David O. Russell’s next movie is coming together fast — thanks to the imminent commitment of Scarlett Johansson to star alongside its producer and leading man, Vince Vaughn. Vulture hears that Vaughn’s Wild West Picture Show production company has landed Johansson to star in Old St. Louis, a Paper Moon–esque road movie about a divorced traveling toy salesman who reconnects with his teen daughter after years on the road. Johansson would play Vaughn’s paramour, a secretary who accompanies them on their cross-country sales jaunt.

Insiders tell Vulture that the project had been around for years — earlier in the decade, it was called Toy Men and set up for Sony’s Columbia Pictures, with a script alternately worked on by Steve Pink (the screenwriter of movies like Gross Pointe Blank and High Fidelity and, more recently, the director of Hot Tub Time Machine) and Allen Loeb (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps). But now that it’s been so thoroughly rewritten by Russell, it bears only his name — and a new title.

Creative Artists Agency, which reps both Johansson and Vaughn, is in the midst of raising the financing for the $20 million indie project, but we hear it’s already closing in on a deal with Universal Pictures to distribute the drama, which is expected to start shooting this October.

source: NYmag

Ryan Reynolds has signed on as narrator and exec producer of “The Whale,” a docu about a wild killer whale that causes upheaval in a small town when he tries to befriend human beings.

Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit directed the film, produced by Mountainside Films. Reynolds signed on to the project because he had a personal connection to the film, which was set near his hometown of Vancouver, B.C.

“The Whale” is the true story of a baby killer whale, nicknamed Luna, who gets separated from his family on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island. As rambunctious and surprising as a visitor from another planet, Luna endears himself to humans with his determination to make friends, which leads to laughter, conflict and unexpected consequences.

Scarlett Johansson and Eric Desatnik are also exec producing and Desatnik’s handling U.S. sales of the film. World sales are by PBS Intl.

source: Variety

When rumors hit the Web that the Kurt Cobain biopic had found its leads in Robert Pattinson and Scarlett Johansson, the idea that Pattinson would portray the indie rocker was quickly dismissed. But fans shouldn’t give up on the prospect of Johansson playing the Hole frontwoman, because she hasn’t ruled it out just yet.

“I know that there is a script. That’s as much as I know about it,” she told MTV News while promoting “Iron Man 2.” “I’m a big fan of Courtney’s, and I think she’s very, very talented. But I don’t know anything about the project.”

Johansson — who released an album with Pete Yorn last year and also an album of Tom Waits covers in 2008 — said that despite her musical chops, playing the female rocker would be a different sort of role for her. “It would be a challenge, definitely would be a challenge,” she said. “I think the idea is interesting and intriguing, but I would have to really wrap my head around it.”Recently, Love’s manager, Jonathan Daniel, told Spin that Courtney wouldn’t mind seeing the ingénue play her on the big screen. He also confirmed that the RPattz casting rumors were just that: rumors. “Courtney likes Scarlett Johansson as an actress and as a person, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she wanted her to play her,” Daniel told the magazine. “I’m not sure she knows who RPattz is, but he sure is cute.”

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Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson will topline a Broadway revival of Arthur Miller drama A View From the Bridge, bowing at the Cort Theater later this season.

Johansson, who recently wrapped production on Iron Man 2, makes her Rialto debut in the role. Schreiber was last on Broadway in the 2007 revival of Talk Radio and won a Tony for Glengarry Glen Ross in 2005.

Gregory Mosher, the director and producer who is also the director of the Arts Initiative at Columbia U., helms. His most recent Broadway directing credit was a 1992 staging of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin.

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For the a new remake of Frankenstein, they want Bride Zilla to be played by someone “along the lines of Scarlett Johansson”. The role was originally played by Elsa Lanchester. What do you guys think? Is this a role you’d like to see Scarlett play?

“The Bride of Frankenstein will be young this time. They’re looking for a person with great power and sex appeal. Someone along the lines of Scarlett Johansson or Anne Hathaway.”
The wild-haired bride was originally played by English actress Elsa Lanchester.
The film follows on from ‘Frankenstein’ – which sees Dr. Frankenstein bring a ‘human’ to life from separate body parts – and sees the doctor create a partner for the monster.

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A few news sources have reported today that Scarlett will be taking part in a four part ITV series hosted by Fearne Cotton titled Ferne and…

Presenter Fearne Cotton is to shadow four famous women, including Scarlett Johansson and Paris Hilton, for a new ITV2 series in which she will attempt to find out what makes them tick.

The four part series, Fearne and…, which will also feature Alesha Dixon and Peaches Geldof, will see Cotton follow the stars at work and play through their daily lives as well as meeting their friends and families.

Not sure how I feel about this. If it’s done well (more like a documentary), I will probably watch it. What do you all think?

The play is still in previews at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre, but writer Dan Gordon is already eyeing a film version of Irena’s Vow, and he’s got a particular star in mind: Scarlett Johansson. Gordon, author of the screenplays for movies such as Passenger 57, Wyatt Earp and The Hurricane, told The New York Times that initial overtures have been made to Johansson to play World War II heroine Irena Gut Opdyke in an independent feature film version that he plans to adapt and direct himself this fall.

Tovah Feldshuh is playing Irena on Broadway in a performance in which she shifts from an old woman narrating her own story to flashback scenes as an 18-year-old Polish Catholic teenager. During the German occupation of Poland, Irena was forced to work as head housekeeper for a prominent Nazi major. During her two years of service, she risked her life in order to save the lives of 12 Jewish refugees whom she secretly took under her care.

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Some more Ironman 2 gossip from DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com:

I’ve already posted my scoop that Mickey Rourke will play the Russian villain in Iron Man 2 in a Marvel Studios deal that started out lowball and went up a lot. Now I’m told that Emily Blunt won’t be in the sequel and Black Widow will now be played by Scarlett Johannson. (Interesting because Scarlett actually screen-tested for the role and didn’t get it.) But I hear that, unlike Mickey’s money, the deal for her is “just the opposite, a terrible deal made by CAA,” one of my insiders says. “It’s as bad as any deal that I’ve heard. It’s lowball money. And it ties her to countless movies, including that ensemble The Avengers, which is what makes this brutal for a lot of actors.” As for Blunt, I’m told she fell out not by choice but only because Fox exercised an option that the studio had from The Devil Wears Prada to make her do the upcoming film starring Jack Black, Gullivers Travels.

Scarlett Johansson has said she would love to star in an action movie full of stunts.

The 24-year-old actress – who has had some action scenes in The Island and The Spirit – is tipped for the lead roll in new movie The Amazon Warrior, set in 200 BC.

Scarlett told the Daily Telegraph: “I think I’m supposed to be a gladiatrix. These film guys are crazy about gladiatrixes. But do I fit into the Amazon mould? I’m a Danish/Jewish girl from New York. I’ve done weapons training. I’ve fired all kinds of guns: 9mm semi-automatics, machine guns, shotguns. I’ve jumped off a 60ft building. I learnt to ride for The Horse Whisperer. But I’ve never done a full-on action role.

“I guess I’m still waiting for my Cirque du Soleil moment. It would be fun.”

Source: Google.com