While it stars some great names in the world of film, we haven't heard too much about Easy Virtue. But now, as it gears up for that spanky Canadian festival known as TIFF, CinEmpire has published a whole slew of pictures -- a retro Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, and more.

The film focuses on an American divorcee (Biel) who has to meet the parents (but hopefully without the cat milking). But unlike Stiller's version, she's already tied the knot with a sexy young Englishman (Barnes), so Mom (Scott Thomas) and Dad (Firth) can't stop the wedding. But I'm sure there'll be lots of dirty looks, and more than one smirk, like the one above.

Virtue is yet another romcom, but at least it heads back in time a little, and originally comes from a Noel Coward play that Alfred Hitchcock adapted years ago as a dramatic silent film. Good or bad, we'll find out soon enough.

[via The Bad and Ugly]

Imagine you're a green alien living happily among other green aliens on a tiny planet somewhere. Then one day an astronaut from Earth shows up and starts terrifying everyone. And he has the voice of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson! Except maybe contractual stipulations demand that he not be called "The Rock" anymore. Still! Scary!

That's the premise of Planet 51, a computer-animated comedy that has finally, after some shuffling, been acquired by Sony and scheduled for a Thanksgiving 2009 release. The voice cast includes Johnson, Gary Oldman, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, John Cleese, and Jessica Biel. The directors are a trio of video game programmers named Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad, and Marcos Martinez, and the script is by Joe Stillman, who co-wrote the first two Shrek films.

As we reported last November, Planet 51 was originally picked up by New Line and would have been that studio's first CG release. Then New Line was folded into Warner Bros., so the film became that studio's property, and they planned to release it next summer. But according to Variety, Planet 51's producers wanted it to come out this November instead -- and that didn't work for Warners because they're already releasing a Harry Potter film in that slot. So they let the film go, and now Sony has it. The producers will get their November release date, but it'll be 2009, not 2008. Presumably, everyone's happy now.

But should they be?

Yup, I'm totally serious. This one exploded late last night; it was all over my RSS Feeds, plus I've received, like, 7 emails about it. I'm sure you already know what I'm going to say, but in case you don't -- check this out: Megan Fox is hot. OH, and sexy. Fo shizzle my Cinezzle! Yes, Megan Fox (who you might remember as Sydney from Hope & Faith) was just named the sexiest woman in the world by FHM Magazine. (Voting for sexiest girl in the universe begins next month.) Fox, of course, became a household name after starring in I'm Totally Hot: The Movie (aka Transformers) last summer. (And on a side note: I wonder what her boyfriend did this morning? Do you think he woke up, locked the bathroom door, and high-fived his reflection in the mirror? Because I would totally do that if I was dating the hottest girl in the world.)

Last year's "champion," Jessica Alba, got knocked up and fell down to third place, while Jessica Biel (2), Elisha Cuthbert (4) and Scarlett Johansson (5) rounded out the top five. Biel? Really? I still don't see the appeal. Same goes for Cuthbert -- have you seen her in person? Girl is like four inches tall. Anyway, this came via a reader poll and FHM says 9 million votes were cast. For those wondering (and I know there's a lot of you), Paris Hilton landed at number 77 and Britney Spears placed at the very bottom ... number 100. Hey, God bless the gal for even making it, right?

And now, of course, our obligatory "Megan Fox is hot" photo gallery. Enjoy!

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This is one of those movies that has a premise so incredibly bizarre, yet has cast so strong, that I figure there is some promise I am simply not seeing. David O. Russell's romantic comedy Nailed already stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel, and The Hollywood Reporter says that the film has now added Catherine Keener, James Marsden and Tracy Morgan to the cast.

