Malice won't have its way with Sunderland anymore. The BBC reports that the upcoming, and long-delayed new take on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Malice in Sunderland, will not be filmed on Wearside, and it has got a new name -- Malice in Wonderland.

The film was hoping for a £250,000 bit of cash from the area, but the region's film group said that their cash goes to talent from the region. So, with that hefty bit of change biting the dust, the film will now be shot in the Southend with a new title. However, producer Albert Martinez-Martin says that the name change is only due to the play on words: "The title was also changed as everyone in the UK would know Sunderland but outside UK they wouldn't. I also thought two puns in one title were one too many." Do you really need to know what Sunderland is to enjoy, or recognize the title?

One of the many comedies debuting at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Assassination of a High School President is a school-set spoof of film noir, with school paper journalist Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) going from outcast to in-crowd when he dopes out who's been lifting SAT papers from the administration's office. Funke hits the means, motive and opportunity triple play and pins the thefts on student council president and basketball star Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor); his article earns him a coveted internship with Northwestern's journalism program and the affections of Moore's ex, Francesca (Mischa Barton). It's all looking good. Until it isn't. Funke learns new facts that make his sure-thing story look shaky; Northwestern is calling to fact-check the story, and if they find holes, his internship's over before its begun. But Funke's ready to walk the mean halls of St. Donovan's and scour the Jersey suburbs to get the story right. ...

Many critics and observers have already pigeonholed Assassination of a High School President as"Brick played for laughs." And yeah, that's a fairly simplistic assessment; then again, Assassination of a High School President's a fairly simplistic film. Written by ex-South Park production assistants Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski (and between this film and Hamlet 2, it's interesting how the road to Park City, Utah seems to have had an on-ramp in South Park, Colorado this year), Assassination never quite clicks as a total experience. Yes, it's amusing when Thompson, in his self-celebrating inner monologue, says he'll be on the case " ... like pink rubber bands on your sister's braces." And director Brett Simon finds lively, well-shot moments of visual excitement in the clichés of high school life: detention is shot like the big house, a party sequence moves and grooves with giddy chaos. But Assassination has a meandering plot line that dithers when it should drive forward, and lingers at times it should leap ahead. As Funke works leads, we get scenes that expand the running time instead of advance the plot. And yes, holding this film's central pitch up to the life-and-death stakes of Brick -- one of the best films I've ever seen in seven years of attending Sundance -- is going to make the funny-and-goofy stakes of Assassination seem slighter in comparison.

When Mischa Barton was unceremoniously killed off the teen soap, The OC; I think most of us thought this was her chance to transform her teen stardom into a successful movie career. So far that hasn't happened, and I personally doubt her latest role is going to do anything to change that. Variety reports Barton has signed to star in the psychological thriller Walled In. The story centers on "a demolition company rep who supervises the razing of a mysterious building and discovers horrifying secrets and past inhabitants entombed within its walls by a vicious murderer". Based on the French novel Les Emmeures by Serge Broselot, Barton will play the demolition company rep -- and is it just me, but when you think commercial demolition and construction, someone who looks like Barton doesn't exactly come to mind?

Joining Barton are Deborah Kara Unger (Silent Hill) and Cameron Bright (Juno -- you can catch Scott's TIFF review of that film here) and set to direct is French helmer Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Gomez and Tavare). This will be the first English-language feature for Brenner, who also helped adapt the novel for the screen. Barton has been piling on the projects lately, having signed for the caper film St. Trinian's back in May and she also just finished the drama Finding t.A.T.u. Barton is still hard at work on the high school comedy Assassination of a High School President with Bruce Willis. Walled In is a French-Canadian co-production and is scheduled to start shooting on October 22nd, in the most glamorous of all Canadian locations: Saskatchewan (believe me, it's funnier if you are a Canadian).

The other day I got sucked into watching Election on cable, and I suddenly remembered what a fabulous high school-set dark comedy was supposed to look like. In my opinion, there hasn't been a film like it since; these days all we get is pain medication and kids attempting suicide. Mean Girls was definitely a step in the right direction, but even that doesn't come close to Tracy Flick's antics. However, there is one film on the horizon that's showing a little bit of promise, even though the latest casting news doesn't exactly whet my appetite. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Mischa Barton will star opposite Bruce Willis and his daughter Rumer Willis in the dark comedy The Sophomore for Yari Film Group.

