EXCLUSIVE: The young British director has just come off directing the This Is England TV series for Channel 4. Working Title is planning to shoot Lost For Words in January. Tom Cruise was going to play the lead at one point after Hugh Grant dropped out. Susanne Bier was set to direct. I'm hearing Working Title is rebooting with a younger cast. Lost For Words follows a movie star approached to star in a film by a Chinese director; after flirting with her translator, he falls for her director. The script is by Richard Curtis and his brother Jamie. Tim Bevan, co-chair of Working Title, tells me: “We are very excited about taking this back to roots and getting an exciting young director and British cast for a modestly budgeted Richard Curtis and WT romantic comedy.”

UK culture minister Jeremy Hunt and arts minister Ed Vaizey have rowed back transferring the £15 million ($19 million) lottery film cash to the British Film Institute. Nor are they going to ask BBC Films and Film4 to split the money between them. I'm told that BBC Films has reacted “with horror” at the prospect of controlling the lottery cash. The BBC's film department may make the same kind of features as the UK Film Council, but getting hold of that money could see its own £12 million funding being cut. The irony is that it was the Arts Council of England's original bungling of the lottery film cash that partly led to the UKFC being established. In the late 90s, producers were crying out for proper industry executives to award production funding, not a committee of well-meaning amateurs. Now it looks like we're going full circle. “Once it finds out what's going on, the whole industry will start laughing and then start crying,” says my source. Tim Bevan, co-chair of Working Title, and UKFC chief executive John Woodward have a meeting with Vaizey and Hunt this afternoon at 2:30pm (6:30am PST). More to follow...

She's in advanced talks to play the wife in British director Terence Davies' adaptation of the 1952 play The Deep Blue Sea, says the Daily Mail. Even today, Terrance Rattigan's script feels like wrenching stuff. Weisz would play a woman who leaves her companionable husband when she becomes sexually enslaved by an alcoholic ex-fighter pilot. Although she's 40, it's the first time she's ever had an orgasm. Having smashed up her marriage, she then sticks her head in a gas oven when her booze-raddled boyfriend walks out on her. Greta Scacchi played the part in a London stage revival a couple of years ago. Peggy Ashcroft, who originally played Hester Collyer opposite Kenneth More as her lover, complained the role made her feel as if she was walking around on stage naked. Rattigan wrote the play after an old boyfriend of his committed suicide. Weisz won an Olivier in March for her portrayal of another emotionally-damaged woman, Blanche DuBois, in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Just Jared (via: BleedingCool) has the first set photo of James Franco, Freida Pinto, and Andy Serkis in The Escapist helmer Rupert Wyatt's Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes. The photo is interesting because you can see Serkis in his performance capture suit, complete with head camera (which captures facial movements). As you probably recall, the Apes in the movie are being created using CGI by the wonderful tram at WETA Digital, rather than the costumed actors we've seen in past installments of the franchise. WETA will employ "certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for AVATAR" and "will render, for the first time ever in the film series, photo-realistic apes rather than costumed actors." Check out the full image after the jump. Previously: James Franco (Spider-Man/Milk) who is set to play the lead, "a young, driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes." Other co-stars ...

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline's 2010 Emmy and TCA coverage. Word is that the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences would probably release on Friday the list of producers on programs nominated for best series Primetime Emmy Awards who, after a vetting process, have been deemed eligible after .a vetting process. The buzz continues to be that, while the issue isn't dead, the Academy is toning down its stand fueled by the Producers Guild in targeting allegedly undeserving producers and capping the number permitted on nominated comedy and drama series rosters in particular. Ann Farriday, the WGA's lead field rep in television, said today that it's her understanding the Academy has opted not to re-target producers who already have been once vetted. “This year, it's more about looking at new producers and those on new shows rather than ones who have already been looked at in the past,” she says. “That's what the questionnaire sent out to showrunners indicated this time, anyway. I think there's the hope at the academy that things will go smoothly this time, and that's especially true with NBC telecasting it. NBC feels like it's been through enough this year and doesn't want any hassles.” That said, Farriday maintained that many of the same concerns that have bubbled up in recent years continue to be on the table in terms of the series role of writer-producers and the perception of their being minimized in the process. “We're hopeful that we see some ... Read More »

After a popular Nikita movie and series, why retell the story yet again in a new series? It's a legitimate question and one the writer of the upcoming CW series Nikita Craig Silverstein asked himself when Warner Bros. TV approached him with the idea to do something with the title. “I took it upon myself to find a way -- could it be done fresh? Could we have a take where you didn't know how this story was going to end? And that's when I came upon the idea of following Nikita (Maggie Q) after she had left the agency which is a chapter that's never been told, and at the same time doing justice to the origin story of Nikita, that dark fairy tale of taking a girl and changing her life, changing her identity, and the kind of Pygmalion aspect of transforming her into a killer, a beautiful killer and giving her etiquette lessons and all that stuff.  We're doing that with the character of Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca). You don't know which way this girl is going to go, you don't know how the story is going to end.  So it's not a rehash." McG hit on the empowered female characters theme in Nikita. "From my experience with Charlie's Angels on down, it's just I like the idea of empowered female characters that don't apologize for being beautiful, but are very, very intelligent and multi-dimensional, and I think Maggie nails that voicing." Director Danny Cannon shed some light on the action-packed pilot's budget. "I'm very proud that this pilot cost a third of what other pilots cost this ... Read More »

