And now I present you with the giganto rumor of the day; one I'm not so sure I believe, but why not let you readers decide how legit this may or may not be. IESB is reporting that they've heard through one of their top secret sources that George Clooney has been offered the role of Duke in the upcoming live-action G.I. Joe movie. You might recall that folks were originally targeting Mark Wahlberg for this role, but that casting fell through. Now, it appears, Clooney's name has popped up for whatever reason. For those of you up to date on all things Clooney, you might be wondering why he would take on this role if he just opted out of Joe Carnahan's White Jazz because of hectic scheduling concerns. And considering Jazz was tapped to begin its production around the same time G.I. Joe was set to go, wouldn't Clooney still be too busy to film it?

Well, and here's where you'll need to take a giant leap, IESB claims Clooney turned down Jazz because he's itching to star in a big blockbuster. But is he? Really? IESB is still waiting to hear back from Clooney's reps, who will most certainly deny this whole thing (because that's what reps do), but even if he was offered the role (which might be true --why wouldn't you go after the big guns first?), I really can't see Clooney taking it. Personally, his schedule is packed. Not only is he finishing up the Coen Bros. new movie, but his latest directorial effort, Leatherheads, was pushed back to the spring because Clooney still had more work to do on it. I can't see him taking on a role that films this winter when he needs that time to complete and promote Leatherheads. Regardless of this whole thing, it will be interesting to see how casting unfolds for G.I. Joe, as they'll most likely target some top A-list actors for their main roles. Clooney, Wahlberg, who's next ... Ice Cube? (Shouldn't take you long to pick up that reference ....)

Not long ago, we told you how George Clooney had dropped out of Joe Carnahan's adaptation of White Jazz due to scheduling conflicts. Before that, another actor Carnahan was interested in, Chris Pine, opted to become the new Captain Kirk over a co-starring role in Jazz. Now, considering these new developments, Carnahan is reaching out to readers of his blog for advice on how to move forward. As it stands, he has two films that are ready to roll into production: White Jazz (based on a James Ellroy novel) and Killing Pablo (based on a book by Mark Bowden, that takes a look back at the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar). According to Carnahan, the potential writer's strike doesn't hurt either project, as the scripts are pretty much done. However, there's a rival Escobar pic (from Oliver Stone) gaining steam, and so Carnahan is afraid he'll lose foreign buyers if he rolls in as number two.

Okay, so naturally you'd think Killing Pablo would be the way to go. Well, problem is that would mean Javier Bardem would not be able to star as Escobar (due to a another project he's currently attached to) and, additionally, Carnahan isn't crazy about ditching LA at the moment in order to go shoot on location in South America (he's like to stay close to his family for the time being). But, according to the director, he has it figured out: "I've got a plan to base out of LA and I [am] hoping the financiers will see the upside and spend the extra money to keep us relatively local until we've got to hit Argentina or Venezuela or Brazil (Colombia's gonna be ROUGH) and shoot the remainder of the film on location." As far as casting goes, he claims to have the perfect replacement for Bardem, but won't shell out any names.

But what about all the work that's been done on White Jazz, including some wicked-looking concept art of old school Los Angeles that Carnahan displayed on his blog recently? We're not entirely sure; as it stands, it appears there's more pressure to shoot Pablo first because of this rival project, and perhaps the casting woes on Jazz are a sign that Pablo should come up to bat before Jazz. I'd personally like to see White Jazz go first, but that's me. What do you think he should do?

UPDATE: Joe Carnahan is nutty as all hell. In a rare move, he published both the White Jazz script and the Killing Pablo script on his website, asking readers which one he should make. He's since taken them both down after his management company advised him to, but Slashfilm grabbed them and has links to both scripts. I won't give you those links, because we'd be asked to take them down almost immediately (I know it), so head on over to Slashfilm instead to check them out.

