Is Jack Black replacing Matt Damon in the Bourne franchise? Thankfully, no, however The Hollywood Reporter tells us the funnyman has teamed back up with Kung Fu Panda writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger for a live-action comedic take on The Bourne Identity. In the film, Black will play some dude who washes up on the shores of Cuba with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Of course, he automatically believes he's a superspy (thanks Hollywood!), though nothing could be further from the truth. Sounds like a funny premise -- but is Black the right one for the role?

Meanwhile, Sky High's plant-loving sidekick, Danielle Panabaker, is going back to school. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she'll star in Chuck Russell's upcoming sci-fi action film called Prodigy. Based on Dave Kalstein's book, the film focuses on an elite prep school that takes teaching to the extreme -- they make students into geniuses with a "drug-and-diet regimen." Panabaker will play the smartie daughter of a senator who questions the powers that be. This might be particularly bad for those powers since, as Publisher's Weekly describes it, the conditioning makes these kids "ninja-assassin geniuses."

Last but not least, there's the talented Michael Sheen. Putting aside retro politics and The Music Within, Variety reports that the actor has picked up two new gigs. First, there's Sam Jackson's Unthinkable, which dips into the ethics of torture and terrorism, and then comes a little Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, there's zip-all on who he's playing in these films. At least that leaves us free to speculate -- who on Earth will Sheen be in the world of Mad Hatters and White Rabbits?! Not Tweedledee and Tweedledum -- that's Matt Lucas, it seems.

Okay, so the Monsters vs. Aliens and My Life in Ruins trailers may have been leaked and subsequently pulled earlier this week, as was the case with certain awards contender Frost/Nixon, but now we can offer up the trailer straight-up, fully legit, by way of Yahoo! Movies.

The incongruous song selections aside (honestly, though: going from "Baba O'Riley" for the sake of nostalgia to Clint Mansell's wondrous score from The Fountain for the sake of drama in a matter of minutes just distracts me), I have little reason to think that this won't deliver on its considerable stage pedigree.

Frank Langella won a Tony Award for his portrayal of disgraced prez Richard Nixon, and as British talk show host David Frost, Michael Sheen looks to tap into that same sense of dignity under pressure that served him so well as Tony Blair in The Queen. It doesn't hurt that both political dramas share the same writer, and it also doesn't hurt that this looks to be the punchiest thing that Ron Howard has directed in quite some time.

Landing smack-dab in the middle of the Oscar drama blitz, Frost/Nixon should open in select cities on December 5th and will expand through Christmas.

Maybe it's because this was my first summer writing for Cinematical, but it's felt like an exceptionally intense movie season: the event movies just kept coming, and many of them wound up having real traction. There was a lot to watch and a lot to talk about. It's barely ended, and in just a couple of weeks, Telluride and Toronto officially kick off the fall -- and "Oscar season". I'll sleep when I'm dead, I guess.

One of awards season's most formidable contenders -- already slated for the familiar December platform release -- is Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, based on the acclaimed West End and Broadway play about journalist David Frost's famous televised interviews of post-resignation Richard Nixon; the ones where Nixon delivered the infamous line about how "if the President does it, it's not illegal." There's a well-crafted trailer for it over here, (trailer link removed at request of studio) and yep: we're in Oscar mode.

I saw the play with Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost, both of whom reprise their roles in the film. The show was great but very much a stage show, deriving a lot of its power from the foreboding set and the hugeness of Langella's Nixon impression which, from the looks of the trailer, remains very much intact. It worked great in the theater, but I'm worried it might overwhelm the film. I liked Anthony Hopkins' take on Nixon in the Oliver Stone film, where he basically said to hell with the impersonation and did his own thing.

When Stephen Frears' The Queen came out in 2006, all the buzz emphasized Helen Mirren's icy performance as London's reclusive royal highness. The ubiquitous praise lead to her Oscar win, but it overwhelmed recognition of the movie's secret weapon: Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, quietly pressuring his Majesty to face the public in the wake of Princess Diana's untimely demise. There's a reason why Sheen conveyed the nuances of Blair's role in the event, which transpired a mere three months after the Prime Minister rose to power -- he had practice. The Deal, a fantastic made-for-TV movie Frears directed in 2003, tracked Blair's cunning (and morally questionable) instincts in the years leading up to his position at the top of the Labor Party.