The plot follows a naive waitress, Alice, who is shot in the head with a nail. The injury causes her behavior to be erratic and outrageous (the IMDb says it causes her to become a sexually adventurous bombshell), and she heads to Washington to campaign on behalf of better health care for the freakishly injured. She ends up falling for a young and clueless new congressman, who must summon up his political courage to save her. Biel plays the waitress, Gyllenhaal the congressman. Keener will be playing a self-serving congresswoman, and Marsden the small-town boyfriend of Alice. Hopefully he's not the one who shot her with a nail. Morgan's character has yet to be decided.

Like I said, there is probably something I am not seeing. The script is penned by Russell and Kristen Gore, so the charm must lie there. But is the waitress' naivete the reason she was shot in the head? Or is she naive because she thinks her insurance will cover the cost of her injury? And must James Marsden lose a girl not only to Wolverine, to Superman and to Patrick Dempsey, but to Congressman Jake Gyllenhaal too?

To be fair, I'm willing to give Mr. Russell a fair shot after the surprisingly unique Three Kings -- although people still keep dissuading me from seeing I Heart Huckabees.

When Christopher Campbell blogged about the upcoming CG-animated film Planet 51 last November, he suggested 3D and a few actors for the lead. Well, the actors are different, but when the film hits screens next year on July 24, it will travel to the third dimension. As for the cast, Variety reports that the voices taking this space adventure are Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, and Seann William Scott.

The Rock leads the cast of voices as the astronaut Chuck Baker. He lands on Planet 51 and thinks he's the first to step onto the surface. Not so, naive space traveling man. He soon discovers "green people who live in an innocent world right out of the 1950s, complete with the paranoia that they will be overrun by alien invaders." Whoops. There is no word on who the rest of the actors will voice, but I'll go out on a limb and say that planet's various greenies.

Now, when Christopher talked about the flick, he mentioned that the dude looked a little like Buzz Lightyear. He's definitely not far off -- Chuck looks like the typical CG lead. It's too bad they couldn't try to change up the look a bit, instead of continuing the goofy white boy look. I know, it's hard to come up with different looks since we all look alike, but as artists, that's their job! Argh... Maybe the next animated flick will mix things up a bit.

Almost one year ago, I fell head over heels for Annie Leibovitz's photographic recreations of famous, animated Disney scenes. She shot Scarlett Johansson as the running Cinderella, Beyonce Knowles as Alice in Wonderland, spinning around in teacups that came from Disney World, and David Beckham as the Prince who fights off Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. Now the next set of images have hit the net. They are housed over at The Disney Blog, and I'm still swooning.

I think that what I like most about these images is that they're awesome even if I don't particularly care for the people in them. Leibovitz knows how to capture the essence of each scene, and it makes me wonder just how stunning a carefully-plotted, full-length feature would look. (D*mn good, but long to do, and expensive to boot!) This time around, we've got the above, which features Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan with Gisele Bundchen as Wendy Darling and a teeny Tina Fey as Tinker Bell. But there's also images with Jessica Biel as Pocahontas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony taking a magic carpet ride in Aladdin, and one more from that film, which looks split from the first, that has Whoopi Goldberg as the Genie.

As an added bonus, TDB also has a bunch of behind-the-scenes pics, which help you see how these great images came to be.

Well if nothing else, at least the legendary Chun Li is not going to be played by Jessica Biel. ComingSoon.net is reporting that Smallville's Kristin Kreuk has signed to star in the new Street Fighter film. There has been no official word on which role she is going to play, but the smart money is on her taking over where Ming-Na Wen left off in the 1994 incarnation of Capcom's classic game. News of the film first surfaced back in October, 2006 and back in July there had been an early review of Justin Marks' script. Early word had the plot centering on Li as she searches for those responsible for her father's murder all while taking down the Shadoloo organization. There has been very little mention of any of the other Street Fighter characters making an appearance, so I would expect that not much has changed in Marks original ideas of the film's direction. The flick is expected to start production this spring and will film on location in Thailand in March 2008.