George Clooney is one of the busiest men in Hollywood. He's currently promoting his excellent new legal drama Michael Clayton. He's wrapping up acting and directing duties on Leatherheads, a 1920's football romantic comedy with John Krasinski and Renee Zelwegger. He's shooting the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading, a CIA comedy co-starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton (so great in Clayton), John Malkovich, and Frances McDormand. In addition to all that, he's got to fly around the world in a jet made of gold and make the women of the world swoon 24/7. So yeah, the guy's got a lot going on. In fact, he's just decided that he has too much going on.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Clooney has just dropped out of Joe Carnahan's White Jazz, a gritty tale of police corruption set in 1950s Los Angeles. Clooney was set to star in the independent film, which is based on the James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential) novel. White Jazz was expected to begin filming early next year, and was scheduled for a 2009 release date. Grant Heslov, Clooney's producing partner, says "It just simply came down to scheduling. George continues to believe in the project and in Joe." Clooney was set to be a producer on the film, and whether he'll remain involved in that capacity has not been announced. And those of you excited about the film, myself included, might not be too happy with this last sentence. According to a spokesperson at Warner Independent, where the film was set up -- White Jazz has dropped off its slate. Currently, there's no word from Carnahan, who, as of a couple days ago, was pretty pumped about starting production in January.

We already knew that Chris Pine was in talks to star as Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek XI, but up until now we haven't had official confirmation. "In talks" can mean a lot of things, and if the recent almost-casting of Jessica Biel in the Justice League of America movie means anything, it's that you should never take "in talks" as proof the actor or actress has landed the role. Over on his blog, Smokin' Joe Carnahan (who was vying for Pine to star in White Jazz) confirms the actor will not be taking on the role of Junior Stemmons in Jazz. Why? Well, that's because he's opted to go for Trek.

Here it is, straight from Carnahan himself: "The young man playing Junior Stemmons has opted to 'go where no man has gone before' and thus, had to bow out of WHITE JAZZ. I've been talking to him this past week and knew how tough the decision had to be for him. I don't envy ever being in that spot but I gave him my full support, even if it meant he didn't do JAZZ. I get it. You don't get opportunities like that often and I told him as long as he could control as much of that process as possible and not get sucked into doing lesser sequels as a result of taking this gig, then good luck and God bless. We're sure to do something down the road. I've already slotted him in for KILLING PABLO." So there you have it -- Chris Pine will indeed be starring as Captain Kirk in Star Trek XI (according to Carnahan, that is), and instead of placing him in Jazz, the director has instead found a part for him in Killing Pablo. No word on what that part is, but it looks like Pine's stock just shot straight up. I guess there was a reason why he starred opposite Lindsay Lohan in a film called Just My Luck -- and, as ironic as it might seem, the premise of that film is, like, totally becoming true.

Chris Pine as Captain Kirk? Whadyya think?

Last Sunday, Cinematical was the first to tell you that Chris Pine was the odds-on favorite to take on the big role of psycho cop Junior Stemmons in Joe Carnahan's White Jazz. Carnahan has subsequently confirmed as much on his blog. The role is Pine's if he wants it, so why is he not signing on the dotted line? The reason, as I understand it, is that he's pretty much being forced to choose between a major, potentially star-making role in White Jazz or a very minor role as Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams new Star Trek film. In today's Variety, we learn that Simon Pegg has landed the role of Scotty in that film and that Pine has been officially offered the captain's chair, but hasn't yet taken it. I can see how this would be a tough choice. Even though it's well known that the new Star Trek film is practically sans-Kirk, the prestige of getting to play Kirk could open all kinds of doors for this kid, and who knows -- White Jazz may not turn out as well as everyone hopes. He's between a rock and a hard place. In other Star Trek XI casting news, The Hollywood Reporter tells us that John Cho, of Harold and Kumar fame, has landed the role of Sulu.

In other White Jazz news, Smokin' Joe has put up some more awesome concept art on his blog. This time it's not quite as cool as the panoramic view of 1958 Los Angeles, but it does have a ring of high-class sleaze to it that's reminiscent of L.A. Confidential. The large piece of art has the story's anti-hero Dave Klein walking away, with head down, from some swank Hollywood home that looks like where Pierce Patchett would live. If Joe has any heart at all, he's going to let me onto the set of this movie!