When we first told you about this film it was being called Assassination of a High School President, but the title has since changed for obvious reasons (the words 'assassination' and 'high school' aren't allowed to be used in the same sentence these days, and for good reason). Pic, which is being labeled as a teenage take on Chinatown, revolves around a sophomore reporter (role not cast yet) who's persuaded by the most popular girl in school (Barton) to investigate the theft of SAT exams. Apparently, Bruce Willis will play a sadistic war veteran AND the school's principal. Meanwhile, the female Willis will take on the role of "school troublemaker." While I'm not crazy about Barton, I'm sure she'll have no problem playing some stuck-up popular chick, and the description of Bruce Willis' character alone has me interested. Will it fit into the same category as Election? I hope so. Brett Simon will direct, with principal photography beginning this August.

Ed. Note: Some initial plot descriptions were incorrect; I have since updated the information.

Everyone's favorite Keds advertiser is about to fly her shoes to Moscow. Mischa Barton -- The O.C.'s lead high school darling -- has just signed on to star in Finding t.A.T.u. The film is a drama about a young, American woman coming of age in Russia, where loneliness sparks a friendship with a native Russian teenager with similar interests.

It will be adapted to the screen from the book, t.A.Tu come back by the novelist A. Mitrofanov. The book tells the story of two young women who fall in love after meeting at a concert by the Russian pop group t.A.T.u. The group is a real pop duo, created in Russia under the guise of the two having a lesbian relationship. In reality, it was simply a theatrical ploy to create fame. The stunt worked and the band now has quite a following in Russia -- the unofficial website of the group trumpets the dedicated fan base. The film is expected to closely follow the book, although exactly how much is unclear.

Barton's time was mostly committed to The O.C. until the beginning of this year, but she's already completed four films and has also recently announced Malice in Sunderland -- an Alice in Wonderland set in today's England. Roland Joffe who is most recently responsible for Captivity and perhaps my favorite entry on his resume, Super Mario Brothers, will direct Finding t.A.T.u. Nothing like John Leguizamo as Luigi -- gotta love it. Filming on Finding t.A.T.u starts at the end of June.

So much for my belief that St. Trinian's is the best cast movie in production right now. The film, which began shooting in March with top-notch British talents like Emily Watson, Colin Firth and Rupert Everett, has just added a young, American actress to sour up the mix. According to Variety, in a report from Cannes, Mischa Barton has joined the cast, which also includes Brits Toby Jones, Lena Headey, Stephen Fry, Celia Imrie, Anna Chancellor, Lucy Punch, Fenella Woolgar and possibly (still rumored, and not actually British) Richard E. Grant. To quote my favorite Sesame Street game: "One of these things is not like the other."

Hopefully Barton will simply be playing the bland girl from the States who happens to be studying at an English girls' school, and will not be expected to pull off an accent. Either way, she'll at least make the elder cast appear even greater. The former O.C. actress joins rising stars Jodie Whittaker (Venus), model Lily Cole, Talulah Riley (Pride & Prejudice), Tamsin Egerton (Driving Lessons), Juno Temple (Notes on a Scandal), Gemma Arterton and possibly (still rumored) singer Amy Winehouse, all of whom presumably play students at St. Trinian's, which they save from going bankrupt. St. Trinian's still seems to be, as Cinematical writer Monika Bartyzel called it, "a British film fan's wet dream," but thanks to the casting of Barton, the dream has gotten a little bit drier.

To be honest, I think when most people heard that Mischa Barton had left The OC, everyone was waiting for her career to take the inevitable nosedive. I'm guessing being lumped in with the Paris Hilton and Brandon Davis party crowd probably didn't help much in the respectability department either. There had been rumors that Mischa's character had been killed off due to her bad-mouthing of the show and general naughty behavior. Well, it's all water under the bridge now since the teen soap has gotten the axe, and Barton has managed to set up several film roles for 2007.

Variety reports that Barton is set to star in the indie drama Don't Fade Away for first-time director Luke Kasdan (nephew of famed writer-director Lawrence Kasdan). Kasdan's drama stars Ryan Kwanten and Barton as a Manhattan couple that are forced to deal with a father's illness. Rounding out the cast is the unlikely combination of Ja Rule and Beau Bridges. Since I never consistently watched The OC and I've tried to remain blissfully ignorant when it comes to the "Kiddie Table" of Hollywood gossip, I'll have to wait to see if Barton can transform herself into a leading lady ... or whether High School drama and hair tossing are the sum total of her talents.

[via Movie Web]

Because I watch The O.C. on Fox (Yes, it's true. Do your worst) I do know who one of the teen female stars of that show is -- Mischa Barton (super-cute Rachel Bilson is the other one, btw). Now that Barton's character on The O.C., high school senior Marissa Cooper, died at the end of last season and Barton has left the show, she is setting her sights on Hollywood and will attempt to make the transition away from her recent career as a teen TV actress.

