If you've seen Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, you've seen one heck of a great performance. But will we see another from the actress, or was playing Edith Piaf the role of a lifetime? While I can't imagine her ever making such a huge transformation or giving such a notable, career-defining performance again, I'm excited to see where her Oscar nomination takes her and I hope that she can at least follow it up with some interesting parts. We've already heard that her next major role will be in Rob Marshall's Nine, an adaptation of the musical inspired by Fellini's 8½. After that, she could be heading to Chicago (not Marshall's Chicago, the real city) for Michael Mann's Public Enemies. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cotillard is in negotiations to play Billie Frechette, the torch singer girlfriend of John Dillinger, who will be played by Johnny Depp. Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff and Jason Clarke have also joined the cast.

As Monika relayed last week, Billie will be a major character in the plot of Public Enemies, which also stars Christian Bale. The movie will reportedly balance between Dillinger's crime story and his love life while also focusing on FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Bale), who famously pursued and caught Dillinger in the mid-1930s. It is interesting to note that Public Enemies will be another singing role for Cotillard, who did not actually perform any of the Piaf songs in La Vie en Rose. But while the actress is not a born singer nor a long-trained one, she did sing in in the 2001 French film Les Jolies Choses (Pretty Things) and will be singing in Nine. Also, if you think Cotillard is suddenly getting work just because of her La Vie en Rose acclaim, you're mistaken. You may have seen her in either of her two English-language movies (Ridley Scott's A Good Year and Tim Burton's Big Fish), in any of the three Taxi movies, as the female lead in the sweet Amelie wannabe Love Me If You Dare, in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie follow-up, A Very Long Engagement or in any of the many other French films in which she has appeared.

"I was 64-years-old when I made this film, and I think I finally discovered the child within me. It turned out to be ... a little girl." Man, I love Terry Gilliam. The above video is his introduction to the film Tideland, and I found it on a new Cracked list which covers 9 Awesome Directors Who Temporarily Lost Their Mind. Basically, the list is pretty much that: directors who are primarily known for their awesome films, but for some reason slipped in a few random duds that seemingly came from left field. Tideland is Gilliam's dud, according to them, and since I still haven't seen the film, I can't say whether they are right. But I can tell you that I absolutely love this video intro from the director, and it makes me want to see the film even more.

Also on their list are Francis Ford Coppola (Jack), Steven Spielberg (Hook, though he should've been on there for 1941), Spike Lee (She Hate Me), Guy Ritchie (Swept Away), M. Night Shyamalan (Lady in the Water), Sidney Lumet (The Wiz), Ridley Scott (A Good Year) and Clint Eastwood (the years 1996-2002). Some of these films were loved by many, so I could see this list potentially rubbing people the wrong way. What do you think of it? And what other directors surprised you with a random crappy film mixed in with an otherwise spotless record?

We get at least one of these suckers each year -- some city slicker goes on a trip to this remote, exotic area and, while there, somehow falls in love, re-discovers themselves and learns the true meaning of life. One recent example would be Russell Crowe's character in A Good Year, or how about Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun. Well, add Sandra Bullock's name to that list because she's just lined herself up to produce (though her Fortis Films) and most likely star in an adaptation of Marina Palmer's memoir Kiss and Tango (or, perhaps a more fitting and familiar title could be, A Good Year Under the Argentinian Sun).

Basically, you already know what happens -- some down-and-out American woman, unhappy with where life has taken her, decides to travel to Argentina where -- whaddya know -- she meets a handsome foreign man, learns to tango, shares a few kisses and decides to live out her days rediscovering herself and the meaning of her existence. Fox 2000 has snatched up the rights to Palmer's memoir and tapped Nicole Perlman to pen the script, which will be based off Palmer's own real-life experiences as an ex-advertising exec who quit her gig to play Sandra Bullock in a future film about herself.

Anyone else itching for Bullock to take on a role with a little more -- I don't know -- umph?

It was a good year for much of Hollywood, but a bad year for A Good Year. The Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe team-up only grossed $7 million domestically, and has been labeled a flop. Variety has listed the major box office disappointments for 2006, and interestingly enough, a few of them have to do with water. The appropriately bad way to describe their fate, then, is to say that they drowned. Flushed Away, The Lady in the Water, Poseidon and The Fountain (okay, I didn't see it, but I don't think there's an actual water-type fountain), just couldn't swim. Here's some more bad puns: Sharon Stone didn't have the Basic Instict 2 stay away from a dumb sequel; Producer Dean Devin said, "Flyboys," to his new movie but it crashed and burned; All the King's Men stayed away from this remake, and so did everyone else; Audiences let their Freedomland in other activities besides seeing a movie starring Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson. There's no pun needed for The Wicker Man; it just sucked.

Unlike the biggest flops of all time, none of these movies from 2006 broke a studio or likely ended a career. Ridley Scott and Wolfgang Petersen (director of Poseidon) have had flops before, but they can be forgiven for "flukes" every once in awhile since they usually turn out successful work. Plus, their films did okay business overseas. International box office saves more flops these days than back in the times of the really big bombs. Most of the other filmmakers represented are also probable to bounce back, or at least fall back on their other talents. Joe Roth (Freedomland) has already returned to producing. Steve Zaillian (All the King's Men) is back to writing. Tony Bill (Flyboys) may continue acting. Michael Caton-Jones (Basic Instinct 2) will eventually make another crappy film. M. Night Shyamalan (Lady in the Water) might need to be forced to work on somebody else's script for once, but he isn't going to disappear anytime soon, unfortunately.

