Back in February, I briefly mentioned through a casting bite that Alejandro Amenabar was gearing up for his next film, and had cast Rachel Weisz and Homayoun Ershadi from The Kite Runner. Now Variety has fleshed out the whole project. It's called Agora, the filmmaker wrote it with Mateo Gil, and it will be Amenabar's second English-language feature, after The Others.

Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella (Art School Confidential) star in the film, which takes place in Ancient Egypt. More specifically, Weisz will play the astrologer-philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, in Roman Egypt during the fourth century. "Trapped in the Library of Alexandria as religious riots flare on the city's streets, Hypatia battles to save the collected wisdom of the ancient world. Meanwhile, her slave Davus (Minghella) is torn between his love for his mistress and the freedom he could attain by joining the rising tide of Christianity." Aside from Ershadi, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom, Michael Lonsdale, and Rupert Evans have roles.

Amenabar plans to use a "hyper-realist approach" to bring Alexandria to life, and says: "We want the audience to see, feel and smell a remote civilization as if it were as real as the present day." To me, it definitely sounds worth is, and is certainly better than Weisz doing a million Mummy sequels. Are you ready to get dirty in Ancient Egypt?

I'm one of those people who was first introduced to Gael Garcia Bernal through Y tu mamá también. Unfortunately, I'm also one of those crazy, rare people who didn't like the film. Well, I probably would've liked it more if it wasn't hyped so much. Once I saw it, I just didn't get the wow factor. Luckily, he's also been in I'm with Lucy, so I saw him in some better material. Just kidding... Anyhow, he's just about to show his directorial debut, Déficit, to Cannes this week and he's also finalizing plans to star in another adaptation of Pedro Páramo, a famous short novel by Juan Rulfo.

It's been a favorite of the big screen, having popped up in 1967, 1978 and 1981. In this current incarnation, I'm sniffing one hell of a Latin hit. This adaptation is under the pens of Mateo Gil and Alejandro Amenábar, who will also direct. Why is this a good thing? Because they're the ones who brought us Abre los ojos, the precursor to Vanilla Sky. Páramo is the story of a brutal man who married Juan Preciado's mother, stole her land and money, and destroyed her town -- Comala. Talking with the ghosts of the town, Preciado reveals its demise under Pedro's hands. To just sweeten the deal a little bit, the film will be art directed by Eugenio Caballero, who just won an Oscar for Pan's Labyrinth. I'm not sure how much they could sweeten this cinematic pot, but I'm anxious to see what they all will do with this latest adaptation. How about you?