This movie either has Oscar winner all over it, or will massively collapse under the incredible power of its own cast. Variety has announced the latest addition to Public Enemies and it is the brilliant Billy Crudup, who will be playing legendary FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. There cannot be another actor working who is less physically similar to Hoover, and yet I have no doubt Crudup can completely embody that controversial figure.

Given that the film has already been shooting for several weeks, I wonder if Crudup is really making a glorified cameo. I am always surprised when movies add a cast member so late in the game, but maybe he simply needed to be freed from Watchmen duty.

Stephen Lang has also joined the cast as Winstead, the Texas Ranger who joins the manhunt for John Dillinger and his gang. He's nearly a Michael Mann regular, having appeared in Manhunter, Band of the Hand, and the series Crime Story. Public Enemies is set for release in 2009. And we'll either be saying "Of course it was good, look who was in it!" or "It's a mystery how it failed with that line up."

Here's another entry in the Good Sundance Movies with Rotten Titles category: Pretty Bird. The directorial debut of Paul Schneider (he wrote All the Real Girls and acted in movies like Elizabethtown, The Family Stone and The Assassination of Jesse James), Pretty Bird has nothing to do with birds. The closest the film comes to "birds" is the jet-propelled "rocket belt" that causes all sorts of problems for everyone involved. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Curtis Prentiss (Billy Crudup) is one hell of a schmoozer. He may not have many talents -- heck, he's not even all that smart -- but Curtis does have some very strong social skills -- and he seems like he could easily sell ice cubes to an Eskimo if he had to. Prentiss pops in to visit an old college friend named Kenny (the excellent David Hornsby), who is more than happy to invest in Curtis latest venture: a rocket belt. Kenny throws a whole lot of cash Curtis' way, and then the duo decides that they need an actual engineer to get this project "off the ground" -- and to that end they hire an out-of-work (and hot-tempered) rocket expert named Rick Honeycutt (the hilarious Paul Giamatti).

In the midst of all the speculation regarding the big-screen version of Watchmen, the musical score probably wasn't all that high on the list -- but it can be just as important. As any moviegoer knows, sometimes the music can make or break a movie (for a good example of how music can ruin a flick, look no further than The Perfect Storm or The Last Samurai). ComingSoon.net is reporting that Tyler Bates has been signed to compose the score for the film.

As any fan-boy can tell you, Watchmen is Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore and David Gibbons classic graphic novel. The story is set in a fictional New York in the 80s where "masked vigilantes" have affected the events of everything from the Vietnam War to Watergate. Over the last year, the rumors flew fast and furious about the cast until Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson were all officially announced.

Tyler Bates started his career back in 1993, when he wrote the music for a sci-fi B-movie called Blue Flame. By 1997, he had already released his own album with his band Pet, but the album failed to become a hit and he has been in the movie business ever since. Bates has a long standing relationship with director Zack Snyder, having done the score for 300 and Dawn of the Dead. Snyder was quoted as saying that Baker's Bates' score for 300, "...moves the film into mythology cauterizing the images as you view them, making them something they could never be alone." So, I guess he is looking for the same kind of magic for the equally mythic story of Watchmen.

Well, we should probably just get used to sorting through the latest casting rumors for Zack Snyder's big-screen version of The Watchmen. Latino Review, who've scooped big news in the past to various success, has reported that Malin Akerman is set to play Laurie Juspeczyk (aka Silk Spectre) in the film. The last actress rumored to be up for the role was Kate Winslet, but if Latino Review's source can be trusted, it looks like Akerman has scored the part. Akerman is probably most familiar to fans of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, as the wife of "Freakshow". But lately Akerman has been landing some high profile roles in the upcoming remake of The Heartbreak Kid from the Farrelly brothers, and Nicole Kidman's The Invasion.