Previously, Barton appeared in film such as Pups, Notting Hill, and Tart but always played a teenager (or younger) because, well, she was a teenager. Now that she's grown up quite a bit, she's beginning her transition by taking on more mature roles in upcoming film such as Virgin Territory with Hayden Christensen and Closing the Ring directed by Sir Richard Attenborough -- the Oscar winning director of Ghandi. And now, according to production weekly, she has added yet another role to her slate of upcoming "mature" projects -- director Simon Fellows' Malice in Sunderland.

Barton will star in the film, a modern take on Alice in Wonderland written by Jayson Rothwell, as Alice, an American student in London who, when she is accidentally hit by a taxi, finds herself in the strange world of Sunderland. In order for her to find her way home, Alice is forced to navigate a strange and fantastic world of quirky characters and precarious situations. I have to admit a certain fondness for Mischa Barton having seen her performance in the film Pups many years ago. That movie wasn't great, but she was great in it and showed a maturity and talent I haven't really seen her show very much since that film.

On The O.C. Barton didn't really have the best material to work with and let's face it, the show, while funny and often pretty good, is no Ghandi. Perhaps with her latest choice of roles, material and directors, she can really become the actress and star she has the potential to be. Shooting on Malice in Sunderland is expected to start early next year in the United Kingdom.

Am I wrong, or does does Mischa Barton have something?

Priscilla (Parker Posey) and Jack Chase (Paul Rudd) have been married for 10 years. In those 10 years, they've had sex exactly 1,483 times, encounters that have given Priscilla exactly zero orgasms. Though this "sexual dysfunction" doesn't seem to trouble her particularly -- she's a little overly-organized (the above count comes from her), but is also the recently-promoted vice-president of an advertising firm -- it's destroyed her husband's life. Once an inspiring, passionate high school chemistry teacher with ambition and good looks to boot, he's morphed into a sad-sack lump who teaches by having his students read their textbooks in class, while he surreptitiously sips from what looks suspiciously like a can of beer. His ego, you see, has been severely damaged by his inability to give his wife pleasure in bed (Before they were married, he insists to their counselor, he made lots of women come -- some of them more than once!), and his confidence in himself has evaporated as a result.

When Priscilla, after much uncomfortable laughter at the idea, secretly takes their marriage counselor up on his suggestion to buy a vibrator and bring herself to orgasm, and the miserable Jack begins an affair with a precocious and, as such characters tend to be, irritatingly wise, student (Mischa Barton) and moves out, Priscilla is given the push she needs to move beyond the Priscilla that everyone (including her) expects, and see what else she has to offer. The film, then, has potential: Speaking frankly about the subject of female sexuality is something that is rarely done in American films, and the idea of making the topic the subject of a woman-focused comedy is an interesting one. Disappointingly, though, The OH in Ohio fails on multiple levels: From uneven writing to insulting character development; from unconvincing acting to an wildly erratic tone.

Wrapping up today's odds and ends:

• In this midst of summarizing the upcoming Superman/Batman festivities, Variety dropped Bryan Singer's target start date for his brilliant or disastrous remake of Logan's Run: if all goes well, shooting will begin in Vancouver this fall. Eeeeexcellent.

• Though they apparently didn't kill him, when he died Chris Penn's body was home to "Valium, morphine, marijuana, and an elevated level of codeine." It's probably safe to say that he wasn't feeling any pain in those last few minutes.

• When we reported that Adam Sandler and Kevin James had agreed to star in it, we detailed the incredibly long path I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry had taken to production - it's been through zillions of stars and multiple writers, none of whom have worked out. And now, yet again, there's a problem: director David Dobkin took off yesterday, "citing big creative differences." Universal claims that they'll hire someone else in time to start this summer, as planned. Sure they will.

• Mischa Barton, who seems to have forgotten that she can't act, has signed on to star alongside Shirley MacLaine in Closing the Ring. A "romantic epic," the film marks Sir Richard Attenborough's return to direction after a break of nearly a decade. Sadly, the task of wringing a performance out of Barton may well drive him away again.
  

Continuing the never ending but always depressing trend of trying to turn hot young things who can't act on TV into movie stars, that fatty Mischa Barton is set to star in Hexxx, a "supernatural thriller centering on college students in New Orleans." (Every time I see the woman on The O.C., I find it almost impossible to comprehend that she was that wildly talented, wonderfully natural little girl in Lawn Dogs. I mean, what the hell happened?) The movie, which was written by the nondescript team of John Raffo and Mark Gibson (notable because he been hired to write the inevitably hilarious Coach Snoop, which is exactly what it sounds like it is), will be directed by Marc Schoelermann, a German director who is making his feature film debut. Also rumored to be in the cast is another sullen TV star, ER's Shane West. So, overall, it's a team to be reckoned with - 2007 Oscars, here they come!

[via Dark Horizons]