From a magical private school to the heart of the Iraq war is quite a jump. Luckily, Jason Isaacs is just the kind of versatile actor to pull it off. (If you don't believe me, take a look at the man's IMDB page -- talk about well-rounded!) Variety reports that Isaacs (aka Lucius Malfoy of Potter fame) has signed to star in Paul Greengrass' military drama, Green Zone. Isaacs will play an American officer in Iraq in the days following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Matt Damon stars as an investigator searching for weapons of mass destruction, Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) plays as a foreign correspondent from the NYT, and Greg Kinnear makes an appearance as a CIA agent.

Zone is based on the non-fiction book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, titled Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone. For those of us who maybe don't watch the nightly news as much as we should, here is a little reminder: "The Green Zone, (the common name for the International Zone of Iraq), is a 10 km² (4 mile²) area in central Baghdad that was the center of the Coalition Provisional Authority and remains the center of the international presence in the city." Chandrasekaran's book highlighted the "absurdities, incompetence, and bureaucratic failings which prevented a timely transfer of power to the Iraqis and bred the growing insurgency" -- you know, just your usual fun bedtime reading.

Greengrass wrote the original script for the military thriller, but eventually L.A. Confidential scribe Brian Helgeland was brought aboard to help smooth out some of the rough edges. Green Zone started filming in Spain last month, and will then move to Morocco (the two locations have served as stand-ins for Iraq, since the production could obviously not work in the actual area). The film has yet to secure a release date, but is scheduled to arrive in theaters sometime in 2009.

This is sad news for all of us who were looking forward to John Cusack in an action thriller from Jan De Bont. Apparently someone had the power to stop Stopping Power, and the planned movie has been killed, Variety reports. That someone is actually a financial backer that pulled out suddenly at the last minute. The $40 million production was scheduled to begin filming in Berlin very soon with a cast that included Jason Isaacs and Melissa George. Internationalmedia, a Munich-based company that was co-producing the movie, will be dealing with the back-out backer in court, but hasn't revealed who the backer is, though. So far at least one of Internationalmedia's subsidiaries, IM Stopping Power GmbH, which was set up specifically for Stopping Power, has had to file for insolvency.

While Jan de Bont might not be having the best luck with his other projects, it looks like his next far-fetched action title, Stopping Power, is moving along nicely. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Jason Isaacs (aka Lucius Malfoy) and Melissa George (30 Days of Night) have joined John Cusack in the action thriller. Cusack stars as a single father whose family RV is hijacked by a criminal on the run while vacationing in Germany. To save his daughter, he is forced to act as a 'decoy driver' for the escaped con, becoming embroiled in a high-stakes police chase. George is set to play Cusack's girlfriend, and Isaacs will play the criminal. That's not much of a surprise; Isaacs' resume is littered with "bad-guy" roles. Plus, if anyone can handle over-the-top villainy, it would be Isaacs; if you don't believe me, take another look at his performance in The Patriot.

Back in May, Scott Weinberg told us that de Bont was promising Stopping Power would include a 51-minute chase scene. Remember de Bont before the lifeless Tomb Raider films and the lame remake of The Haunting; this was the same director who brought us Speed. So the man does know his way around "vehicular action." The original draft of the script was written by The Hitcher scribe, Eric Red, but has reportedly undergone some rewrites from Richard Shepard (The Matador) and Skip Woods (Swordfish). With casting now in place, the production is ready to start shooting in Berlin this September. Stopping Power is scheduled to hit theaters in 2008.

If you weren't aware, Jason Isaacs is the man who plays evil Lucius Malfoy (father of Harry Potter's enemy Draco) in the Harry Potter film franchise. According to Isaacs, it is almost his turn to join the filming, and he's really excited about it. He'll get to have a go in September and October, rejoining his fellow actors from the previous films for a whole lot of blue screen work. He said much of what he's doing in this flick is a big blue screen battle, but he's under strict confidentiality orders to not tell anything important: "We always have to sign these incredible confidentiality clauses where we offer up our children's eyeballs if we ever break them." Isaacs also wisely (and humorously followed this up by indicating "I've never quite understood, since they're the most popular books on the planet, but anyway, I think I'm involved in the big battle." And it is entirely true, anyone interested in seeing this film has probably already read the novel -- but I suppose there are always film-only fans. How about it? Are there any of you out there who are unaware as to what Isaacs was referring to when he mentioned the big blue screen battle? If you are a Harry Potter hater who doesn't plan on seeing the film your vote doesn't count because it wouldn't be a spoiler for you anyway.