The April 2006 issue of Total Film features a blurb about The Black Dahlia, which lists the film’s release date in the UK for November 11, 2006. According to Total Film, Maggie Gyllenhaal was the first choice to play Kay Lake, the role that Scarlett eventually landed. Of Johansson, De Palma is quoted saying: “I’d say she’s one of the finest actresses working today, but I think that underestimates her talent.” ( source )

Also, Josh Hartnett recently spoke to ninemsn and he was asked of his relationship with Scarlett.

Josh, you are soon going to be starring in The Black Dahlia with the very sexy Scarlett Johansson. Can we expect to see a little bit of on screen sizzle?
Hartnett: “Probably yeah. She and I, and Hilary (Swank) and I, both have some full-on scenes.”

Apparently Napoleon and Betsy has stirred up some controversy in the press because of the fact that the movie is about a relationship between a 14-year old girl and Napoleon Bonaparte, her senior of 32 years. Bonaparte was befriended by English teen Betsy Balcombe, to be played by Johansson, when he was exiled to the South Atlantic island St. Helena in 1815. Although he was supposedly a kindly uncle figure to Balcombe, who lived there with her merchant father and siblings, director Benjamin Ross is keen to give their story a saucier slant. Historian Peter Hicks fumes, “It was a platonic relationship. It would be ridiculous to suggest anything else.”

But Ross has hit back, saying, “The facts are very interpretable. I’d be delighted to get historians jumping and down.” ( source )

Andrew Lloyd Webber recently revealed that he had decided to pull out of negotiations to get Scarlett Johansson to play Maria in the new West End stage production of The Sound of Music, because although she had been keen, her “people” were against the plan. ( source )