Just after we headed into our new century, Bernard Schlink had a selection of short stories published called Flights of Love. One of the tales published in the collection was The Other Man. Just like its title suggests, the story is about a love triangle of sorts. After a man loses his wife to cancer, he receives a letter from her lover. What would seem like a huge blow to an already-mourning man actually does him good. The two men begin a correspondence, and the widower finds comfort in his letters to the other man.

Now Variety reports that writer/director Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal) has adapted the story with Charles Wood, and has put together quite a cast to star -- Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Antonio Banderas, and Romola Garai. Sure, it's way too early to make any real judgments, but I'd be beyond surprised if this doesn't work itself into one hell of a film. However, I'm a bit curious about the plot. The story's layout sounds decent, but Variety describes the film this way: "the story of a husband who starts to suspect he's not the only man in his wife's life, and sets out to track down his rival."

If this is how the film will play out, that means he doesn't find out post-death, and that it's more a story of tracking down the other man than bonding, or finding comfort with him. On the other hand, a synopsis on IMDb says it's "the story of a widower's slowly-developing revenge against his late wife's secret lover," which "reveals to him his own compromises and failings." Who knows?! I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Production will get going next month, appropriately on Valentine's Day, in the UK and Italy.

On behalf of fans of vampire movies everywhere, I certainly hope we can chalk this one up to just a silly rumor. Bloody Disgusting is reporting that United Artists is pushing to snap up the rights to the fourth novel in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, The Tale of The Body Thief. According to BD's sources, "here's speculation on my behalf, but UA = Tom Cruise, right? Might we be seeing Tom Cruise back as the Vampire Lestat?" The casting of Tom Cruise as the Vampire Lestat in Neil Jordan's 1994 adaptation of Rice's bestselling novel, Interview with The Vampire, caused an uproar among fans (and the author for that matter). Rice had been quoted as saying that Cruise was, "no more my Vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler".**

The story of Body Thief picks up with Lestat who has made a deal with a "body thief" to get the chance to switch bodies and to live like a mortal again. This would be the third attempt to make an Anne Rice book into a film, the last being the disastrous Queen of the Damned with Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend as Lestat. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Townsend's Lestat wasn't too bad all things considered. He definitely had the Lestat pout down pat, something that Cruise could just never quite pull off in Interview. Not to mention Cruise's avoidance of the obvious homoerotic content to the original story -- although kudos to Antonio Banderas and Brad Pitt for being the only two actors in that film to even hint at a little vampire on vampire action.

As we all know, Cruise's relationship with Paramount ended badly back in '06. Now that Cruise is calling shots at UA, could Tom be planning to "ruin" yet another Anne Rice property? Until we get some kind of official word on the project, lets just keep our fingers crossed that Cruise is going to leave the fangs to someone else this time.

**Rice did eventually back-track and reverse her statements once she actually saw the film and Cruise's performance.

When the production for The Code gets into swing this month in Bulgaria, there will be more than a Morgan Freeman thief-like mentor and a younger Antonio Banderas crook. Variety reports that Radha Mitchell has signed on to star with the duo in the upcoming caper drama, which will be brought to us by director Mimi Leder and screenwriter Ted Humphrey. Unfortunately, they're not saying what her role is. Will she play Banderas' wife? Someone in the Russian mob that Freeman's character owes? The person the duo will rob to get that money? Who knows.

Mitchell made a name for herself in films like Phone Booth and Finding Neverland before heading Melinda and Melinda, Woody Allen's dual-story movie trek. Now she's got a handful of movies on the way that definitely hit some different themes. First up is a B movie named Rogue, which has her taking a cynical American writer on tour of the Outback when they get attacked by a crocodile and end up in some sort of horrific Gilligan's Island scenario. After that she goes back in time for The Children of Huang Shi, a period drama about journalist George Hogg who saved a group of orphaned kids, with help from a nurse and partisan fighter, during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937. Then things get lighter with Luke Wilson's Henry Poole is Here, and then darker again when she co-stars in The Seed -- about a "killer [who] returns from the past, forcing a young detective to return to a case that took her mother's life years before."

I guess that once you hit the age of 70, it's hard to not get that indelible stamp that says you're ready for movies about kicking the bucket, or playing the mentor figure over, and over, and over again. Even after playing the ultimate spiritual mentor, God, Morgan Freeman is jumping into another flick where he'll play an experienced man with a younger recruit. This time around, according to Variety, he's signed on for Mimi Leder's caper drama The Code, with Antonio Banderas.