Last month, Warner Bros. had released a brief synopsis of the film, and while most of the original story seemed to remain intact, it looks like there will be a few minor changes on the way. As fans of The Watchmen graphic novel well know, the story is set in an alternate version of America; one that's on the verge of nuclear war with The Soviet Union. Superheroes are now outcasts, and when one of their own is murdered, a greater conspiracy is revealed. There have been rumblings that Jason Patric was also being considered for the role of Dr. Manhattan, but the latest buzz has Billy Crudup as the frontrunner for the part (that has yet to be confirmed). According to the source at Latino Review, WB will be making some casting announcements at this week's San Diego ComicCon. There is bound to be plenty of Watchmen talk at the convention, so stay tuned to Cinematical's upcoming coverage for any news that comes our way.

UPDATE: Latino Review also confirms that Jackie Earle Haley has officially been cast as Walter Kovacs (aka Rorschach). Look for formal announcements to come during this week's ComicCon.

Those nice people over at The Weinstein Co. just sent Cinematical the first poster for Justin Theroux's upcoming romantic dramedy Dedication, starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore. The story revolves around a highly-dysfunctional author of children's books (Crudup) who has major issues with women, enjoys telling children that Santa Claus doesn't exist and whose personal motto is "Life is nothing but the occasional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wall of grief." When his usual illustrator, played by Tom Wilkinson, unexpectedly dies, the author must begin working with an attractive young female illustrator, played by Moore. Dedication, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was snapped up by the Weinsteins at that time, marks the directorial debut of Theroux, who is known for his acting work in David Lynch films Inland Empire and Mulholland Drive, along with other credits. The film will also feature other well-known players such as Dianne Wiest, Amy Sedaris, and Bob Balaban, and is scheduled to hit theaters on August 24. Click on the image above to get the full-sized poster.

Ever since Keanu Reeves (thankfully) declined the part of Dr.Manhattan in Watchmen, we've all been dying to find out who is really going to fill the skin of the nuclear hero. Fans have been listing (on this site, anyway) names as unlikely as Jim Carrey (too famous), Doug Jones (not famous enough) and Daniel Craig (someone just wants to see him naked). The only name that seemed possible -- at least as possible as reported internet rumors go -- was Jason Patric, who had been listed as Dr. Manhattan on Filmick. But, wait! CHUD.com now has word that the blue, nude superhero will be played by Billy Crudup. And though this is only a report "from a very reliable source", it actually feels right to me. Sure, Patric is a good actor, too, but Crudup makes more sense if you really look at him in the photo CHUD has up, and he certainly better compliments the rest of the rumored cast of Patrick Wilson and Jude Law (and Jackie Earle Haley, Kate Winslet and Thomas Jane, maybe, too).

CHUD expects an announcement about Crudup and the rest of the cast to happen at ComicCon. Watchmen director Zack Snyder is scheduled to appear and discuss the movie on Friday, July 27, during Warner Bros.' film slate presentation, so if he can't clear up some of the casting decisions by then, the fans might go crazy on him. Seeing as how filming is supposed to begin in a couple months, some confirmations have to be given soon. CHUD thinks an official announcement may even come in the days leading up to the giant San Diego-set convention, but I would put my money on ComicCon being the first place to hear about it from the man's mouth. Until then, we will definitely be getting more of these rumors.

A few weeks ago (early on a Saturday morning, to be precise -- what's that about?), Fox Searchlight brought together five rooms full of journalists and the stars and writer-director of Trust the Man for a few hours of friendly grilling about the film, which opens this Friday (Kim's review will go up soon). Each star -- David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Billy Crudup -- as well as writer-director Bart Freundlich (AKA Mr. Julianne Moore) came into the rooms separately, and spent about 20 minutes taking questions. What follows are the five most thrilling tidbits from each person's stint in my room.

Julianne Moore

• Is really, really, really tiny. Like, porcelain doll tiny.
  
• Likes to be left alone on movie sets; working with her husband makes that easy because he knows not to bug her when she's busy trying to act.
• The thing in the movie about the retainer in bed? Straight out of the Moore-Freundlich bedroom. Yes, Julianne Moore sleeps with a retainer -- even she isn't perfect.
  
• Their kids (four and eight) get to travel with them to cool locations when possible, but haven't seen any of her movies. Which is good, because everything Jurassic Park is way too scary for anybody younger than, like, 25.
• When Gyllenhaal was nervous about the rest of the cast being so close, Moore said "Don't worry. Everybody's an asshole." And then everything was fine.