Paul Giamatti is moving from one historical television project (John Adams) to another: he'll play former Soviet Union premier Nikita Khrushchev in K Blows Top. The odd name of the HBO film might be your first clue that this won't be an ordinary revisitation of the cold war. The film will be based on Peter Carlson's book of the same name, which details Khrushchev's two-week American trip in 1959. That's the time period when the Premier was denied a trip to Disneyland because of security concerns, and during which a visit to IBM headquarters ignited a fancy within the premier for IMB's self-service cafeteria. Khrushchev brought self-service back to the USSR afterwards. Khrushchev had a long and occasionally pivotal career, and I'll be curious to see how much context can be crammed into the film. I'll happily watch Giamatti try to make it work. [Variety] After the break, Russell Brand picks up ...

Disney said late Thursday that it has agreed to sell Miramax Films to a group led by Ronald Tutor and Colony Capital for more than $660 million.

Account was suspended during investigation of former ABC Entertainment chief; new details emerge.

  DISNEY ANNOUNCES SALE OF MIRAMAX FILMS TO FILMYARD HOLDINGS LLC SALE TO INCLUDE RIGHTS IN MIRAMAX FILM LIBRARY, BOOK TITLES AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS. Burbank, California, July 29, 2010—The Walt Disney Company announced today the sale of Miramax Films to Filmyard Holdings LLC for over $660 million subject to certain adjustments. Partners in Filmyard include Los Angeles businessmen Ron Tutor, Tom Barrack, Colony Capital LLC and other individuals. The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and is expected to close between September 10, 2010 and the end of the calendar year. The sale of Miramax Films includes rights in over 700 film titles, including Academy Award winners like Chicago, Shakespeare in Love and No Country for Old Men. Also included are non-film assets, such as certain books, development projects and the "Miramax" name. "Although we are very proud of Miramax's many accomplishments, our current strategy for Walt Disney Studios is to focus on the development of great motion pictures under the Disney, Pixar and Marvel brands,” said Robert A. Iger, Disney's President and CEO. “We are delighted that we have found a home for the Miramax brand and Miramax's very highly regarded motion picture library.” “I am delighted and honored to acquire the Miramax library,” said Ron Tutor. “On behalf of my partners Tom Barrack and Colony Capital, we look forward to sharing this high quality content with the world in every form of media for many years to come.”

With the purchase of Playdom and Tapulous -- and even Marvel -- Iger pays top dollar for a different generation of savvy customers

There’s nothing like Gucci. Going through the Fall/Winter Gucci Menswear collection, this brown suede-crocodile lace-up caught our eye. It is stylish and eye-catching as only Gucci can do. Made in Italy, this shoe has a leather sole and a wonderful cap toe lace-up with embossed Gucci script detail. Cost is about $750-800. Related Posts:July 25, [...]

Notorious Vogue editor-in-chief won't be in 'Gossip Girl's' episode that features her magazine-- but she did read the script

A long-lost engraving from noted artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851) of a drawing of a running grouse has been discovered. The engraving was used in the design for a New Jersey bank note. The artist mentions the drawing and the resulting engraved paper money in two separate diary entries, but no one has [...]

Karyn Kusama is looking to follow up Jennifer's Body, which she directed from Diablo Cody's script, with The Rut, a film about a father and daughter who have a relationship based around hunting and survival. To make things more interesting, Chloe Moretz is in talks to star as the daughter. The LA Times says The Rut "concerns a father-daughter relationship and centers particularly on hunting, as a daughter must learn [sic; I expect that should be 'use'] the tricks of hunting and archery taught to her by her father after said father goes missing." From that explanation, especially thinking of Moretz in the role, I get the sense of Kick-Ass mixed with Joe Wright's forthcoming Hanna. I want to know more about this one -- what's the intended tone, for example? All the LAT offers is that the film would take Kusama in a different direction from her previous movies. But ...

Morton bio blackout on "Extra" et al blamed on fear of Brangelina backlash.

Madonna is set to launch her Material Girl fashion line. The pop star will launch the new created junior brand in a joint venture with Iconix Brand Group, Inc. The line will be available exclusively at Macy’s. To kick off the campaign, Madonna has gone with Gossip Girl star / singer Taylor Momsen. The collection [...]

THE AVENGERS THOR CAPTAIN AMERICA

The group led by construction executive Ronald Tutor and investment group Colony Capital is closing in on the acquisition of Miramax Films for more than $650 million, but final deal points and financing specifics were still being worked out Thursday.

"I have huge respect for her," says "Idol's" outgoing judge in the wake of DeGeneres' stunning departure.