James Franco To Replace Jude Law In QUEEN OF THE DESERT

Werner Herzog’s biopic about Gertrude Bell, an English writer and political officer who helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq has James Franco circling the role that Jude Law was going to play.

Previously scheduled to start shooting ‘in late fall of 2012‘ and then rescheduled for March shoot in Morocco with Naomi Watts, Robert Pattinson and with Jude Law attached, Herzog’s next narrative feature was on hold. Now it appears Oz the Great and Powerful himself may ride in to save the day because Law’s likely unable to participate since his scheduling window had closed.

The film has Watts set to star as famous British Intelligence female spy, while Pattison is attached to star in the film as T.E. Lawrence, the British army officer best known by his nickname Lawrence of Arabia (or should Franco take this role, we do not know yet).

The free-spirited Franco is currently filming true life crime drama True Story with Jonah Hill and Felicity Jones and will soon be seen in apocalyptic stoner comedy This Is The End.

- FilmOFilia.com

Naomi Watts in Negotiations for Noah Baumbach Movie

Noah Baumbach once again is trying to mount his midlife-crisis-for-hipsters movie While We’re Young.

Naomi Watts is in talks to star opposite Ben Stiller, and Girls’ star Adam Driver also is in talks to join the project, which will likely shoot in the fall in New York.

The project has been on and off for Baumbach and some of its stars. Both Stiller and Driver were around in an earlier incarnation that included Greta Gerwig, but securing financing has been a consistent problem with the project. In fact, a scheduled spring shoot didn’t happen for financial reasons. But Watts’ involvement could help the filmmaker secure the coin.

Written by Baumbach, the story revolves around an uptight documentary filmmaker (Stiller) and his wife (Watts) who find their lives loosened up a bit after befriending a free-spirited younger couple. Driver would play one half of the younger couple. Amanda Seyfried’s name has surfaced as a candidate for the mate of Driver’s character.

(Other incarnations of this project have included James Franco, Cate Blanchett and Jesse Eisenberg.)

Baumbach’s frequent collaborator Scott Rudin is producing.

Watts, who will next be seen in Sunlight Jr. and Two Mothers, also has the Princess Diana biopic Diana in the can. The Aussie star is filming the Alejandro González Iñárritu comedy Birdman and has St. Vincent de Van Nuys on tap.

She is repped by CAA and manager Jason Weinberg at Untitled Entertainment.

Driver already has a packed schedule. He is gearing up to star opposite Chris O’Dowd in Max Winkler’s adaptation of The Coward and will shoot Shawn Levy’s and Warner Brothers’ adaptation of This Is Where I Leave You in the summer, while also shooting a new season of Girls.

He is repped by Gersh.

- THR

Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Keaton to Star in ‘Birdman’

Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu’s dark comedy piece follows a former actor as he mounts a Broadway play based on a Raymond Chandler short story.

Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis will star in Birdman, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu’s latest project that is being made by Fox Searchlight and New Regency.

As opposed to Innaritu’s usual soul-searing dramas, Birdman is a dark comedy that follows a former actor, who once played an iconic superhero, as he mounts a Broadway play based on a Raymond Chandler short story in a bid to reclaim past glory. However, the play’s egotistical leading man threatens to throw everything down the tubes.

Keaton, who played Batman in the early 1990s Tim Burton movies, is the comic book movie star trying to regain his credibility.

Stone will play Keaton’s daughter, fresh from rehab and now his assistant. Watts will be an actress in the play, while Galifianakis will play the production’s conniving producer.

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Naomi Watts’ Movie With Robert Pattinson On Hold: “It’s Time For Me to be Home With the Kids”

Robert Pattinson and Naomi Watts will not be coming to theater near you anytime soon.

At least not together, that is.

The two are signed to costar along with Jude Law in a Queen of the Desert, a period piece about British writer, traveler, archeologist and spy Gertrude Bell.

“It’s still a way’s off,” Watts told me last night at the Luminara and Mulberry Project dinner for her Sundance Film Festival movie, Two Mothers. “I don’t know yet. Hopefully, it will happen. I just can’t travel again right now because I did a lot of traveling last year. It’s been a big year and it’s time for me to be home with the kids.”

And speaking of kids, in Two Mothers, Watts and Robin Wright play best friends who fall in love with each other’s teenage sons.

“These are two great female characters full of complexities who are dealing with that midlife point,” Watts said. “It’s definitely an unconventional love story.”

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Naomi updates MTV News on the status of the rumoured project Queen Of The Desert, saying she’s not sure if or when it will happen, and that Robert Pattinson is not confirmed for the film just yet:

Jude Law Joining Werner Herzog’s ‘Queen of the Desert’

He’ll star opposite Naomi Watts and Robert Pattinson in the biopic of Gertrude Bell, described as the female Lawrence of Arabia.