This will reunite the actor and director, as Freeman starred in her 1998 film, Deep Impact, as the hole-making president trying to save a million Americans. This time around, the feature is a little more self-serving. Code, based on a script from Ted Humphrey, is about an old, "veteran thief who recruits a younger crook, played by Banderas, to help him pull off one final job in order to repay his debt to the Russian mob." Granted, Freeman's age isn't completely pigeon-holing him. I'm sure many an actor, especially those who get stuck in horror typecasting, wouldn't mind playing many different kinds of mentors and leaders. Not every man could jump from a stint as Lucius Fox to a tasty role as Nelson Mandela. As for Banderas, it should he a nice reminder that he can do more than fluffy dance films or kid flicks. Production begins this month in Bulgaria.

Variety is reporting that director/choreographer Rob Marshall and uber-producer Harvey Weinstein have started putting together a cast for Nine, a film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Javier Bardem was just offered the role of director Guido Contini, who "experiences a creative and personal crisis as he tries to balance all the women in his life." The musical was inspired by Federico Fellini's classic 8 1/2, and the Contini role was originated onstage by the great Raul Julia. In its recent Broadway revival, Contini was played by Antonio Banderas. I love Bardem, but I have to wonder why Banderas isn't reprising his role here. He played the part in 2003 and he still looks like a million bucks, so the reason can't be that he's gotten too old. Curious.

Regardless, the real appeal of this film is going to be its women. If Marshall gets his first choices, this will be one beautiful cast. Marion Cotillard (Russell Crowe's love interest in A Good Year) is set to play Contini's wife. Penelope Cruz, whom I never thought too highly of until her terrific work in Volver, is in talks to play Contini's mistress, Carla. Marshall hopes to sign his Chicago co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones to play "the director's muse." Zeta-Jones isn't signed yet, but judging by what she told MTV's Movie Blog last month, she's a done deal. Said Jones, "I'd read the phone book with Rob Marshall. To put a musical in a director's hands, for me it can only be [him]." Marshall is also trying to get Sophia Loren, one of the sexiest women of all time, on board to play Contini's mother, who comes to Contini as a ghost. Michael Tolkin, best known for adapting his novel The Player for Robert Altman, is adapting the script. I'm no fan of Marshall, I thought Chicago was insanely overrated, and Mem-Snores of a Geisha was agony to sit through. Still, I dig musicals and it'd be great to see all of these gorgeous women on the big screen at once.

It looks like we're getting another big-budget musical from the Weinsteins -- probably not a bad idea, since the last one they made won six Oscars. Variety recently reported that Rob Marshall has signed to direct the film version of the Tony Award winning musical Nine. The musical debuted in 1982 with Raul Julia and beat out Dreamgirls that year for Best Musical. In 2002, Antonio Banderas took on the lead and *won a Tony for Best Male Performance. The story was inspired Federico Fellini's 8½, and centers on an aging director suffering from his romantic entanglements and a creative dry spell. This is the first project for Marshall with the Weinsteins since Chicago, and he was eager for another film after Memoirs of a Geisha, saying, "I began looking intensely at (other projects), including remakes of movies, originals and Broadway musicals." Marshall will also help with the choreography for the film along with John DeLuca.

The project is still looking for a screenwriter, and casting has yet to begin -- there is no word on whether Banderas will return. Marshall warned that "This one needs to be created specifically for the talent involved, to suit their strengths, casting will be a big issue here, and if commitments complicate things, it will be 2009." We're not quite sure what that means since any movie that he started prepping now wouldn't likely arrive in theaters until 2009 anyway, but I'm sure the Weinsteins won't mind waiting, since it seems that their reputation at the box-office could use a little help.

*Correction: Banderas was nominated but the award went to Harvey Fierstein.

Way back in November, we brought you the very first look at the teaser poster for this summer's sure-to-be blockbuster Shrek the Third, and now we've got another first: the unveiling of the brand-spanking-new theatrical poster featuring more than just Shrek's ears and green crown-topped chrome dome. Double-click on the image below for a larger version.

