• The Hollywood Reporter claims that Sharon Stone (pictured) is in talks to star in Stampanato, a film based on the real-life relationship between gangster Johnny Stampanato and actress Lana Turner. The trade paper said that Wayne Wang is in early negotiations to direct the movie. Turner's often violent relationship with Stampanato ended in 1959 when the movie star's 13-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed the gangster to death, reportedly in an effort to protect her mother.
• Gossip site Ain't It Cool News reports that Mel Gibson has signed up to appear in the Vietnam drama We Were Soldiers Once... And Young. The film will tell the story of Hal Moore, an American colonel who led 80 men into a small clearing in the Drang Valley of Vietnam in 1965 where they became involved in one of the bloodiest battles in US Military History. The film is set to be directed by Randall Wallace, who helmed The Man in the Iron Mask.
• James Gandolfini, star of TV's The Sopranos, is to be paid $5m (£3.3m) million to appear alongside Robert Redford in Rob Lurie's prison drama, The Castle. According to Variety, Gandolfini will play the warden of a maximum security military prison who comes across an old adversary - played by Redford - who is now an inmate. Filming is due to start in March.