Sheen played Blair in The Deal first, and it's both a superior performance and a superior film. Whereas The Queen had a tabloid hook and only tangentially explored the deeper political ramifications of a reclusive national leader, The Deal delves into precisely how Blair managed to emerge at the top of British politics with a series of calculated maneuvers. Political drama at its finest, The Deal hit DVD in the United States last month, where it has been touted as "the prequel to The Queen." That's not quite fair; The Queen is the sequel to The Deal, and the two movies ought to be seen as a single, wholly fascinating package depicting British politics in the 1990s.

For those of you who are hard-core soccer fans, this new feature should come as a treat. Variety reports that Sony Pictures Entertainment has picked up the rights to a new biopic on English soccer coach Brian Clough called The Damned United. John Adams director Tom Hooper is helming the feature, from a script by Peter Morgan. You might recognize Morgan's name from films like, oh, The Last King of Scotland, The Queen, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Frost/Nixon.

But there's also a great cast attached to the flick. We've got Michael Sheen, who was excellent in his portrayal of Art Honeyman in Music Within, playing Clough, while Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, and Colm Meaney take on other parts that haven't been divulged. The film is based on the novel from Dave Peace, and will be set in 1974, but flash back to the '60s to tell the story of "Clough's ill-fated 44-day reign as coach of Leeds United, then one of England's most successful soccer teams." From what I can discern, he came in, criticized how the team played, alienated some of the team's star players, led his team to a one and six record, and then got sacked.

I'm far from a big soccer fan, so I have no idea how these things whip up into an interesting feature, but I would be surprised if this wasn't a solid film, considering the talent involved. But what about you fans out there? Is this a story meant for the big screen?

A dedicated contributor to the Ain't it Cool News machine got the chance to catch what they claimed was the final cut of Ron Howard's political drama, Frost/Nixon, and the good news is that it earned a resounding thumbs up (if you make it through the entire review, there is also a little surprise regarding the Arrested Development feature). Frost/Nixon is based on the famous stage play by Peter Morgan, which premiered in 2007 and earned Frank Langella a Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.

In 1977, Frost, as the host of a popular news show titled Frost on America, conducted a series of hard-hitting interviews with Richard Nixon. Nixon had been interviewed countless times before, but Frost was perhaps the only journalist to ever get him to admit his culpability in the Watergate break-in. Morgan adapted his own play for the screen, and it centers on Frost's team as well as re-enactments of the interviews.

Reprising their roles are Frank Langella as the disgraced former President Nixon, and Michael Sheen as British journalist, David Frost. Joining Langella and Sheen are Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, and Sam Rockwell as James Reston Jr. Judging by AICN's tipster, it looks like most of the praise will be directed at Langella's stellar performance as the former president. So for those of you who like to get an early jump on your Oscar pool, you might want to keep Langella in mind. Frost/Nixon goes into limited release on December 5th.

Usually, heavy drama and inspirational fare are mixed into hard-hitting or heart-sagging packages. But sometimes, the tough-to-swallow is mixed with comedy -- not in a way where the funny is the only thing that matters, but in a way that helps move the story and keep you out of that moviegoer depression. When done right, it can be a really enjoyable experience -- one that makes you think, feel, and laugh.

Now, I'm cheating a little bit for this double feature. One of the films just came out on DVD this week, but the other doesn't come out until Tuesday (Double Feature of the Future!). But having received both screeners, and having them sitting here on the desk, looking at me, I couldn't help but use them because they go so well together. Both contain some pretty dramatic moments, but the drama is couched in levity. I present: Music Within and Lars and the Real Girl -- two films that embrace the marriage of comedy and drama, as well as people who get past their own fears and offer help to others.

