Truman Show director Peter Weir is in discussions to take up directing duties on Master and Commander, with Sam Goldwyn Jr producing. A ripping naval yarn set during the Napoleonic wars, it is adapted from the first novel in a series by Patrick O'Brian. If the film proves successful, it could herald the start of a franchise of James Bond proportions. Master and Commander is the first of 20 books - all structured around the same character - that O'Brian bashed out before his death in January, aged 85.
Not content with trampling all over JM Barrie in 1992's Hook, Hollywood is gearing up for yet another stab at the Peter Pan story. Variety reports that Columbia Pictures are set to throw some $100m behind the production, which should shoot later this year. Australian director PJ Hogan (creator of the marital comedies Muriel's Wedding and My Best Friend's Wedding) is down to direct.
Alan Rickman (pictured) and Richard Harris are the latest actors caught up in the ongoing casting of the Harry Potter picture. Best known for his sardonic line in movie villainy, Rickman is rumoured to be in negotiations to play the role of the wily, enigmatic Professor Snape - a part vacated when original choice Tim Roth hopped ship to star in the Planet of the Apes movie. Harris is expected to lend his stentorian tones and bulldog-chewing-a-wasp visage to the role of Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts school.
Tea Leoni (aka Mrs David Duchovny) is in talks to join the dinosaur-fodder cast of Jurassic Park 3. If successful, Leoni will play the girlfriend of William H Macy's cocksure industrialist. Joe Johnston will direct the film, which goes into production at the end of the month.
The Americanisation of Jackie Chan continues apace. The Hong Kong action icon is currently nailing down a deal to star in The Bellboy, a remake of an old Jerry Lewis comedy. The film (executive-produced by Lewis) will star Chan as the bumbling but good-natured porter at a swish Miami Beach hotel who - wouldn't you know it? - gets himself in all manner of crazy scrapes.
