Matt Damon, the versatile star of the thriller The Bourne Identity, which hits UK cinemas next Friday, has said he would like to write another screenplay with friend Ben Affleck. Damon, now 31, was just 26 when he and Affleck won a best screenplay Oscar for 1997's Good Will Hunting. Since then both men have focused on performing and Damon recently scored his first $10m payday with the spy thriller. In an interview with today's Daily Telegraph he said: "I'd like to write with Ben again - it's more like acting, actually, because it's all based on improvisation. I'd like to direct, too. But we've both been too busy. Our lives have literally been spent on movie sets since Good Will Hunting."
Madonna's latest cinematic foray, the romantic comedy Swept Away directed by her husband Guy Ritchie, is set for a spring release in the UK. Distributor Columbia TriStar announced the film would roll out here on March 14 after Ananova reports there were doubts over whether the film would be released at all. Madonna plays a bratty socialite marooned on an island with nobody for company but a communist sailor. Ritchie's previous credits include the gangster yarns Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.
Pierce Brosnan, known the world over for playing one of the most virile characters of all time, intimated that he once questioned his own sexuality. Speaking about his forthcoming biography on www.thisislondon.co.uk today, the James Bond star said he thought he was gay when he was 16. "I was young, frivolous and full of abandon, a hippie with long hair down to my shoulders and a little goatee beard," he said. "Why? Because I thought I was gay. But no, I'm not gay." The 20th 007 movie, Die Another Day, will be released here later in the year.
Ludacris, the American rap star, is the latest talent to sign to John Singleton's forthcoming thriller The Fast and the Furious 2. Paul Walker and musician Tyrese have already signed to play agents who go undercover to bust a formidable drug baron. Ludacris will star as the friend of one of the agents, played by Walker, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The original film starred Vin Diesel, America's superstar-elect whose latest film XXX has just passed $100m in America. Diesel left the project after Universal refused to meet his exponential $20m asking price.The high-octane The Fast and the Furious became one of the surprise hits of last year, taking $140m at the American box office. Production on the sequel is due to begin in Miami in the autumn.
Kelly Preston has joined Mike Myers on Dr Seuss' The Cat in the Hat for Disney and Universal. Preston, who will next be seen with Gwyneth Paltrow in the romantic comedy A View From the Top, will play the mother of two children who befriend the whiskery feline with the towering headpiece, played by Myers. The Hollywood Reporter says the film is set to go into production in the autumn.
Julian Sands, whose credits include The Killing Fields and Timecode, has signed to the darkly comic Easy Six where he will play a college professor who travels to Las Vegas for a literature conference and ends up having an affair with a former student. The film is being adapted from Edward Allen's novel Mustang Sally and will mark the directorial debut of Chris Iovenko. Kate Towne and John Savage co-star, Variety reports.
