic interest in the film, which "centers on an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) who must complete a quest to save his father's kingdom. Franco plays the prince's "more heroic" brother. [Hollywood Reporter]

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