You aren't anybody unless you're famous enough for rival biopics. I hope you all celebrated the holiday yesterday by watching both Gérard Depardieu and Georges Corraface in their respective, rival Columbus films. Coming in the future, we may also get competing movies about Harvey Milk, Philip K. Dick, Sammy Davis, Jr. and now Pablo Escobar. We've long followed news regarding Joe Carnahan's movie about the Colombian drug lord, who will be played there by Javier Bardem, but now Variety reports another Escobar pic in the works. This one will be produced by Oliver Stone, directed by Antoine Fuqua and is simply titled Escobar. It's based on the book "Mi Hermano Pablo", written by the cocaine king's brother, Roberto Escobar Gaviria, who worked as accountant and confidant to Pablo.

So, this looks like it will be more of a life-encompassing biopic. It also appears to be going into production ahead of Carnahan's film, Killing Pablo, since Carnahan is first working on White Jazz while Escobar is fully financed and ready to begin shooting in Colombia and Puerto Rico in early 2008. All that needs finishing is the script rewrite, which is being done by David McKenna, who already wrote a bit about Escobar in his screenplay for Blow (he was played by Cliff Curtis). Variety doesn't mention who Stone and Fuqua have or are casting in the title role of their film, which means it may not be secure. I'm sure some people would like to see Adrian Grenier play the part, as he does via his character Vinnie Chase on the show Entourage, but that would actually be a terrible idea. Personally, I'd like them to go back to Curtis, but for a long-term biopic they'll likely want someone younger, as well as someone more familiar to audiences.

I also wish that Stone was directing this himself -- even if he really annoyed the heck out of me recently -- because he seems to know the territory. And because he thanked "Ari Gold" (Jeremy Piven's character on Entourage) when talking to Variety about the project. But he should do just fine overseeing Fuqua's direction, a job he's sharing with former Malcolm in the Middle older brother Justin Berfield, Jason Felts and James Reach.

When Smokin' Joe Carnahan says he's gonna get someone for a part, you can usually take his word for it. Back in April, he spoke with Cinematical about prepping his two upcoming passion projects: an adaptation of White Jazz and a telling of the Pablo Escobar story, and during that interview he gave us the following dream casting choices. He said he wanted Javier Bardem to play Escobar, and we recently found out that's a done deal, and he said he wanted Charlize Theron to play Glenda Bledsoe, the female lead in White Jazz. He also said he was interested in having Ray Liotta play either Pete Bondurant or Welles Noonan in that film. Now, after half a year of waiting, Carnahan has let it be known to readers of his blog that the role of Bledsoe has been cast, although he's being coy about the name. He's also cast the role of Junior Stemmons, a young and crazy cop character. The Stemmons name came up during our interview, but he didn't have his sights set on anyone yet. The rumor mill tonight is saying that Chris Pine may have the role, but Joe isn't saying yay or nay.

Meanwhile, Joe is also fuming at the LA Times for writing that his movie Smokin' Aces was a turkey -- $150 worldwide from a $20 million budget -- and blogging about the fact that he just submitted the script for Smokin' Aces: Blowback to Universal Pictures. He says that with the anticipated strike on the horizon, Universal is anxious to ramp that one into production as soon as possible and he expects more news to develop as early as next week. Stay tuned for more.

While it's too early to tell if Matthew Carnahan's first script, The Kingdom, will be a hit, you can't help but admire a guy that seemed to come out of nowhere (although he is the brother of director Joe Carnahan). Carnahan has already sold three other scripts that have snagged some of the biggest names in the movie business; George Clooney, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt to name a few. Now, in an interview with Ropes of Silicon, the writer is already talking about his next project. Carnahan will be writing a crime thriller based on the infamous Zebra Murders that took place in San Francisco in the early 70's. There have already been a couple of books written on the subject, but I would guess that most people are not that familiar with the crimes that took place between 1973 and 1974.

