Will Smith really wants a crack at the ancient history epic, and this time it looks like he's going to get it. According to Variety, Smith has hired the go-to guy for historical epics, Randall Wallace, to pen The Last Pharaoh for him to star in.

It won't actually be about the last pharaoh of Egypt (Cleopatra still holds that distinction),
but Taharqa, a member of the Nubian dynasty of Egypt, who ruled from 690 to 664 B.C.E. Mentioned by Greek historian Strabo as one of the greatest military tacticians in the world, he's believed to be Tirhakah, king of Ethopia, who's mentioned in the Old Testament as driving Assyrian king Sennacherib away from destroying Jerusalem. Taharqa wasn't just a fighter, though -- he was devoted to peaceful works like restoring temples, and building sanctuaries all over Nubia and Egypt. Nevertheless, his biggest claim to fame is fighting the Assyrians, who invaded Egypt in 677. He didn't exactly defeat them -- they took Memphis and established the 26th dynasty, and Taharqa was driven back to Nubia, where he died in 664.

It definitely has the potential of an action packed story, but I'm curious as to how it's going to be fleshed out. With Wallace (nearly) at the helm, I am willing to bet Taharqa will become a mix of King Leonidas and William Wallace. The saving of Jerusalem is, I think, the high point of the story and has the most historical relevance ... but it's not as romantic as defending one's homeland, and that's reportedly what the film will focus on. And Wallace's scripts tend to be heavy on the romance, iffy on the accuracy. Still, it will be very interesting to see Smith in a sword-and-sandals epic, and I'll watch ancients hack each other onscreen anytime. What about you?

Now there's a casting tidbit I bet you never expected. Back in March, we told you how Columbia Pictures had optioned the rights to turn The Green Hornet into a big-screen adventure, after both Universal (with Ron Underwood directing) and Miramax (with Kevin Smith directing) couldn't muster up the guts to put out the film themselves. Immediately casting rumors swirled round the water cooler, with names like Jake Gyllenhaal, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg coming up more than once. However, The LA Times claim Seth Rogen (yes, Seth "Knocked Up" Rogen!) "has entered a deal to write and likely star" in The Green Hornet.

I'm sorry ... but Seth Rogen? How do you go from George Clooney or Jake Gyllenhaal to Seth Rogen? That just seems ... weird. Regardless, that's what's being reported, and with Rogen writing, does that mean we should expect a real comedic Apatow-style take on the classic crime-fighter? The Green Hornet originally began as a radio show in the 1930s, and has since taken on a number of forms -- from comic books to television shows, the character has been around for almost 80 years now. Essentially, the story revolves around a guy named Brit Reid (blood relative of The Lone Ranger); a newspaper publisher by day and a masked hero at night (with help from his sidekick/bodyguard, Kato). He sort of reminds me of Dick Tracy with a mask. The LA Times claims that Rogen's deal was confirmed by "a number of sources inside and outside the studio," so it all seems pretty legit. Seth Rogen as The Green Hornet? I don't see it; what about you? And if Rogen stars, does that mean someone like Jack Black will play Kato? Ouch. As of now, it looks like Columbia will release the film at some point in 2009.

At long (long, long) last, All the King's Men is due to hit theaters this September, and Columbia has finally made the trailer available in a watchable format (as opposed to the tiny, jittery option that made the rounds last spring).

Though the massive delay (you may recall it was due for release last December, but was pulled because it allegedly wasn't done) in getting this one into theaters -- not to mention the shift from a "We Want Oscars!" December slot to the new "Please Don't look At Us" September date -- makes me deeply suspicious about its quality, I gotta say that I really like the trailer. Sean Penn (sporting his We're No Angels haircut, and looking impossibly young) is working the charisma like we haven't seen from him in a while, Anthony Hopkins is nice and calm for a change, and Jude Law is, well, his normal pretty self. And he's reviving the drawl that worked so well for him in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which is unlikely to be a bad thing. I have to admit, though, that I've never read the Robert Penn Warren novel on which this film is based, so I'm not equipped to comment on its fidelity to its source. What do you guys think?

[via AICN]

So, remember how we reported last week on Columbia's deal to re-up with the Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby crew, signed right before the film opened? To refresh your memories, the new project is called Step Brothers, and will reunite Talladega stars John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell, along with director Adam McKay. Back then, we foolishly assumed the key to the deal was bringing that trio back together. Little did we know, however, that the people at Columbia are (not so) secretly in love with John C. Reilly, and in fact will work with anybody, so long as Reilly is part of the deal. What, you think I'm making this up? Hey, Columbia signed ANOTHER deal yesterday for a Reilly vehicle -- that's two in a week, people! I rest my case.

Today's Reilly valentine is a comedy pitch entitled Walk Hard, which has been handed off to creators Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan to write; Kasdan will also direct. The film, which sounds utterly perfect for Reilly, will revolve around Dewey Cox, a fictional rock legend who "is an amalgamation of a number of classic musician stories [Read: Ray Charles, Johnny Cash], tales of excess, highs and lows and bad behavior." This, friends, is going to be fantastic. (Granted, it won't come out for years, but still. I promise to link back to this post when I review Walk Hard in 2008.)

