Super-not-so-shocking news today: Dakota Fanning is about to sign on to play another kid with a dark life. Variety reports that she is in negotiations, along with Alicia Keys, for the upcoming drama The Secret Life of Bees -- which has already nabbed the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, and Sophie Okonedo. Gina Prince-Bythewood, who wrote and directed Love & Basketball, adapted Sue Monk Kidd's bestselling novel, and will direct it when shooting begins in January in North Carolina. (I guess the South Carolinian book locale was too pricey to shoot in.)

Set in the 1964 south, the year the Civil Rights Act came to be, the film will focus on Lily (Fanning), a 14-year-old girl who lives with her abusive father and memories of her dead mother. It seems that her mom died when a 4-year-old Lily accidentally shot her during a fight with her husband. Meanwhile, her nanny Rosaleen (Hudson) gets into some trouble with some white men while going to register to vote and has to flee the Georgia town. Lily joins her and the pair run off to South Carolina, which somehow holds secrets about her mom's past. They are then taken in by the "eccentric" Calendar sisters (Latifah, Okonedo, and Keys), who make Black Madonna Honey. So, that's where the bees come in. If this slice of drama sounds interesting, the project has a quick turnaround -- Fox Searchlight plans to release it in 2008.

Sometimes race isn't as simple as what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Sometimes those little DNA buggers, or whatever determines it, throw a fast one, and before you know it the unfathomable happens. You can get super-cute twin sisters who have drastically different skin color, or a black child born to white parents. The latter is the focus of Skin, which I first blogged about back in May. Now Variety reports that the Little Film Company has sold the feature to a number of international territories that include Brazil, France, and Scandinavia, and the BBC has picked up the the television rights for the UK -- there is, however, no word on North American distribution.

Directed by Anthony Fabian, the music coordinator for Hilary and Jackie, and written along with Helen Crawley, Skin focuses on the true story of a black girl born to white parents in South Africa, and the troubles she experienced with discrimination under apartheid laws. While the film has been floating under the radar, it has a pretty decent cast with stars Sophie Okonedo and Tony Kgoroge from Hotel Rwanda, plus Sam Neill (The Tudors), Alice Krige (Silent Hill), and newcomer Ella Ramangwane. Topping that with the fact that Little Film was also behind the worldwide sales for Tsotsi, and I'm sure we'll see Skin hit shelves at some point.

For the weekend:

• There's a really interesting animated film premiering in France next month, that will hopefully make its way across the ocean and give us some animation that's not about bugs, penguins or any of the other hot, animated creatures of the moment. The film is Persepolis, and you can find a trailer and clips over at Cartoon Brew (It's cute, but unfortunately not in English. However, it's fairly easy to get the gist). The film is adapted from Marjane Satrapi's comic memoir of her experiences growing up in Tehran, and the clips have recognizable pop references from Julio Iglesias to Michael Jackson. To sweeten the deal further, both Catherine Deneuve and Gena Rowlands have lent their voices to the movie. If only we could get more cool rocker chick movies, and less kooky animal ones...
• Sophie Marceau has a bunch on the up and up, so I thought I'd fill you in. While her projects aren't as mainstream as some of her previous work, like Braveheart and The World is Not Enough, she's been clocking time both behind and in front of the camera. She's currently in Cannes for her second directorial feature, Trivial -- a thriller that takes place in and around Deauville's Hotel Normandie, which will hit French screens next week. In front of the camera, she's playing a resistance fighter in the WWII thriller, Female Agents. And once all that is done, she's going to work on her third feature directorial stint. Variety quotes her as saying, or rather purring as they put it: "I don't want only to satisfy other people's desires. I have desires of my own, and making my own films satisfies them." Here, here!
• This September, the U.K.-South Africa co-production treaty will finally be taken advantage of with Anthony Fabian's Skin. It sounds like a pretty interesting story -- it's based on a black girl who was born to white parents in South Africa, who obviously had a heck of a hard time dealing with discrimination under previous apartheid laws. The movie will star Sophie Okonedo, who starred with Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda. I wonder if we'll ever get the story of the black and white twins and some point, too?
  

Apparently the people at upstart production company Big Beach have a bit of a "sunshine" fixation: They're going to follow up their smash indie hit Little Miss Sunshine with a project called Sunshine Cleaning. Not, just so we're clear, a sequel in any way -- they're just really, really into the word. According to this morning's Screen Daily, the film will star Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and is "a character piece about a woman who starts up a business that cleans up after someone dies." Hmm. So we can pretend for the moment that it's about Harvey Keitel from Pulp Fiction, except as a woman? Sounds good to me. The movie is budgeted at about $7 million, and will be directed by New Zealander Christine Jeffs.

Sunshine Cleaning co-producer Glenn Williamson (Hollywoodland) spoke briefly about the project in Venice yesterday, and also offered a few details about another film with which he's involved, entitled Wonderful World. This one is another character piece with an even smaller budget -- $3-5 million, according to Williamson -- and will tell the story of "a cynical divorcee (Matthew Broderick) who starts a relationship with an African woman (Sophie Okonedo)." The film is being written by Josh Goldin, who will also direct.

Odds and ends from I can't believe it's not Friday yet (a/k/a Thursday)

• After watching him sign on for role after role, I was waiting for the day when all of this pimping would catch up to Vin Diesel. Well folks, it appears that day has come. It's now being reported Diesel has dropped out of the film Black Water Transit, forcing filmmakers to hurriedly replace the actor with filming set to begin at the end of July. No word yet on why he skipped out on the pic (perhaps he hates black water and/or the transit system), but if a replacement isn't found soon, look for this one to get pushed back. Also starring in the film are Kevin Bacon, James Franco and Sophie Okonedo.
• While I'm not so sure what's funny about being a grieving widower, apparently NALA films felt there was something comedic behind the idea for Only Ever You. Griffin Dunne has been attached to direct the romantic comedy which will follow a guy who's having a hard time getting over the death of his wife. The description becomes a bit confusing after that, but I'm guessing he eventually moves on from the sadness and finds a new lease on life. Once again, what's funny about that?
• Looks like the Sundance Channel wants to get in on this whole internet thing. It appears the cable channel has struck a deal with two media companies to begin streaming some of its films online. We're not sure what, when and how this will all go down but they did note that all revenues will be shared with the filmmakers. Ain't that special. I'd be curious to see if they somehow work the Sundance Film Festival into this streaming as a way for folks stuck at home to catch a glimpse of the action playing in Park City. For those of us too poor to fly out to Utah, something like that would be very enticing.

Stringbean and Marcus, a movie that had its beginnings at the Sundance Lab in 1999 and whose screenplay was the first to receive a Pew Fellowship (the Pew Foundation gives grants of $50,000 "to artists working in a wide variety of performing, visual, and literary disciplines" - sort of a really, really small version of a MacArthur Genius Award), will finally be made this summer. Written and to be directed by first-timer Tanya Hamilton, the movie, set in 1978, tells the story of "the broken love affair between two former Black Panther members...and is told through the eyes of an adolescent girl." According to Hamilton, her concern is less with race than it is with a world in which "ordinary people [live] under extraordinary circumstances, trying to outrun this past they all have."

Though no contracts have actually been signed, Hamilton reports that she has her stars: Mos Def and Sophie Okonedo have "committed" to the project. Wow - one of the rappers-turned-actors who is actually very good at both, and an Oscar nominee? Not bad for a first feature with a tiny budget. Hamilton expects to sign those contracts shortly before shooting begins this July, in Philadelphia.