Category: Visual Effects

Nicole Kidman has signed on to play the villainous and glamorous Mrs. Coulter in New Line's adaptation of Phillip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS: THE GOLDEN COMPASS, reports VARIETY. The $150-million budgeted film is scheduled to start lensing in September at London's Shepperton Studios.

Chris Weitz will direct from his own script. British actress Dakota Blue Richards will make her major screen debut in the lead role of Lyra Belacqua, who must travel to a parallel universe to save her best friend from the forces of evil.

Brad Pitt has agreed to star in the long-in-development Paramount/Warner Bros. production, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, reports VARIETY. The film will reunite Pitt with FIGHT CLUB director David Fincher and BABEL co-star Cate Blanchett. The project has been developed for more than a decade in several different incarnations.

Sony Pictures TV-based producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are planning a musical revival of PETER PAN for ABC, reports VARIETY. Zadan and Meron hope to have the film ready for broadcast in fall 2007.

"This is a huge priority for us and has been over the almost two years it took to get the rights," ABC movies & mini-series head Quinn Taylor said. The project "is spot on in the tradition of classic ABC musicals, with huge family appeal across every generation."

Eva Longoria (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES), Paul Rudd (THE 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN) and Lake Bell (SURFACE) are set to star in the supernatural comedy, HOW I MET MY BOYFRIEND'S DEAD FIANCE, VARIETY reports. The Gold Circle Films project will start filming Aug. 24, 2006, in Hollywood, with Jeff Lowell making his directorial debut. Lowell's script follows a female psychic (Bell) who falls in love with a skeptic (Rudd), while the ghost of his dead fiance, played by Longoria, tear them apart.

Fox Atomic, the new youth-focused division of Fox Filmed Ent., announced its 2006-2007 lineup and theatrical release dates for three of their upcoming films. TURISTAS, a recent acquisition, will jump start the studios slate on Dec. 1, 2006, followed by THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2 and 28 WEEKS LATER, both going into production this summer, and being released in theaters in 2007. Also on the production slate for Fox Atomic is a re-imagining of the 1984 classic REVENGE OF THE NERDS and THE COMEBACKS, a sports comedy.

Guillermo del Toro is in talks to partner with Don Murphy's Angry Films to bring cult DC Comics DEADMAN to the big screen for Warner Bros. Pictures, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Del Toro will develop comics-to-film adaptation with Murphy and Susan Montford.

Alfred Haber, founder of Alfred Haber Distribution Inc. (AHDI), announced that the company has entered into an agreement for the first time with MTV Networks' Spike TV to serve as the international distributor of SPIKE TV SCREAM AWARDS 2006, the first annual televised event devoted to celebrating the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres. Haber has secured the rights to worldwide distribution of SPIKE TV SCREAM AWARDS 2006 with the exception of the U.K. and Canada.