• Sharon Stone, Ray Liotta and David Duchovny have all signed on to the play the three points in the steamy, middle-aged love-triangle drama, In the Lake. Stone will star as a faithless wife who cheats on her loving husband (Duchovny) with a local bounder (Liotta). The picture will be helmed by British director Jon Amiel (Entrapment) and rolls before the cameras this November.
• Vin Diesel, star of Pitch Black and The Fast and the Furious, will pick up a career-best pay cheque of $10m (£7m) to star as the jut-jawed hero of the spy thriller XXX, to be directed by Rob Cohen. Breathlessly billed by its makers as an "extreme James Bond", XXX shoots this autumn and is scheduled for international release next summer.
• Jennifer Lopez's involvement in the trouble hit Tick Tock looks to be confirmed at last with the appointment of director Stephen Norrington (Blade) to take over the picture. Norrington replaces original choice Danny Boyle, who pulled out in April citing creative differences. Lopez will star in the Columbia action thriller as an FBI agent escorting an amnesiac terrorist suspect across LA in search of bombs.