Over the course of one year, a group of serial killers with connections to the nationalist group, The Nation of Islam, were responsible for the muders of 16 people; they called themselves 'The Death Angels.' It has been reported that the group "believed that they could earn "points" towards Paradise when they died if they killed as many whites as possible". Finally, in 1975, and after one of the longest trials in California history, Larry Green, J.C.X. Simon, Manuel Moore and Jessie Lee Cooks were convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Carnahan is working with DreamWorks on Zebra, and told Ropes, "It's just such a little gem of a story. If I can put two sentences together I think hopefully people will want to be involved". Carnahan is planning on focusing the story on the racial tensions in the city at the time. But, it will ultimately revolve around the two African-American policemen who were instrumental in the capture of the Angels. There is no official word on the project yet, but judging by Carnahan's relatively short yet successful track record, I doubt it will take long until we hear something more definite.

When HBO's Entourage decided to spotlight the making of a fictional Aquaman movie with James Cameron directing, everyone immediately began to wonder whether a real Aquaman flick would, um, surface in the near future. But once that storyline crept its way out of the TV show, folks at home and in Hollywood forgot all about the underwater superhero. As of now, a big screen Aquaman movie is not in the works. Ah, but Entourage is once again stirring the pot; this time, Vince and his crew are getting ready to bring their Pablo Escobar biopic, Medellin, to the Cannes Film Festival. Those marketing geniuses over at HBO have even gone so far as to set up a website and trailer for Medellin as if the film was really coming out in theaters. Of course it's not a real film, but, like with Aquaman, will all the buzz generate further interest in a real Pablo Escobar movie?

Actually, one doesn't have to appear out of thin air this time. That's because director Joe Carnahan already has plans to make a Pablo Escobar biopic called Killing Pablo, but whether or not all the necessary ingredients will fall into place following his work on White Jazz remains to be seen. For one, Carnahan's first (and only?) choice to play Escobar, Javier Bardem, would need to be available. Speaking with Cinematical's Ryan Stewart last month, Bardem said that "it's something in the back of our heads. Pablo Escobar is an amazing character to play, because he's bigger than life. He's an amazing character, but Pablo Escobar is somebody that is not that simple." Bardem pretty much mirrored those comments when he spoke to Premiere recently while out promoting Goya's Ghosts: "That project has been around for some years now and we have talked several times," meaning he and Carnahan. "I guess there will come a time when we can agree to do it, because Pablo Escobar is an amazing, amazing character."

Personally, I think that time should come soon. If it was up to Carnahan, I imagine he'd love to shoot Killing Pablo as soon as he's finished with White Jazz. And why not capitalize on all the buzz Entourage is currently producing around the real-life controversial figure? As of now (and according to IMDb), Christian Bale is the only one attached to Killing Pablo. Hopefully Carnahan and Bardem can come to an agreement so we can see an Escobar biopic within the next two years. Hmm, or perhaps they're just waiting to see how the fictional film from Entourage does at Cannes? What say you? Has Entourage piqued your interest in a Pablo Escobar movie?

It became obvious that I wasn't a total car buff when I read Joe Carnahan's latest blog title for Thursday -- "Tonight. Downtown. The '08 Caddy." Immediately, I thought: "Poor David Lynch. He does some great marketing with a cow, and now is getting competition from guys driving golf caddies around the streets of L.A." Half of me wishes that this was the case, even if golf caddies probably have nothing to do with Carnahan's upcoming film, White Jazz. But really, new Cadillacs are a great alternative.

In the blog, the director says that they're closing "a big chunk of downtown LA and running wild in the streets with the new Cadillac CTS. I'm personally hoping they let me wrap one of these beautiful f*ckers around a pole at some point." Hmm, I doubt it. Why are they doing all of this, especially since the film hasn't gone into production yet? According to Carnahan, it is a "wonderful opportunity to hone a look for White Jazz that [I] hope will allow us to shoot a lot of the traveling shots of Klein (and there's a FEW) in a manner that will save us the cost of having to dress block after block in period cars, etc." Why new Cadillacs were needed for this test, I can only assume for advertising and car fanboy dreams. Earlier this month, the first artwork for the movie was released, and I'm hoping everything works out, because it's looking shnazzy so far. If things continue on schedule, the film will head into production this December. Oh, and if any of you fine readers caught the wild Cadillac driving, pipe in and give us the run-down.