Odds and ends from Friday:

• Lionsgate came to their senses, and the studio has changed the name of P.D.R., their upcoming based-on-a-true-story, heart-string tugging sports movie about -- wait for it -- triumph over adversity. Originally named for the Philadelphia Department of Recreation (yawn), the film will now be called Pride, a solid, perfectly unmemorable title for what is sure to be well-acted (it stars, among others, Terrence Howard and Evan Ross, who was great in ATL), perfectly unmemorable movie.

• We reported back in February that both Val Kilmer and Meryl Streep had signed on to star in Dark Matter, the debut feature from Chinese opera director Chen Shi-Zheng. The film was about "a Chinese exchange student [played by heartthrob Liu Ye] who takes revenge after [his] hopes for a Nobel Prize are wrecked by internal school politics," and sounded fascinating and pleasingly dorky. Now, about four months later, all of those things remain true -- except for the part about Val Kilmer. According to reports that surfaced yesterday, he's had to leave the project (blasted scheduling conflict) and will be replaced by Aidan Quinn.

• In early May, it was announced that Richard Gere and Terrence Howard (yes, him again) were going to star in Spring Break in Bosnia, a potential-laden film about "a completely hair-brained scheme hatched by a trio of American journalists (including Sebastian Junger, author of A Perfect Storm) to capture a Bosnian war criminal." Their plans didn't work out very well -- shocking, that -- and the three ended up being mistaken for CIA. I  hate when that happens. Originally, Topher Grace was rumored to be in line to play the third journalist, but it was announced yesterday that Jesse Eisenberg (Walt from The Squid and the Whale) will play the part. Nice.
  

Friday's bits and pieces:

• First Look has picked up the worldwide rights to this year's Sundance hit, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. The autobiographical film, which is based on parts of director Dito Montiel's memoirs, didn't particularly impress either James or The Hollywood Reporter's Duane Byrge; you can decided for yourself this fall, when the movie is expected to hit theaters.

• According to the latest scuttlebutt, Angelina Jolie might just be spending some (professional, of course) time with George Clooney in the near future. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt is trying to persuade her to join him in Ocean's Thirteen, though who Jolie would play has of course not been discussed -- with this sort of story, it's the idea of the two of them on screen together that's fun. Details, schmetails.
  

• This morning's Hollywood Reporter offers some more details on the rapidly expanding cast of Balls of Fury which, when it comes to buzz, just might be the next Snakes on a Plane. And if it's not, you people are just not paying attention -- it's Christopher Walken! It's ping-pong! I mean, come ON! Joining Walken in the dark underworld of the pong are George Lopez, who will play an FBI agent bent on taking Walken down, and Maggie Q as "the sexy niece of...Master Wong," the master of the paddle who is brought in to train the FBI's pong-plant (that'll be Dan Fogler). How can you resist any of this?

• Until today, P.D.R. -- the based-on-a-true-story movie about a heroic swim coach and the tough youths he straighted out -- had nothing but testosterone on board. Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac are set to costar, while Diana Ross' son Evan, who made an impressive debut in ATL, will play one of the kids. Now, though, there's finally a woman around (Perhaps she'll hang some curtains. Or maybe do some dusting.): Kimberly Elise has come on board as the female lead.
  

Tuesday's odds and ends:

• Michael Winterbottom's controversial Berlin hit The Road to Guantanamo has been picked up for American distribution by Roadside Attractions, who plan to give the film its US premiere at Tribeca, and have it in theaters this summer. None of that multi-platform release action for this side of the Atlantic, but at least we get to see the thing.

• Did you know that Clint Eastwood has nine kids? And that one of them is an actor named Scott Reeves? Neither did I. Of course, if his Scott Reeves is the one the IMDB (there are actually two, but since one was born in 1966, I'm assuming he wouldn't be able to play a troubled teen), he's been in exactly one movie, so perhaps calling him an "actor" is going a bit far. Whatever his title, Reeves is joining the cast of P.D.R., as is Evan Ross, who will be making his debut in ATL later this month (and has apparently decided that it's a good career move to only appear in movies with three letter titles).

•  Man alive - Catherine Hardwicke's Nativity just gets better and better. In addition to its interesting story and kickass director, the movie's also got a cast with some serious acting chops. Already set to star is Oscar nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes, and Variety reports this morning that Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar-nominated for her supporting work in House of Sand and Fog, has been signed to play Saint Elizabeth (for those of you who are with me in heathen-dom, she's John the Baptist's mom).
  

Both Lenny Kravitz and Bernie Mac - two men not exactly known for their dramatic acting work - have recently signed on to play roles that they hope will defy expectations. Mac will be joining Terrence Howard in PDR, the true-story-of-redemption swimming coach movie in which he'll play a janitor. Together, the two characters successfully keep a rec center (presumably that's where the swimming happens) open, and turn it into a "vital community center." I don't know about anyone else, but I feel uplifted already.

Kravitz, meanwhile, will be taking on a slightly darker role: he's agreed to star in a screen version of Ray Shell's forthcoming debut novel, Iced. In the movie, Kravitz will play a musician with a crack addiction (hopefully the second part of that is going to be a bigger stretch for him than the former); the story follows him over the course of his early career, as the impact of his drug use deepens. The film will be directed by Lee Daniels, whose short career has included production credits on Monster's Ball, The Woodsman, and Shadowboxer, his only other directorial effort.