We told you about Todd Phillips' next directorial project, Hangover, way back in October, but there hasn't been any further word on it since then. But apparently someone's been thinking about it -- The Hollywood Reporter says Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper are in final negotiations to star in it, and the flick is entering pre-production. In other words, stock up on your electrolytes, because Hangover is on its way.

Hangover is a comedy about three friends who wake up after some pre-wedding festivities in Las Vegas to discover that they have misplaced the groom. (I think we've all been there.) Helms and Cooper will be two of the friends; the third has not yet been cast. Presumably the groom is a relatively minor character, given that he is missing for much of the film.

Helms (on the left) is a favorite these days from his work on The Daily Show and The Office, while Cooper, probably best known for TV's Alias and Kitchen Confidential, has slowly started adding movie comedies to his résumé. He shows up in this summer's The Rocker as a heavy-metaller whose bandmates are Will Arnett, Fred Armisen, and Rainn Wilson, which is pretty good company, comedy-wise.

It's worth noting that the Hangover, written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, was on the list of Hollywood insiders' favorite unproduced screenplays of 2007. On the other hand, Lucas and Moore's previous screenplay was the Martin Lawrence comedy Rebound. Still, one remains optimistic.

Phillips garnered a lot of fans for Old School in 2003, then stumbled with Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoundrels. Hangover sounds like a return to the Old School paradigm, and that sounds good to me. What do you think?

Almost two full years ago, Russell Crowe was looking to star in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Stanton's The Prince of Providence, which was being helmed by Michael Corrente. Since that time, Crowe is out, the project is still in the works, and as The Hollywood Reporter posts, it might be getting itself a serving of Robin Williams.

The script, which was written by David Mamet and polished by Howard Korder, focuses on Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, a corrupt politician "who dominated Providence's political machine for 21 years." There's no word on who Robin Williams will play if his scheduling works out, but Oliver Platt will take on the role of Cianci (quite the change from Crowe), and be joined by the likes of Dermot Mulroney, Adam Goldberg (Ronnie Gantz), Bradley Cooper (Haxton), and Ed Burns.

All of the actors sound great, but it will be even better if Williams officially signs on. After so many questionable films in the last handful of years, it would be so very nice to see Robin stretching his acting chops again. Production will begin later this summer in Rhode Island.

Adult-skewing horror thriller Midnight Meat Train has been bumped from its planned May 16 release date, according to Shock Til You Drop. Citing distributor Lionsgate as their source, Shock says no new release date has been offered. As of this writing, the official Lionsgate site does not even mention the film, and production company Lakeshore Entertainment still shows May 16 as the release date.

Midnight Meat Train promised to be one of the relatively few dark films in the summer marketplace, offering a menacing alternative to light-hearted blockbuster fare. The film is adapted from a Clive Barker tale that our own Scott Weinberg described as "one seriously nasty story." If you've seen the pulse-pounding trailer (which you can check out at Moviefone), you know that Bradley Cooper plays a photographer who catches a mysterious man (Vinnie Jones) doing hideous things to people on subway trains and then hiding the evidence in meat lockers.

Here's two more tasty casting bits:

• She played the eternal follower Marcie Fox in Jawbreaker, and even co-starred in the super-awesome George of the Jungle 2, but Julie Benz is definitely best known for her super-evil, drawling vampire Darla from Buffy and Angel, and from her recent time as the bad-luck love interest of serial killer Dexter. While her long-term television work is all sorts of tasty, I wish I could say the same for her film choices. She's co-starring in the upcoming Rambo flick, and then, hold onto your seats -- Variety reports that she's shooting Lionsgate's action film, The Punisher: War Zone. (Check out other casting news on the film here.) While I'd like to see Benz in some tastier work that pushes her a bit, I have to say that the cast has me kind of interested, especially with musician/actor and Toronto native Keram Malicki-Sanchez also onboard.
• With the seventies safely stored in the past, Danny Masterson continues to move on to other pastures. He played the tough, geeky roommate of Anna Faris in Smiley Face (which really, really should hit theaters), he just finished a flick with his brother called Made for Each Other, and now Variety reports that Danny Boy is going to star opposite Jim Carrey in Yes Man as Carrey's best friend. This means that Bradley Cooper (Failure to Launch), who was previously attached to play the friend, must be out. While it sounds like some rip-off to Liar, Liar, it's actually based on the true story of a man named Danny Wallace, who decided to say yes to everything that came his way -- from SPAM to party invites. Stay tuned for all sorts of advertisements that will beckon you to say yes to the film like Wallace says yes to life. It's just begging to be used as a marketing gimmick.
  