This is Kreuk's third feature film, having already starred in Partition with Neve Campbell and a slightly less dignified role in the teen comedy, Eurotrip. Andrzej Bartkowiak has already signed to direct. For those of you out there worried that Street Fighter will degenerate into another cheese-fest, I can't say I blame you. Of course the worse news is that Bartkowiak's resume highlights include Cradle 2 the Grave and Romeo Must Die, so I can't be the only one thinking that this film might be destined for direct to DVD obscurity.

We now have another reason why Jessica Biel didn't want to take on Wonder Woman -- she wanted to jump in bed with Jake Gyllenhaal! The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Jake and Jessica (with names perfect for tabloid coupledom) have signed on to star in David O. Russell's latest film -- Nailed -- both the bed sort of nailing and the, well, nail sort of nailing. Not only that, but it is also getting another Gore into the movie biz -- O. Russell is co-writing the script with Al's daughter, Kristin Gore.

Coming from David O., this won't be your run-of-the-mill political satire. Biel will play "Sammy Joyce, a socially awkward small-town receptionist who has a nail accidentally shot into her head by a clumsy workman, eliciting wild sexual urges." It gets better: "The uninsured Joyce goes on a crusade to Washington to fight for the rights of the bizarrely injured. She meets an immoral congressman (Gyllenhaal) who takes advantage of her sex drive and capitalizes on her crusade as Joyce heads into her own career in politics."

Talk about having a ton of reasons to see this sucker. O. Russell makes some funny movies (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees), and has this really funny tendency to go apeshit on set. Remember? Then there's the next Gore entering the movie biz, which I hope will mean some inside info, rumors, political goodies masked in the script. Then there's Biel taking on a political comedy -- can she do it? And finally, Jake as a congressman. Pre-production begins this month, shooting starts in January, and maybe we'll get this just in time for the next Presidential election.

So Jessica Biel won't be taking on the world of Wonder Woman -- wearing a swimsuit-like outfit, some powerful accessories, and swinging that golden lasso around. Instead, she's going to star in a crime thriller that she's also producing. Variety reports that she'll lead Die a Little, an adaptation of Megan Abbott's noir novel. Marcia and Geoffrey Blake are currently writing the script, but no director has been picked. Now this could've been a pretty cool alternative if it was a faithful adaptation -- the book is set in 1954, and the cover has that old-school noir look. However, while the film will still be set in LA, it will be modernized and set in the present day.

The book is about an orphaned brother and sister, Bill and Lora King, who live together into adulthood -- until DA investigator Bill falls for Alice Steele, a damsel in distress with a mysterious past. They get married, but schoolteacher Lora is suspicious and decides to investigate. Wryly referring to herself as a Nancy Drew, she finds a frightening story involving the usual suspects -- sex, drugs, corruption, and murder. As for who Jessica Biel will play -- I guess that depends on whether she's going to be the good or bad girl -- Variety didn't say who.

But really, it's pretty disappointing that they won't keep this as a noir thriller. If it's a money concern, with all the hassles of creating a period piece, then maybe they should be looking for a different project, not ripping this story out of its context. The only way I could see this potentially living up to its material, and still be modernized, is if they give it that Twin Peaks sort of feel, where there are modern elements, but within a retro-timeless context. But that's just me. What would you prefer: retro noir, or present-day investigating?

Over at her blog, Nikke Finke has written a long and somewhat contradictory post-mortem on last weekend's big news story, spawned by her, that Warner Bros. no longer sees women as viable leads for their motion pictures. She notes a number of communications she's had over the last few days with Robinov, the studio chief who apparently made the offending comments, but says they are off the record and won't discuss them. She also strangely calls his e-mails "charming" at one point before returning to defend herself against accusations of overreach on this issue. Just as I was rolling my eyes and about to flip away from the blog, I noticed that Finke also throws in something on the Justice League movie. She says Robinov "has been saying he would only make Wonder Woman ... as a spin-off of Justice League. But his proviso is that Justice League, about four superheroes including Wonder Woman, would have to do really, really boffo to justify having a female as the main star of a spin-off pic."