The third installment in the lucrative CGI franchise finds King Harold (John Cleese) on his deathbed and Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) poised to ascend the throne of Far Far Away. But as you may have gathered from Shrek's expression in the above poster, ruling a kingdom isn't exactly in our ogre hero's wheelhouse -- so Shrek, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) set out on a quest to find the rightful heir to the throne: a rebellious teen named Artie, aka the once and future King Arthur, aka Diaz's erstwhile boyfriend Justin Timberlake. As Shrek, Donkey and Puss labor to bring 'Sexyback' to the kingdom, Fiona must defend Far Far Away from another coup attempt by the metrosexual Prince Charming (Rupert Everett). Shrek the Third barrels into theaters May 18.

Watch the trailer | Get more about the movie | See photos

Believe it or not, Lovers, Liars and Thieves is once again gearing up to hit the screen. (Not to be confused with Harold "Ace" Frazer's 1997 movie with the same name.) If you're a fan of the Don Juan DeMarco, The Legend of Bagger Vance, and The Notebook scribe, chances are you've heard about Jeremy Leven's Thieves script. It was coming in 2002 with Robin Williams, Renee Zellweger and Antonio Banderas. Then there were rumors of it getting made the following year with Dustin Hoffman, Banderas and Elizabeth Shue. Now, a few years after that, Banderas continues to be on the list, and Hoffman has stuck as well (sans Shue).

Now Ilann Girard of Arsam Productions is producing the film, which will be a $35 million European co-production. The script follows two thieves in 1911 who convince an Italian cabinet maker to steal the Mona Lisa. The portrait was actually stolen that year, but the details differ a bit. On August 21, 1911 the painting was grabbed from the Louvre. While even Picasso was brought in for questioning, the real culprit was a Louvre employee. He stole it for Eduardo de Valfierno, so that copies could be made and sold as the real thing. The forgeries were made, the original was forgotten, and the employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, was caught when he tried to sell it a few years later.

While it might sound amusing to imagine Hoffman and Banderas as belle epoque thieves, praise has been following this script for years. Now if only it can move beyond the rumor and casting stage, we'd be able to see for ourselves.

There seem to be two distinct camps where the Shrek movies are concerned: The people who unabashedly love these sweetly silly revisionist fairy tales -- and the people who consider Shrek and Shrek 2 astonishingly overrated pieces of CGI goofiness that certainly didn't deserve their massive payouts. ($484 million and $920 million worldwide, respectively, and that doesn't include DVD sales.) Me, I fall firmly in the former camp: I'm a big fan of both Shrek flicks. I think they're light, witty, clever and stunningly animated family-style adventures -- but they're not over-scrubbed and ultra-sanitized like most of Disney's weaker attempts.

So obviously I'm pretty pumped to see Shrek the Third, and if this brand-new trailer is any indication, I'll probably be chuckling like a stoned monkey throughout most of this second sequel. The kids will go for the comedy, the characters and the colorful little adventures, but folks like me go for the cast: Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz have done some fine voice-work in the first two flicks, but I'm most fond of Eddie Murphy as Donkey, Antonio Banderas and Puss-in-Boots, and (of course) the immortal John Cleese as King Harold. (OK, so it's a small part, but just the sound of Cleese's voice makes me laugh.)

What I find most intriguing about Shrek the Third is its big list of newcomers: Ian McShane as Captain Hook? Eric Idle as Merlin the Wizard? John Krasinski as Sir Lancelot? Very cool! And get this line-up of prickly princesses: Cheri Oteri (Sleeping Beauty), Maya Rudolph (Rapunzel), Amy Poehler (Snow White) and Amy Sedaris (Cinderella)! How cool is that?! (Oh yeah, and Justin Timberlake as the young Prince Arthur, the only misstep that casting directors actually let Cameron Diaz talk them into made.) Anyway, fun stuff. New trailer here. The film opens May 18.

In a rare bit of weekend casting news, Production Weekly reported last night that Antonio Banderas and Annette Bening (which, for some reasons, strikes me as a vary odd pair) will play the lead roles in Homeland Security -- not to be confused, mind you, with Homeland Insecurity, a Robert J. Siegel-penned comedy spec recently picked up by Miramax. The film is being called "a mystery in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief," a description that, if it's actually accurate, could be promising indeed. There's nothing wrote with pretty people flirting over a robbery or two, right? The problem, of course, is that when today's Hollywood tries to follow that path, the results tend be things like The Real McCoy and Entrapment, so it's anyone's guess how this one will turn out.

The film was written and will be directed by George Gallo, a man who, though he is to blame for the "story" behind Bad Boys and the screenplay for Double Take, also wrote Midnight Run, which is a very good thing indeed. Production is set to begin in Louisiana this fall.