We now know what project Lindsay Lohan will be dropping out of next -- Poor Things, a comedy about a gang of grannies with Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis as said grannies. Lohan, Rosario Dawson and Channing Tatum have all joined the film, though I can't quite figure out why. Since the script seems to focus mainly on the grannies and their various gang-like activities -- Variety isn't clear on what kind of activities, exactly -- what kind of parts will there be for the twenty-somethings? The script, by Trent Haaga who wrote -- I kid you not -- Citizen Toxie, is supposedly inspired by some real headlines about some grannie gangs who were involved in everything from insurance scams to drugs and murders, but the whole thing sounds frankly made up to me. Someone show me a newspaper item about a ruthless gang of grannies terrorizing our streets.

Shooting on the film is set to begin next week, and Dawson could presumably have to work around Sin City 2, which is prepping for a summer start. As for Lohan, she's currently getting a lot of attention for the stripping video we reported on earlier, put up as part of the blog for her new film I Know Who Killed Me, but other than that, no wild, out of control antics to report this week. If and when Lohan does decide to dump these grannies, Sienna Miller will probably be standing by to take over and Cinematical will be there to report on it.

It has been 8 years since Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis last acted together in Leelee Sobieski's Joan of Arc. However, what you probably remember is their collaboration in a film 10 years before; the many-hanky chick flick, Steel Magnolias. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two Oscar winners are now in talks for a third collaboration and second feature film -- Poor Things -- and I don't think it's the type of movie that you'd expect them to star in. While neither have been signed, I'm sure it's only a matter of time since MacLaine is one of the producers, alongside Rob Hickman of Still Rolling Productions.

Hickman collaborated on the story with Troma actor/screenwriter/everyman Trent Haaga (Zombiegeddon, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV). How a Troma man came to be connected that closely to MacLaine is beyond me. However, that actually makes me more intrigued about the actresses being involved, since the story is based on true, murderous events. It is a black comedy about two female con-artists who befriend and kill homeless men to cash in on their life insurance policies. Considering Haaga's previous work, I'm sure we can expect at least a little camp. The project already has a director attached as well -- Ash Baron Cohen. Described on IMDb simply as "Ash," he is the brother to that crazy faux Kazakhstanian, Sacha. This seems almost too crazy to be real, which has me sold on the idea.

Sarah Polley, the wildly talented Canadian actress who I will never be able to think of as anything but the poor little girl in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, is making her feature directorial (and screenwriting) debut at the ripe old age of 27. Based on an Alice Munro short story called The Bear Came Over the Mountain, the film - entitled Away from Her - tells the story of an aging married couple whose warm, comfortable relationship is thrown asunder when the wife is moved into a nursing home that can deal with her worsening Alzheimer’s. When, after two months of "adjustment," her husband is allowed to visit her for the first time, his wife has "forgotten him and turned her affection to...another resident in the home." I'll spare you further details but trust me, it just gets more depressing.

Either a lot of people saw Polley's 2001 short I Shout Love, and were impressed, or faith in her is running rampant, because the cast she's put together for her debut features a pair of pretty big names: Julie Christie will play the afflicted wife, and Olympia Dukakis is also appearing in the film. Atom Egoyan, meanwhile, is executive producing, and Luc Montpellier, who shot both I Shout Love and Guy Maddin's gorgeous The Saddest Music in the World, is on board as cinematographer.

Man alive. I know she's untested and all, but it's clear from that list that if Polley doesn't make it good as a director, a whole lot of knowledgeable people will be awfully surprised.

The Great New Wonderful, Harold & Kumar director Danny Leiner's much less insane ensemble piece about New York after 9/11, has been picked up for North American distribution by First Independent Pictures. Set in the city a year after the attacks, the movie examines "an anxious and uncertain" New York through five interwoven stories. Though the events of 9/11 aren't necessarily in the foreground of the stories, the effects of the attacks are factors in the lives of all of the film's characters. Among the film's stars are Olympia Dukakis, Tony Shalhoub, Will Arnett, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who brought some attention to the project last spring when she said after its Tribeca premiere that "America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way" for 9/11. Even that uproar, however, was not enough to sell the film, since it took nearly a year for a distributor to be found.

FIP hope to have the film in theaters this summer.