This makes sense to me. I bet Robinov tried to lock Jessica Biel into some indentured servitude contract that would pay her peanuts for both the Justice League film and a low-budget Wonder Woman stand-alone to follow (think Catwoman-level cheapness), and she balked. If that's the case, then what is Robinov's problem? Why doesn't he just stop postponing the inevitable and cast Jennifer Connelly in this thing -- honestly, could anyone else do Wonder Woman justice? -- pair her with an A-list male star to alleviate concerns over womanly box-office punching power and throw money at someone to write a script that's actually not terrible. How hard could it possibly be?

Just when we thought things were starting to happen regarding Warner Bros. upcoming live-action Justice League movie, comes word from Entertainment Weekly that Jessica Biel has passed on the role of Wonder Woman. We brought you news recently that Biel was in discussions to take on the first live-action, big-screen version of one of the sexiest superheroes of all time. But, for whatever reason, Biel has decided to pass -- so says EW, that is. Official word has not come down as of yet, so I wouldn't count her out completely. But, with Biel out of the picture, it means a lot of folks will have to go back to the drawing board. And seeing as there are plans to begin production within the next couple months, it will be a race to cast someone, anyone, in the role.

But they don't just have to find a Wonder Woman, they have to also find a Batman, a Superman, a Green Lantern, a Flash, a Martian Manhunter and an Aquaman (although recent rumors point toward Aqauaman not being included). Good luck. It's not clear why Biel passed on the role; perhaps she's been reading up on all the negative internet chatter surrounding the film -- maybe she didn't feel like signing her life away (I take it whomever plays WW will also need to sign onto at least three films) -- or maybe she'd rather go after an Oscar nom instead of a big payday. We don't know, and we may never know, but the field is wide open yet again. Will this delay the film? Who knows - but I do know there are a lot of other actresses out there capable of taking on the role. And I'm sure all of you have lots of suggestions ...

Yesterday, our Christopher Campbell shared rumors that an Australian actress was in talks to play Wonder Woman in the upcoming Justice League of America flick. While he said it probably wouldn't be Jessica Biel, Warner Brothers wasn't listening. Variety has reported that the former 7th Heaven actress is going to put on the powerful accessories and become the famous Amazonian superheroine who flies around in invisible jets and golden-lassos bad guys -- that is, if talks don't go sour. Methinks she won't let them.

First of all, she did Blade: Trinity, so why in the heck wouldn't she want to do this? I bet it has a better shot at being loved, as long as the rush to finish it pre-strike doesn't make it crappy. If she does a good job, it would also help solidify her career, which is growing -- but hasn't had that solid hit, or prominent role, to keep her professional future secure. Finally, this could potentially lead to another film role -- I imagine if she can handle Wonder Woman, the feature film that Joss Whedon walked away from might start cooking up once again.

I have to say, I don't completely hate Biel for the role. That being said, I'm still going to mourn the fact that it isn't Charisma Carpenter. Sure, she got a lot of buzz having worked with Whedon before, but man, she definitely fits the part, and has some action scene fighting experience to boot. Oh well, at least it isn't Katie Holmes!

Well, one thing everyone (at least, reviewers) seems to agree on is the fact that Good Luck Chuck is terrible. No, I'm not talking half-and-half terrible, but almost 100% awful. So far, the flick is sporting (as of noon Friday) 3 out of 36 positive reviews -- and those are more like "hey, it's crap, but the kids will like it." So, in honor of this cinematic assault, MSNBC chatted with industry insiders, journalists, and bloggers to see who they thought were the people least-deserving of the spotlight. (With Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie immediately disqualified, of course.)

Now, you probably won't agree with all of this list. Heck, you might even think they're crazy, but this isn't about being a decent actor, but whether these guys deserve all the hype they are getting. Do they have the goods to back up the mega-stardom, or are they riding the celebrity machine? Their list: the Jessicas (Alba, Biel, Simpson), Adrian Grenier, Elton John, Nicole Kidman, Carlos Mencia, John Travolta, and Renee Zellweger.* Surprisingly, they left off Tom Cruise. I guess they had to pick which Scientologist actor would take the final space.

