Odds and ends from Monday:

• It's official: Nicole Kidman has joined the cast of The Golden Compass, New Line's first film in an eventual trilogy based off Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. As previously reported, the actress will be taking on the villainous Mrs. Coulter. Chris Weitz is directing, with the studio currently eying a November 16, 2007 release.
• Writer/director David Jacobson (Down in the Valley) has signed on to adapt and helm Roadside Picnic, based off the book by Russian writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. Story revolves around the aftermath of an alien visitation, in which "gangs of smugglers plunder the lucrative artifacts left behind." Hmm, I wonder if any of those "lucrative artifacts" include my seventh grade math homework? Upon misplacing it on several occasions, my teacher mentioned that, perhaps, aliens had stolen the missing equations.
• Rumor has it Melissa George (The Amityville Horror) will be joining Josh Hartnett in 30 Days of Night, to be directed by David Slade (Hard Candy). Based on the comic written by Steve Niles, Night tells of a group of vampires who attack an Alaskan town during a month-long period of darkness, leaving it up a husband-and-wife Sheriff team to help end the carnage. Josh Hartnett fighting vampires? Something tells me this town is screwed.