Charlton Heston is to revisit the character of Ben Hur in an animated remake, only forty-three years after he immortalised the role. The 77-year-old actor will perform voice-over for the eponymous vengeful Jewish priest and later Roman slave in time for the release of a feature length video this autumn. "You don't often get a chance to do the same thing twice," Heston told Variety. This will not be the first time Heston has featured in a remake of one of this earlier films. Last year he appeared opposite Mark Wahlberg and Tim Roth in Tim Burton's famously "re-imagined" Planet of the Apes.
Jim Caviezel, whose credits include The Count of Monte Cristo and High Crimes, is in talks to appear in the road movie Highwayman for New Line Cinema. The Hollywood Reporter says that if all goes according to plan Caviezel, 33, will play a vengeful widower who hits the road in a souped-up "muscle car" and goes in search of his wife's killer.
Jennifer Garner, the up-and-coming starlet who won this year's Golden Globe for her role in the secret agent TV series Alias, is in talks to pick up $3m for the lead in a female version of Big, to be called 13 Going On 30. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the comedy centres on an unpopular teenager who emerges from her wardrobe a few days before her 30th birthday to discover she is beautiful and universally admired. Garner's real-life popularity has certainly grown with the recent success of her show: the actress will eventually be seen opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can and opposite Ben Affleck in Daredevil. 13 Going On 30 is expected to go into production next year.
Adam Goldberg is to appear opposite Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson in the romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, according to Variety. Goldberg, whose credits include A Beautiful Mind and The Salton Sea, will play a friend of McConaughey's who bets him he cannot remain in a relationship for more than ten days. Goldberg will soon be seen in The Hebrew Hammer, about an ultra-religious Jew who believes it is his calling to defend Hanukah from a malevolent Santa Claus.