So yeah, this is all over the place. The Jessicas are definitely aided by the celebrity, but good ol' Elton has the celebrity because of the years of success and experience (although I don't think I'm the only one who would love to see him return to stuff like Tiny Dancer). And what about people like Kirsten Dunst and Scarlett Johansson, or Colin Farrell and Orlando Bloom? What actors and actresses would you put on this list?

*The final name has been added -- she was hiding below one of those pesky ads.

For a sizable amount of the male population, this is probably the best news they will hear all day. Us Weekly reports that Jessica Biel has agreed to appear nude in the upcoming drama, Powder Blue. Biel will star as a single mother stripping to raise money to save her terminally ill son. Joining Biel are; Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta (as Biel's father), and Patrick Swayze as the owner of the club where Biel works. Directed by Timothy Linh Bui, the story centers on four strangers whose lives intersect in strange ways on Christmas Eve. According to sources for Us Weekly, Biel will retain final say over what makes it into the movie, but, she has reportedly "signed a contract that explicitly details the bare minimum fans will see - including shots of her breasts and butt."

In the past, Biel had been unwilling to bare it all on screen -- much to the disappointment of many I'm sure. The actress had even commented that she had felt she had been overlooked for roles because of it. To be honest, I don't see what all the fuss is about; especially if you remember Biel's controversial Gear magazine shoot back in 2000 -- it's not like the actress has shied away from showing a little skin. Although, Biel was quoted in that same Us Weekly piece as saying that her time as a Gear cover girl left her feeling "humiliated." Biel even recently told Australia's Sunday Herald, "I wouldn't feel comfortable with the extent of the nudity in Monster's Ball, I would be terrified of a role like that right now." So there really must have been something special about Bui's film to change her mind. Blue is currently shooting in Los Angeles and set for release in 2008.

I really loved the early Adam Sandler comedies, but his comedic output has been pretty grim lately. I expected better things from I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry for two reasons: co-screenwriters Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Along with the involvement of Steve Buscemi (and I'll be honest, the Jessica Biel underwear shot in the trailer), seeing Payne and Taylor's names in the credits had me downright excited to see the film. They're two of my favorite screenwriters -- Citizen Ruth, Election, Sideways, the beautiful About Schmidt -- these dudes can write. They did an uncredited polish on one of my favorite comedies of this decade -- Meet the Parents -- and I had high hopes that they'd take the struggling Sandler formula into similar territory. I hoped they'd make Chuck and Larry darker, more interesting, more truthful. And apparently they did. You just won't see that version on the screen. Over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeffrey Wells discusses the Payne/Taylor draft of the film.

According to Wells, the Payne/Taylor version "is way more invested in realism -- recognizable human behavior, logical bits and plot turns, real-seeming textures. It's obviously a "comedy" but the tone is less slap-sticky, more naturalistic." Wells discusses a lot of differences between the Payne/Taylor script and what wound up in theaters (like a Sandler/James kiss that didn't make it to the final cut), and closes by writing "I've thought and thought about this, and I know a Payne-Taylor version would have gone over better than the one opening on Friday. I know it. Certainly with the critics and the genuinely serious comedy fans (i.e., the ones who own DVDs of Some Like It Hot and Tootsie and Flirting With Disaster)." I do often wonder how many Hollywood movies start out in script form as strong and original and different and weird, and wind up lifeless and unimaginative and boring and stale. I'd imagine a whole lot of crappy films started out great on the page. I hear all these horror stories from writers who had their visions massacred by studios and executives, stars and directors, and it makes me sad. I'll still see the film (hey, it's got to be better than Click, right?), but with lowered expectations. If you get Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor to work on your script, doesn't it make sense to listen to absolutely everything they have to say?