Bahahahahahaha. Yesterday was chock full of huge, monumental movie news. A disproportionate amount of it involved the geek realm, with casting and sequel bites galore. For example, we reported that Christian Bale and Brandon Routh were headlining the new Justice League movie as Batman and Superman. JoBlo insisted that all the rumors are true and Jake Gyllenhaal is replacing Tobey Maguire in the role of Spider-Man. (On the other hand, maybe it's Nicholas Brendon, or -- dear god no -- Jason Biggs.) From GFR, we learned that the Cloverfield monster was going to be putting in an appearance in Transformers 2. IGN even created an entire fake trailer for The Legend of Zelda movie! In slightly less shocking news, it turned out that Iron Man might get an April release date after all, depending on where you live.

But my favorite piece of news announced yesterday? Slashfilm's bombshell that Daniel Day-Lewis was headlining a Peter Weir remake of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo -- the one about a man who decides to build an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. This version, however, will be set 50 years in the future and feature a soundtrack by Mick Jagger. Weird, subtle, and just plausible enough (at least until you get to the futuristic setting) to make you frown before remembering what day it is. (After reading the first paragraph, I did more than frown: I rushed to start a Cinematical post!) Well-played, gentlemen.

Well it looks like we can chalk up another victim of the writers strike. Right after news broke that The Weinsteins had put their big-screen version of the musical Nine on hold, it now looks like Johnny Depp's Shantaram will be joining the list of casualties as well. Variety reports that Warner Bros. has halted production on the adaptation of Gregory David Robert's best-selling novel. Depp was set to co-produce and star in the drama about "an Australian heroin addict who escapes a maximum-security prison, reinvents himself as a doctor in the slums of India and eventually uses gun-running and counterfeiting skills to fight against the invading Russian troops in Afghanistan". Mira Nair had signed on to direct back in January after Australian director Peter Weir left the project due to those pesky "artistic differences".

As was the case with The Weinsteins Nine, Shantaram's delay was a direct result of the strike. Mainly because it meant there was zero chance of any re-writes taking place before the film was set to begin shooting. According to Variety, screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) was working on the project until the very last minute before the strike. But when combined with the problems securing a location for the shoot due to monsoon season in India, it looks like the film is going to be put on hold for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't worry though, the film has been a passion project for Depp for some time now, so I doubt he will let if fall by the wayside. There is no word yet on whether Depp is looking for a replacement project in the meantime, but stay tuned for any updates that come our way.

Of all the actors who are regularly mentioned on Cinematical, Johnny Depp certainly seems to be the most popular. So, I am glad to be able to give the readers another update on Depp's passion project, Shantaram, which has just acquired a new director. Indian auteur Mira Nair has signed on to the film, which is based on Gregory David Roberts' mostly autobiographical novel. Shooting is now slated to begin later this year, once Depp is done with Sweeney Todd.

It has been awhile since we last heard about this film -- its formerly attached director, Peter Weir, dropped out last summer. But there were probably few worries that Depp would run out of projects to work on. Aside from Sweeney, he's also slated for The Rum Diary and maybe Rex Mundi. Plus, his production company has a number of adaptations he could star in. Still, Shantaram is the film that Depp paid $2 million for rights to, so he was probably most interested in getting it off and running again.

It appears as if director Peter Weir has come down with a nasty case of "James Cameron disease," as he is in negotiations to once again return to sea for his next pic. If all goes well, Weir will produce and direct Shadow Divers for 20th Century Fox, based on a nonfiction book by Robert Kurson with a much longer title -- Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Discovered Hitler's Lost Sub. Weir's last pic came in 2003 when he helmed Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Partly explained in the book's title, story revolves around two deep-sea wreck divers who risk their lives for six years in an attempt to identify a sunken U-boat that's discovered 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Why was Hitler traveling to New Jersey? Well, to take in a scrumptious meal at one of the state's many 24-hour diners, of course. Actually, the plot isn't so much about Hitler as it is about the sailors who lost their lives onboard the ship, as well as these two divers who leave their lives, marriages and friends behind on a hunt for the truth. Bill Broyles (Cast Away) will pen the adaptation, and no cast or production schedule was announced. Currently, Weir is also in development with a film called Pattern Recognition for Warner Bros., though it's not certain which pic the man will direct first.

Late last year, the news broke that Johnny Depp was to star in Shantaram, an Eric Roth-penned adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' novel of the same name. The novel is a story of drug addiction, armed robbery, prison and other similarly romantic subjects, and is based on Roberts' real-life experiences in Melbourne, Bombay, and Germany; it's thought that the movie will focus on Roberts' time in Bombay, where, among other things, he acted as a slum doctor and dabbled in organized crime.

Reportedly driven almost entirely by Depp's passion -- it was at his urging that Warner Brother's dropped $2 million on the rights to the story -- the movie was originally to be directed by Australian helmer Peter Weir, he of Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously fame (and Green Card infamy, though I admit I sorta liked it). This morning, though, Variety reported that Weir has left the project. Depending on who you believe, Weir and Depp either disagreed over the direction of the film and parted amicably, or Weir was so out in left field with his interpretation that he had no one in the studio on his side, and finally just moved on. Either way, the movie has a star and a new rewrite (which Roth penned and Weir supervised), now all the cast needs is someone to tell it what to do. The hope is that production will being next spring.