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Josh Lucas will star in Tell-Tale, a psychological thriller directed by Michael Cuesta. Cuesta directed two very good indies -- L.I.E. and Twelve and Holding, and has helmed episodes of two of my favorite shows -- Six Feet Under and Dexter. The film's producers include big-time directors/brothers Tony Scott (Top Gun) and Ridley Scott -- who is currently tearing up the box office with the terrific American Gangster. The script was written by Dave Callaham, who also penned the video game adaptation Doom. (Had to look that up because THR managed to mention every aspect of the film but the screenwriter -- see why writers feel under-appreciated?)

Tell-Tale is a contemporary adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic story "The Tell-Tale Heart," (which was also reimagined as a hilarious Simpsons episode -- "Lisa's Rival"). Lucas will play a "single father whose recently transplanted heart leads him on a frantic search to find the donor's killer before a similar fate befalls him." I love the Poe story, so I'm up for this new take. Lucas was rumored to be playing Captain Pike in the upcoming Star Trek film, but we learned this morning that's not the case. What I really think Lucas should be doing is a movie where he, Matthew McConaughey, and Bradley Cooper try to tell each other apart for two hours.

"I want us to be open to new experiences -- I want us to say 'yes' to everything." That's what Owen Wilson's character tells his two brothers throughout The Darjeeling Limited, but what if someone actually lived a year of their life while saying 'yes' to everything? Someone tries to sell you something. Yes! Your friends want to jump off a bridge for hell of it. Yes! That girl from work who's always had a crush on you, but kind of looks like a werewolf, asks you out on a date. Yes! Man, the adventures you'd go on -- the stories you'd be able to tell if you somehow survived the year. Unreal. Well get this -- some dude actually did this ... in real life. He wrote a book about it, they're turning it into a movie called Yes Man starring Jim Carrey and Variety tells us Bradley Cooper has signed on to star as Carrey's best mate.

The book, which is also called Yes Man, was written by Danny Wallace. He was the type of guy who said 'no' a lot, until one day someone on a bus told him to say 'yes' more often. So what does he do? He spends one year saying 'yes' to everything -- and at some point along the way, this helps him win $48,000. Damn. Maybe I should say 'yes' more often. Cooper has a number of film roles coming up (apart from his TV work on shows like Nip/Tuck), but moviegoers might best remember him as the slimy boyfriend of Rachel McAdams in Wedding Crashers. Peyton Reed (The Break Up) will direct Yes Man, which I imagine will take some cues from one of my favorite Carrey comedies, Liar Liar. They will probably use some stuff from the book, as well as introduce new scenarios in which saying 'yes' could get our hero in a lot of trouble. A romantic interest hasn't been cast yet -- and you know there's going to be one -- so be on the lookout for a cute female actress to make her way into the picture soon.

