Almost two full years ago, Russell Crowe was looking to star in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Stanton's The Prince of Providence, which was being helmed by Michael Corrente. Since that time, Crowe is out, the project is still in the works, and as The Hollywood Reporter posts, it might be getting itself a serving of Robin Williams.

The script, which was written by David Mamet and polished by Howard Korder, focuses on Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci, a corrupt politician "who dominated Providence's political machine for 21 years." There's no word on who Robin Williams will play if his scheduling works out, but Oliver Platt will take on the role of Cianci (quite the change from Crowe), and be joined by the likes of Dermot Mulroney, Adam Goldberg (Ronnie Gantz), Bradley Cooper (Haxton), and Ed Burns.

All of the actors sound great, but it will be even better if Williams officially signs on. After so many questionable films in the last handful of years, it would be so very nice to see Robin stretching his acting chops again. Production will begin later this summer in Rhode Island.

Considering the critical reception that a Roland Emmerich film usually receives, I am always a little surprised by the actors who are willing to sign on for one of his films. Although to be fair, it wouldn't be the first time that John Cusack had signed on the dotted line for a less-than-stellar project. The Hollywood Reporter has now announced that Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, and Oliver Platt are all in talks to join Cusack in Emmerich's apocalyptic thriller, 2012. According to THR, "Glover is in talks to play the President, with Newton in discussions to play his daughter. Platt is in negotiations to play the president's chief of staff."

Thanks to Erik, we now have a few more details about the story, and that it centers on an academic researcher (Cusack) who "opens a portal into a parallel universe and makes contact with his double in order to prevent an apocalypse predicted by the ancient Mayans." Emmerich co-wrote the script with fellow 10,000 B.C. scribe, Harald Kloser -- which is probably not a great selling point for most audiences. Columbia has projected a budget of $200 million for the end-of-the-world flick -- I guess all that destruction doesn't come cheap. But, Columbia has also stated that they're hoping to bring the thriller in under budget. Emmerich has promised to start production by July, barring any hiccups from a possible SAG strike.

2012 is scheduled to arrive in theaters on July 10, 2009.

Word about Nicole Holofcener's still-untitled new film hit back in December, when Catherine Keener, regular Holofcener star, was circling the project. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that the film has been picked up by Sony Picture Classics, and three players have been added to the roster -- Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, and Rebecca Hall.

Written by Holofcener, the film focuses on a New York couple (Keener and Platt) who own the next-door apartment, which is occupied by a "cantankerous, elderly woman." The pair want to reclaim the apartment, so they're anxiously waiting for the woman to die so they can grab it back. It's not the most charming plan, but certainly understandable in a morbid way. But then their impatience is complicated by the presence of the woman's two granddaughters, who the couple befriend (Peet and Hall) -- it's not so easy to itch for death when the whole scenario becomes more real.

The film is scheduled to begin production in mid-May, with plans to wrap before that looming, potential SAG strike. In the meantime, a number of roles still need to be cast -- namely the grandmother who won't die, and the couple's daughter.

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.

Though he still hasn't lined up his next directing gig, Judd Apatow is slowly creating a comedic empire. His latest producing effort, Year One, has added five new faces to its cast -- and The Hollywood Reporter tells us one of those faces just happens to be McLovin himself, Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Joining Mintz-Plasse in the comedy will be Oliver Platt, David Cross, Vinnie Jones and Juno Temple. Production on the film is set to begin this January in Louisiana and New Mexico, with Harold Ramis onboard to direct off a script written by Ramis, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (both of whom have written several episodes of The Office). Jack Black and Michael Cera also star.

All we know about the story at this point is that it's a comedy set in biblical times. HR says Platt is in talks to play a platform-shoe-wearing high priest (love that description!), while Jones will tackle the role of a head palace guard named Sargon. No word on who Cross, Temple and Mintz-Plasse will play, though I assume the latter will take on the role of biblical geek? So far Apatow has found success with comedies set in today's world, around characters we can all relate to. It should be interesting to see his group take on a project set in biblical times, though anything with Jack Black and Michael Cera in the lead automatically garners my interest. But here's the big question: Who will Will Ferrell play in a cameo role?

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.

Living in New York City, there's no way to escape the incredible food featured on nearly every corner throughout the five boros. If you're in the mood to throw down a nice chuck of change, I can direct you to a number of restaurants that will -- and I'm serious here -- change your life. Oh yes, the food is that good. Of course, this means I've packed on a few extra pounds, but I have no one else to blame but myself.

However, that's not the case for the obese editor of a food magazine in the 1978 flick Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe. Instead of simply finding another job, he decides to kill the chefs behind some of his favorite dishes. Hmm, I guess that's one way to go about it. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has announced it will remake the film, which originally starred George Segal, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Morley, and, in doing so, will shorten its title to Who Is Killing the Great Chefs. David A. Goodman has signed on to pen the script, with Oliver Platt attached to reprise the role of Max, originally played by Morley. Great, for some reason just writing this post has made me hungry. Time to eat!

Chris reported in June on The Ten, a David Wain-penned and directed 10-part spoof of the Biblical Ten Commandments (Yes, it's one story/commandment -- good work!). The potential in the film had him (and yours truly) excited, both because of Wain's past (he was a member of The State and Stella, and co-wrote Wet Hot American Summer, among other things) and the film's packed cast, which at that time included Paul Rudd, Jessica Alba, Amanda Peet, Justin Theroux and Adam Brody.

Depending on how you feel about Wain and this film, it either just got a lot better, or added a load of useless cast members, who will contribute nothing to its spoofy nonsense. Me, I'm in the former camp -- how can the addition of Liev Schreiber to anything fail to make it better? In addition to Schreiber, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Gretchen Mol, Rob Corddry, Ron Silver and Oliver Platt have all come on board. That, my friends, is quite a cast. Granted, many of them will probably appear for 30 seconds in robe and beard, carrying a tablet, but still.

The film is currently filming in New York and Mexico; it'll come out some time in 2007.

• Æon Flux - This empty sci-fi flick's listing on IMDB.com is loaded with glowing user endorsements, leading everyone else who has seen it to believe that either drugs were involved in forming these opinions, the Pod People took these users over or an army of undercover PR lackeys is spinning overtime. This cinematic equivalent of a bronzed cow pie, an unimaginative Logan's Run pretender set 400 years in the future after a global plague, stars Charlize Theron as a rebel trying to take down the corrupt government of Bregna, the only city on Earth. From the way-lazy back story title cards and opening narration to the silly costumes to the cartoonish action sequences to the awful deadpan performances, this should be called Peed-On, Sux. Maybe Theron's mother needed an operation or something, but this is a very bad and brainless example of sci-fi, a puffed-up issue movie that ultimately offers nothing but regret. Instead, check out creator Peter Chung's original, pre-anime craze animated MTV series, which was released on DVD late last year.

I don't know about anyone else, but the trailer for Casanova really had me concerned - it was too short to get a sense of if the humor really worked or not, and succeeded only in making Heath Ledger look like a dolt. Happily for both Heath and the movie, however, Apple is now hosting a very reassuring five minute clip from the movie.

For people (such as myself) who had been wondering, if the clip is anything to go on, Casanova really is funny. Also very silly, but in a good way. For the Rowan Atkinson fans out there, the clip actually gives off a very strong Blackadder the Third vibe, it's that sort of joyful, costumed absurdity. In addition, these five minutes make clear once again that Oliver Platt is a complete comic genius who can bring pathos to the most absurd character on earth. Click below and check it out for yourselves - the movie comes out in the US on Christmas.

[via Movies Online]