Take Russell Crowe, throw in a vineyard and a French chateau, toss in a beautiful, hot-headed woman, stomp it to a mush in a big wooden tub, and you get A Good Year, the latest directorial effort of Ridley Scott -- a film with all the subtlety and bouquet of a screw-top bottle of wine purchased in the bargain bin of your local supermarket. In A Good Year, adapted by Marc Klein from the book by Peter Mayle, we meet Max Skinner (Crowe), a super-rich businessman with a slightly shady moral code -- think of him as Gordon Gekko, but with less charm and personality.

Max is all about making money, whatever the cost; he barrels his way through life, stomping ruthlessly over anyone who gets in his path. Max doesn't care about anyone or anything, unless there's a profit in it -- until the day he hears that his Uncle Henry (Albert Finney) has died, leaving him the charming-but-dilapidated vineyard and chateau in France where Max spent his boyhood.

Of course, Max has to go to the chateau himself to handle details like taking pics for his real estate guy, so he can unload the place as quickly as possible -- right in the middle of a scandal involving a questionable stock transaction that could finally land his butt in a sling. Max goes to France reluctantly, in part because he hadn't stayed in touch with dear old Uncle Henry -- the man who was, ostensibly, the most important influence in his life -- for years. Once there, he must deal with Francois, who has run the winery for Uncle Henry for decades, and who fully expects Max to keep things going as they have been. When Francois learns that Max intends, as the sole surviving heir, to sell off the chateau to the highest bidder, he is understandably annoyed and contrives to make the sale as difficult as possible by convincing Max that the vineyard and its grapes are worthless. If this doesn't sound like the most original or exciting idea for a film starring Crowe, well, you're right -- it isn't.

Organizers behind this year's Toronto International Film Festival have announced the addition of some more red carpet flicks to a lineup that will include a total of 352 films from 61 countries. (Hat tip goes out to the person who somehow manages to take in all 352 pics.)

Joining a slate that already includes Darren Aronofsky's highly-anticipated The Fountain, Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration and Tony Goldwyn's The Last Kiss will be the world premieres of Ridley Scott's A Good Year and Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering, with Michael Apted's Amazing Grace chosen to close out the fest. Also joining the party on the red carpet for its world premiere will be Mark Palansky's directorial debut, Penelope. Starring Reese Witherspoon and Christina Ricci, pic is said to be a modern-day fable which revolved around a woman (Ricci) who is looking to escape from a family curse.

Of the 352 films, 261 will be features and most are looking forward to either a world, international or North American premiere. The festival runs from September 7 through the 16th.

Well well well, it seems the Scott family is awfully busy as of late. After a trailer for Tony Scott's Deja Vu premiered recently, we now have a chance to catch the brand spanking new trailer for brother Ridley's film, A Good Year. In a role that's very different from the warrior he played in Gladiator, Russell Crowe reunites with Scott for the first time since the two brought home five Oscars back in 2000.

Based on the novel by Peter Mayle, Crowe stars as English businessman Max Skinner. After inheriting a remote vineyard from his late uncle, Max re-locates in an effort to sell the land. However, while there, he meets a beautiful American woman who also claims to own the property. I have to admit, the trailer didn't do much for me. Guy inherits a vineyard? Discovers himself? Falls in love? While it will be interesting to watch Ridley Scott direct a film that doesn't include a sprawling climactic fight sequence, the trailer certainly did not leave me intrigued and wanting more. Of course, I never read the book and might be missing something here. If that's the case, feel free to chime in.

The 15th annual Cinema Expo International -- "Europe's premier gathering of motion picture industry professionals," they claim -- is currently underway in Amsterdam, and by far he coolest part of the event is the screening of clips and trailers for big upcoming release. Tuesday night was apparently Fox night and, while a few of the featured trailers -- The Devil Wears Prada, My Super Ex-Girlfriend -- have already appeared on this side of the pond, most of the films on offer are new to us, as well. According to Screen Daily, audiences reacted incredibly positively to a few of the films, particularly Borat, which was introduced by Sacha Baron Cohen (in character, of course), and then screened in its entirety for a very appreciative audience.

Warm receptions were also given to Ridley Scott's A Good Year and, of all things, the name-filled Night at the Museum. Just a clip of the latter was shown, but "the film was consistently the first mentioned amongst exhibitors," and it "[elicited] an overwhelmingly positive." Is it possible that Shawn Levy has actually made a good movie? Please. I'll believe that when I see it.

Paramount has snatched up a pitch by Marc Klein as a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise, and it's said to be a contemporary love story. Since, as of now, they're not releasing a logline, all we have to go with is Cruise/Wagner exec Don Granger's belief that "Marc Klein has come up with an original and very moving love story."

That's great, but just let us know if it has anything to do with manipulation, brainwashing and/or lunacy on the part of Cruise's character. Because, seriously, that's all we really care about at this point. Although it would be an easy way to score millions of dollars, there's no word on whether or not Katie Holmes will star opposite her boo - but we can still cross our fingers, right?

Klein also penned the film Serendipity as well as the upcoming Ridley Scott pic, A Good Year. He's also attached to direct his own adaptation of The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, with Sarah Michelle Gellar set to star. Meanwhile, Cruise bursts back onto the blockbuster scene this May with Mission Impossible 3.