Today's sequel rumors involve two franchises, one beloved and the other profitable. The first is the Snake Plissken saga, which began with the cult classic Escape from New York, and was later revived with the not-great (but excusable because, you know, it's Snake) Escape from L.A. According to a report at Blood Disgusting, Snake may just be escaping again in the near future -- their tipster claims that "A major meeting was held at Paramount last week with both John Carpenter and Kurt Russell in attendance." Supposedly, the screenplay (which is called Escape from Earth -- is it possible to jump the shark just from a title?) was completed years ago, but Paramount wasn't interested until Russell told them he'd only sign a new, three-picture deal if they made another Escape first. Hmm. Really? Russell's a good, quiet actor when he's allowed to play a normal guy, but why on earth would signing him be so important that Paramount would sink cash into a movie they've got no reason to believe would turn a profit, particularly since Escape from LA was a loser for them? Neither Plissken nor Russell is exactly box office gold.

The other sequel being discussed, however, is pretty much guaranteed to make money: Charlie's Angels 3. According to Moviehole, Sky News is reporting that producer Drew Barrymore is hell-bent on keeping the series going, whether Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz -- not to mention director McG -- come back or not. Frankly, it's hard to think of reasons that Columbia wouldn't make this film eventually -- even the second one, which cost about $120 million and currently has as rating below five at the IMDb, took in over $250 million worldwide. What's not to like?

Check this out: Even before Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby hit theaters, Columbia Pictures was already so in love with the men behind it that, based only on a pitch, they threw a huge pile of money at them yesterday. The pitch was for a comedy called Step Brothers, which will be directed by Adam McKay from a script he'll write with Will Ferrell. Yes, that sentence also describes both Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights, which goes a long way towards explaining Columbia's eagerness to lock the project up before anyone else even saw it.

And the Talladega Nights connection goes even further: Step Brothers will star Ferrell and John C. Reilly as "coddled guys who live with their respective single parents. Their folks fall in love and marry, making the guys stepbrothers." In case you're been under a rock for the post month or so, that duo just happens to star in Talladega Nights, as well. Gee, think Columbia is excited about the movie?

In addition to signing the duo for Step Brothers, the studio also already agreed to salaries for its stars and director; production is scheduled to begin next summer.

Despite the fact that not a single person (I heard even Madonna thought it was crap) will confess to liking his more recent gangster flick, Revolver, Guy Ritchie is still getting jobs based on the success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch (Yeah I know -- I forget they were two different movies, too.). This time, his employer is Columbia Pictures, which has hired Ritchie to rewrite and direct a movie called Static. One guess what it's about: Yes, more gangsters for Guy.

The central figure in Static is a gangster who has been unjustly imprisoned, and is on his way to testify against the bad cops that put him away. Problematically, there are a lot of other bad cops and rival gangsters trying to keep him from doing so. Thus, it's up to the poor, misunderstood gangster and his "loyal posse" to get to the courthouse on their own. So, basically, it's 16 Blocks, except with a posse instead of Bruce Willis, and without Mos Def. Super.

Static has been on the books at Original Film (a Sony-based company that is supervising the film) for years, and has been set up in the past with both Stephen Kay and Chris Robinson (not the Black Crowe, the guy who made ATL) at the helm.

Just yesterday, New Line bought the rights to a pitch entitled Me, Me, Me, the subject of which I'm sure will absolutely shock you: a guy who thinks he's what my grandmother would have called "the bee's knees." More specifically, the man is "the world's most obnoxious narcissist, who wishes people could be more like him and then enters a living hell when his dream becomes a reality." Depending on the casting, it could actually be pretty funny -- or at least it could have been, if New Line hadn't handed it over to Shawn Levy, the human engine of suck. There is hope, however, because right now Levy and his partner Tom McNulty are producing the film, but it's not 100% sure that Levy will direct. If they can just keep it out of his hands, this thing has potential.

If that one doesn't work out, however, there's always Columbia's Moi which, scandalously, is pretty much the same movie. When that pitch was picked up last November, Variety described the story as being about "a man who is convinced that the world would be a better place if everybody acted just like him," and added "it doesn't turn out that way." Hmm.

You know, it's been a while since we had a good race-to-the-screen battle in Hollywood. I don't know about you, but I welcome this development. After all, who doesn't miss the days when we could see two bad movies about Columbus in one trip to the megaplex?

Remember last month, when the Weinstein Brothers were bragging all over town about their acquisition of the rights to the Crane-Iron Pentalogy, the series of books by Wang Du Lee from which Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was born? And how it would give them "an opportunity to do something revolutionary" whatever that means? Well, it turns out the people at Columbia think the revolution is theirs, and the two sides are headed to court to fight it out, hopefully in a battle that features abundant wire-work.

According to Columbia representatives, the studio acquired the rights to four books in the Penalogy (presumably all but Crouching Tiger) last year though an oral agreement with one Dr. Hong Wang, who, at least sometimes, is "authorized to represent [Lee's heirs] in such deals." The Weinsteins, meanwhile, claim that they, too, got the rights through Dr. Wang, but in December of last year, via a written agreement. Uh oh. Columbia believes that, since their agreement was reached first, it invalidates the subsequent contract signed by Wang and Weinstein reps. The plot thickens, however, because (according to lawyers for the Weinsteins) Lee's heirs deny any knowledge of the Columbia agreement. And even if it DOES exists, say those lawyers, it "would be unenforceable under the U.S. Copyright Act" for reasons that are unstated and well beyond me.

We'll keep any eye on the case and let you know if anything interesting happens; either way, it's going to be a while before we seen any Crouching Dragon sequels.