Adding another title to its arsenal, Sierra/Affinity will represent foreign rights to Werner Herzog’s Gertrude Bell biopic Queen of the Desert.

Jude Law is joining the cast of the film, which headlines Naomi Watts as Bell and Robert Pattinson as T.E. Lawrence, otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia.

Bell — like Lawrence — was an explorer, writer, archaeologist and attaché for the British Empire, credited with helping to catalyze the formation of the Middle East at the dawn of the 20th century. She and Lawrence often crossed paths.

Nick Raslan is producing via his Palmyra Films banner along with Cassian Elwes and Michael Benaroya. Benaroya’s Benaroya Pictures banner will finance the film.

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OK Magazine spoke to Naomi at the recent Target 50th Anniversary event, and she mentioned a couple of her upcoming movies to them, so I thought it deserved a separate post:

Red Carpet Confidential: Naomi Watts Talks Robert Pattinson, Princess ‘Diana’

Naomi Watts may be best friends with Nicole Kidman, portray Princess Diana in an upcoming film, and look forward to screen time with Robert Pattinson, but she still shops at Target.

“I love my John Derian plates,” she tells me Tuesday at Target’s 50th Anniversary Celebration held at Center 548 in NYC. “They have dragonflies and ladybugs, and all kinds of bugs all over them. My kids eat from them. They’re great plastic plates.”

As a busy mom to Sasha, 5, and Samuel, 4, whose dad is beau Liev Schreiber, the actress, 44, appreciates the starring role in the Princess Diana movie, called Diana, which is due out next year. (She is still filming.)

In the biographical drama, she dons a wig and prosthetic nose, which take more than an hour to apply in hair-and-makeup.

What has been her favorite look so far?

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It isn’t often that we hear about a sequel and get genuinely excited, but this one has real promise. Or rather, promises.

Vulture hears exclusively that Vincent Cassel is now negotiating to join Viggo Mortensen in a sequel to David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises. We hear the sequel, to be directed by Cronenberg and written by Steven Knight (who also wrote the original), picks up where the 2007 film left off — with the incompetent underboss Kirill (Cassel) thinking that he and his henchman driver Nikolai (Mortensen) really have inherited the throne from his crime-lord father, without knowing that Nikolai is actually a clandestine agent working undercover in Russia’s federal security service.

We’re told Mortensen will first star in Hossein Amini’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Two Faces of January this fall but will then pivot to the Eastern Promises sequel at the start of next year. News of a possible Promises sequel first surfaced in March of 2010.

- Vulture.com

There’s no word if Naomi Watts would return, but given how extraneous she was to the first film, we imagine it’s a long shot.

- IndieWire.com

Last February it was reported that Naomi was in discussions to star in Werner Herzog’s film biopic of Gertrude Bell, entitled Queen Of The Desert. Nothing has been heard since, until producer Cassian Elwes mentioned it at Cannes this week:

Working with Werner Herzog for the first time, Elwes is also prepping Queen Of The Desert. The picture, he says, is like Lawrence Of Arabia but with a woman. It’s based on Gertrude Bell, the English writer, archaeologist and cartographer who mapped Iraq and Jordan in the early 1900s. Naomi Watts is attached. Shooting on Queen Of The Desert is expected to begin in the fall. Elwes is producing with Nick Raslan.

- Deadline

Belgium-U.S. production and sales group Corsan has come on board as a producer and financer of Third Person, the new drama from two-time Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Crash).

The drama features three interlocking storylines, all love stories set in Rome, Paris and New York. Liam Neeson is set to star as a journalist opposite Olivia Wilde playing a New York gossip columnist. Naomi Watts is also believed to be attached. The film is currently in pre-production with principle photography set to begin in September.

“Third Person is a script where life can change on the turn of the page,” said Haggis in a statement. “It is a project that Liam and I identified to work on together and then finding the right financier became the key that we were looking for to unlock what we hope is a great film. Sitting with (Corsan CEO) Paul (Breuls) and seeing that he shared our vision made going forward with Corsan the obvious choice.”

Under the deal, Corsan World Sales will represent all international rights for Third Person, while CAA and Paradigm co-represent the domestic rights.

Third Person is only the latest high-profile title Corsan has taken on. The company’s Cannes slate also includes Robert de Niro/John Travolta-starrer Killing Season from Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnson, which Corsan is producing together with Millennium Films; the period thriller Emperor from The Devil’s Double team of director Lee Tamahori and writer Michael Thomas; the time travel adventure film Singularity from director Roland Joffe starring Josh Hartnett and the Chet Baker biopic The Prince of Cool, which Corsan CEO Paul Breuls is set to direct.

- hollywoodreporter.com