Last night I watched Downloading Nancy, though perhaps a more accurate verb would be "endured." Erik Davis' very positive review is here; let me just say that I respectfully disagree with my boss, and that if he weren't my boss my disagreement would be a lot less respectful. (J/K, Erik! I'm totally J/K.)

I hated this movie. It's ugly and loathsome and crass, and for no good reason. But what I found funny was that it had, of all things, product placement. One character is seen with a can of Diet Pepsi in four different scenes. In another one, someone asks if he wants a drink, and specifically suggests Pepsi.

And you have to think: Did Pepsi pay for this? Did the filmmakers approach Pepsi and say, "Hey, listen, we're making a really vile and unpleasant movie about a messed-up woman who wants to be sexually and physically abused, and who meets a stranger on the Internet specifically for that reason. And we think it would be awesome if her uncaring, unemotional husband -- the one who has partially driven her to this -- were an avid Diet Pepsi drinker. What do you say?"

Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if the product placement was actually paid for by Coke. That would make more sense, wouldn't it? "Diet Pepsi: The choice of a sexually dead and emotionally unfeeling generation!"

We recently brought you news that Maria Bello is about to start shooting a new thriller called Downloading Nancy. While it might sound like some sort of Weird Science update where the kids download a woman from the Internet, it is actually about a suicidal wife who doesn't have the guts to do the deed herself. Instead, she hires a hitman to do it for her. To throw a further wrench into the woman's troubled life, they form a relationship which makes it hard for the man to finish his job. As of last week, Bello's co-star was to be Ray Liotta.

Well, now more casting news has come from Production Weekly, and Liotta's name is nowhere to be found. The actress' co-stars are now listed as Jason Patric and Danny Huston. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that Huston's involvement is not as another "husband of the star" -- that's getting old. However, I wouldn't get settled in these casting choices. There is still just over a week before Johan Renck is set to start filming, so there's enough time for the filmmakers to make even more changes. According to PW, William Hurt was also set to star. Now this is one hell of a melange of different actors -- Hurt, Liotta and now either Patric or Huston.

Stay tuned, we might have a whole new cast list next week!

The description of this film sounds a little familiar -- maybe you can help me out here. I'm talking about a film highlighted in a recent article up over at Production Weekly called Donwloading Nancy which will star the smokin' Maria Bello and Ray Liotta. According to the article, Bello and Liotta have recently signed on to the pic which tells the story of Nancy (played by Bello) an unhappy wife who, instead of offing herself via suicide, decides to hire a hit man (played by Liotta) over the Internet to do the deed.

Unfortunately, problems arise, as they often do when hiring hit men over the Internet, and the two form a relationship which makes it very difficult for the hit man to finish the job. The pic, to be directed by yet-another former commercial and music video helmer with no feature experience named Johan Renck, was written by Lee Ross and Tamela Cunning -- with Renck also working on a draft with the writers as well. Again, maybe its just me but this story sounds pretty familiar -- like the movie Bulworth -- only this time its a woman hiring the hit man and there's no Warren Beatty.

That doesn't mean this movie will end up being bad or anything. Sometimes familiar is a good thing, and I really like Maria Bello; most of her more-recent choices, like The Cooler and Thank You for Smoking, have been stellar. She has good taste in material, so maybe there's something to this one after all. I guess we'll find out soon enough because production on the film is scheduled to start next week in Regina, Saskatchewan.