"This summer...hold on to your crown...The Queen rules again bitches!" Yes, Variety is reporting that writer Peter Morgan is working on a follow-up to last year's Oscar-winning hit, The Queen. The Queen was a very British story, but this time he's bringing America into the mix, specifically Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The new film will deal with their relationships to Prime Minster Tony Blair (played wonderfully in The Queen by Michael Sheen, who is expected to return for the sequel). The film "will focus on Blair's reaction to the handover of power between Clinton, a natural liberal ally, and Bush, who came from the other end of the political spectrum." The project will actually be the third in Morgan's series of films about Blair, which began with the Channel 4 telepic The Deal.

The most intriguing aspect of this film might just be its casting. Who can effectively capture the good old boy charisma and charm of Bill Clinton? John Travolta did a very nice job playing a highly Clintonesque character in Primary Colors. I sure wish Phil Hartman was still alive (for a variety of reasons), I don't think anyone's nailed Clinton better, and I always sensed Hartman could have easily handled drama. Who can get across the thick layer of bluster, blind confidence, and -- what's a nice word? -- naivete present in a George W. Bush speech? Something tells me they won't go the Will Ferrell route. My pick for Dubya would be the great William H. Macy, he's got the "shifty dude whose world is crumbling around him" thing down pat. What do you guys think? Assuming they don't go with unknowns, who would you cast as two of the most recognizable figures in politics -- Bush and Clinton?

This Frost/Nixon is turning into the "character actor" event of 2008. All they need is Steve Buscemi! The cast includes Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones, Matthew Macfadyen, and now the great Oliver Platt is on board as Bob Zelnick. Zelnick was the executive editor of the Frost/Nixon interviews. Ron Howard is directing the film, Peter Morgan (writer of Oscar bait The Queen and The Last King of Scotland) is adapting his Broadway play, which is a dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate interviews between British talk show host David Frost (played by Sheen) and former President Richard Nixon (played by Langella). Sheen and Langella will reprise their stage roles, Langella just won a Tony award for his performance.

I'm a big Oliver Platt fan, he's a welcome addition to just about any movie. I remained supportive even through the 1999-2000 "dark period" when he appeared in pretty much every bad film released, including the jaw-droppingly terrible trifecta of Bicentennial Man, Gun Shy, and Ready to Rumble. Today brings two bits of Platt casting news -- you television fans will be pleased to learn that he has also just been cast in a recurring role on the FX drama Nip/Tuck (Apparently he's only appearing in works with slashes in the title these days). Platt will appear in five episodes as "Freddy Prune, the producer of a TV show on which Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) serve as consultants," Remember, the boys are in Hollywood this season. Nip/Tuck (a guilty pleasure if ever there was one) is a favorite of mine, and I'm very interested in the Frost/Nixon subject matter, so this is a good time to be an Oliver Platt enthusiast.

That upcoming Ron Howard-directed Richard Nixon movie called Frost/Nixon has just added the epic Kevin Bacon to its cast. The adapted stage play already has Frank Langella reprising his role as Nixon and Michael Sheen reprising his role as Frost, as well as Sam Rockwell as James Reston Jr., Frost's head researcher. Now Bacon has slid onto the roster to play Nixon's chief of staff, Jack Brennan. The film and play are based on the televised interviews between Frost and Nixon in 1977, where the former got the ex-president to admit his guilt in the whole Watergate scandal. Of course, as with any adaptation, there are some liberties. According to this write-up, one of the most interesting involves Bacon's Brennan. During one interrogation, Brennan held up a placard for Frost to see that said "Let him talk." The interviewer mis-read it as "Let us talk" and halted the interview for a bit. In the theatrical version, Brennan storms on-stage and demands a break. Ah, the liberties of cinematic storytelling!

I'm sure the Bacon will be a natural in the role -- he has done well with period pieces and true stories in the past (Apollo 13, Where the Truth Lies). But what I want to know is when will Kevin Bacon dance again? The guy has spent the last decade or so acting mainly in creepy thrillers and super-serious dramas, mixed in with a family film here or there for good measure -- and Beauty Shop, the one really strange blip on his recent resume. While there can sadly be no reunion with Chris Penn, I'm sure there's some sort of rebellious dance he can partake in. That is, unless he's going the Christopher Walken route and won't dance again until some great music video director casts him in an epic, short role. But by then, he won't be able to do all the moves of his past and that will just be a bummer.