It has been a depressing month. First Scott told me that Jennifer Connelly is just not that into me. And today the Hollywood Reporter informs me that Jennifer Aniston feels the same way. In He's Just Not That Into You, Miss Aniston will play a role just bursting with originality -- "a woman in a long-term relationship with a boyfriend who will not commit to marriage." Aniston joins one of the most attractive casts in recent memory. You've got the previously mentioned Jennifer Connelly, Entourage's "E" Kevin Connolly (that's going to get confusing on set), Bradley Cooper (the jerk boyfriend in Wedding Crashers), Justin Long (who should be commended for not ruining Live Free or Die Hard), Ginnifer Goodwin (the youngest wife on Big Love, I've got a huge crush on her), and Drew Barrymore (you know who Drew Barrymore is, right?).

Barrymore is also a co-producer on the film, which will be directed by Ken Kwapis (director of License to Wed - boo! But also several episodes of The Office - yay!). The script was written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein (writers of Barrymore's Never Been Kissed, which I enjoyed more than I expected to). It is based on the wildly popular book by ex-Sex and the City writers Liz Tuccillo and Greg Behrendt (if you never saw Behrendt's daytime talk show, you're a luckier person than I). It's good to see Aniston returning to romantic comedy after...oh wait, that's pretty much all she does. She does it well though. After Rumor Has It almost caused me to walk out (and I was on an airplane!), she hit me with the one-two punch of Friends With Money and The Break-Up. I liked both of those a lot. Into You is set in Baltimore and will consist of "interconnecting story arcs dealing with the challenges of reading or misreading human behavior." Interconnecting story arcs set in Baltimore, eh? Any chance we can tie this all in to The Wire somehow? Brilliant as that show is, I always felt it could use a romantic comedy element.

The first Clive Barker film I ever saw was Nightbreed. Scratch that. It was the first one I should have seen. I rented it as soon as it came out, because I had a thing for Craig Sheffer. I was young, and I sat in the dark, home alone, and only got through the first few minutes before I was sufficiently creeped out and sure that someone was going to break into my house and kill me. I went on with life, seeing Sheffer's Fire with Fire co-star in one of the next Barker films, Candyman, and forgot about the little flick until I found it cheap and previously-viewed. I'm now a little embarrassed with how freaked the film made me, but I like to think that it was childhood innocence.

While most of Barker's adaptations since then have dealt with Hellraiser, we're on our way towards getting something new -- The Midnight Meat Train -- as Scott Weinberg has reported. The last we heard, Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers) had signed on. Now Variety has added a few more names to the cast -- Vinnie Jones (Snatch), Leslie Bibb (Popular) and believe it or not, Brooke Shields. The story, which centers on a serial killer who finds his victims in the subway, will star place Jones as the creepy killer, Cooper as a stupid and struggling photographer who must think he's Spider-Man, as he decides to improve his fortune by finding and taking pictures of the murderer, Bibb as Cooper's girlfriend and the Queen of Postpartum Shields will play an art gallery owner who becomes friends with the photographer. Shooting will begin next week, and will soon see if Shield's next theme will be Scream Queen.

We were psyched when Clive Barker announced that his production company was mounting a big-screen version of the author's Midnight Meat Train story -- and then we were bummed when director Patrick Tatopoulos had to leave the project for undisclosed reasons. But then we were psyched again when hardcore filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura was signed as the new director -- and now we have a leading man!

Set to star in Midnight Train is "familiar face" actor Bradley Cooper, a guy probably best known for his TV work (Alias, Kitchen Confidential, Jack & Bobby), but he also played the hilariously nasty bully in Wedding Crashers. He also appeared in My Little Eye and Wet Hot American Summer, a pair of underrated flicks if ever there were one. (Er, two.) And out of respect for the young actor, we'll neglect to mention that he was also in Failure to Launch, because that flick stunk on ice. On the other hand Cooper hails from Philadelphia, which means he's gotta be cool.

Midnight Train is set to begin shooting very soon, and if you'd like a brief plot synopsis, I can't really help you out. The short story is pretty brief and exceedingly simple ... but it's one I think you should read for yourself. And the rest of the book is pretty damn good too. (And yes, they removed the "meat" from the movie title. Somehow I doubt they'll excise it from the actual story.)