When I first heard that Hilary Swank was going to take on Amelia Earhart for a new film, Amelia, I looked at pictures of both of them. While I'm not a big fan of Swank's period work, there's no denying that they hold a decent resemblance. Then there were the pics that popped up last month -- not too bad. But holy crap, I really don't like the new image of her as Earhart.

Cinema Blend threw up a picture of Swank that apparently popped up in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. It looks like Swank is wearing either a hideous knit cap made by grandma, or a weaved Halloween placemat on her head. Man, they should have stuck with the leather flier's cap. CB also pointed out that it's a fairly ... awkward ... picture of her as it is. All around, it looks like a total mess. I guess they're waiting awhile, but if they really wanted to make people excited, show her in the whole flying getup. Even if the film is all about the romance, give people the Amelia everyone remembers.

I keep going back and forth on this whole Amelia Earhart project. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that her story is hitting the big screen. Amelia was one of the quintessential kickass tough-women, and one of my favorites along with the likes of Annie Oakley. But then Hilary Swank signed on -- a woman who can be an incredibly powerful actress and looks much like Amelia, but also really disappointed me with her Black Dahlia performance. Disappointing films are bad enough, but if the disappointment shatters your previous excitement, that's worse. However, this latest casting news helps.

Variety reports that Virginia Madsen has signed on to play Dorothy Binney in the film. The biopic, titled Amelia, will focus on Earhart's relationship with publisher and promoter George Putnam (Richard Gere), who she married, and Binney was Putnam's first wife. The reason Binney is in this story -- Putnam left her to pursue his relationship with Earhart. (Although to be fair, she was looking elsewhere as well.)

I can't wait to see Madsen in this role, but I wonder just how much of the flying Earhart we're going to get when everything is focused on the relationship between her and Putnam. Well, at least if they boil it down to only romance, it should still be interesting -- her ideas on marriage weren't exactly traditional.

After tons of speculation and millions of votes counted, the results are in -- Richard Gere is still The Man. Seriously, how many people do you know who look 33 when they're actually 106? None. Gere. That's it. And Variety tells us he's signed on for not one, but two more films. The Pope turned 81and he's riding around in a little bulletproof car. Gere is 106 and he's doing two movies! Who do you think is more awesome? Hint: His name rhymes with Fear??

First up, he'll star opposite Hilary Swank in Amelia -- a biopic on the famed aviatrix, Amelia Earhart, which will be directed by Mira Nair off a screenplay by Ron Bass. Gere will play Earhart's husband, publisher George Putnam, and the film will document their rocky relationship. Additionally (and this is something we already reported), Gere will co-star in the cop flick Brooklyn's Finest, alongside folks like Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke. Antoine Fuqua will direct. (Currently, there's no word on which young actress Gere will be shaggin' in that film, but we'll let you know when more info is released ...)

Amelia Earhart -- we hardly knew ya. But we're about to know the gal a whole lot more as it appears that planned biopic starring Hilary Swank (as Earhart) has brought on a new director to replace Phillip Noyce (who recently left the project). Yup, Moviehole (who've been all over this film) reports that Mira Nair has signed on to helm the flick, which will most likely begin shooting soon. Nair is a solid director; she's the woman behind The Namesake (which I liked very much), and definitely knows how to work with period films (see: Vanity Fair).

The film, currently titled (I believe) The Story of Amelia Earhart, is due out in 2009 and will star Swank as the American aviation pioneer. Earhart is probably most known for disappearing over the Pacific Ocean while attempting a circumnavigational flight across the globe in 1937, but she was also the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, which she was awarded as the first woman "aviatrix" to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, so says Wikipedia. She also wrote best-selling books and helped launch The Ninety-Nines, which is an organization for women pilots. Needless to say, it's about time Earhart got the glossy, big-screen Hollywood treatment -- and with Swank and Nair involved, I'm sure this will be a film we hear a lot more of come Oscar time.

The Sundance Flu, The Sundance Cold, The Sundance Fever ... how about The Sundance I Feel Like Complete Sh*t ...

Looks like J.J. Abrams does plan to go all Wonder Years for his Star Trek flick! Coming Soon reports that 11-year-old (about to be 12) Jimmy Bennett has landed a role as Young Kirk in Abrams' upcoming Star Trek film, due out at Christmas. Bennett has played a little kid in films like Hostage, Firewall, Poseidon and Evan Almighty. A young Spock will also be featured, leading this writer to believe both characters will appear in the film and talk about how much they "like, like" Winnie Cooper. Fingers crossed.

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed (what was already previously reported) that New Line is in talks with Platinum Dunes to re-launch the franchise that helped secure their name as one of the big players in town, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form will produce, and a writer will be hired once the strike comes to an end. Since it's a full-out re-do, expect Robert Englund to not play Freddy Krueger, though we imagine he'll still have a role in the film (perhaps as part of Freddy's family). God bless the guy they get to fill his shoes; he'll have to convince tons of hardcore fans that he's the real deal. Dunes and New Line are also prepping a re-launch of the Friday the 13th franchise, with Marcus Nispel directing.

And finally, though it's not really a fanboy film (but I needed one more thing to throw in here, so cut me some slack), Moviehole reports that director Phillip Noyce has officially dropped out of that planned Amelia Earhart biopic starring Hilary Swank. MH spoke with Noyce, who gave the following reason for his departure: "I had worked on Amelia for 5 months from July to end of December 2007, finding all the locations and extensively storyboarding the flying sequences - When it didn't appear that the film was going ahead, I had to make a painful decision to move on and returned to a project that had long fascinated me... Mary Queen of Scots. Scarlett Johansson will play Mary in a film to be shot on location in Scotland, England and Ireland during 2008." Apparently Swank is still attached to the film, which we all thought was moving ahead as planned (script issues, maybe), so we'll keep you updated and let you know what happens.

Variety is reporting that Phillip Noyce has signed on to direct Scarlett Johansson in Mary, Queen of Scots, a long talked-about project that will focus on the Roman Catholic Scottish queen who conspired in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I, and was eventually beheaded as a traitor in 1587. It's hard to understand what the excitement could be in telling this tale again -- we've seen it innumerable times in the past few years, right up to last year's bloated disaster Elizabeth: The Golden Age, in which the character was played by the hugely talented Samantha Morton. I also can't be the only one who thinks the casting here is bizarre in the extreme. Johansson is not a bad actress, but can she really play a French-accented monarch from the Elizabethan age? Isn't that something of a stretch? I guess we'll find out. The Variety story also says nothing about how this impacts Noyce's involvement in the Amelia Earhart biopic he's supposed to be helming.

The word from Hilary Swank's own mouth last month was that her Oscar-bait biopic of the doomed flying ace was set to begin filming in February -- so how is Noyce going to start helming Mary, Queen of Scots in April? Obviously something is screwy here. Numerous outlets have been reporting Noyce's commitment to the Earhart biopic over the last couple of months, but details about the project -- including official confirmation about basic cast and crew details -- have not been forthcoming. It certainly can't be true that Noyce is filming a major show like an Amelia Earhart biopic in the same season as Mary, so maybe his involvement was never so firm in the first place or he just dropped out of one and moved to the other. Such has been known to occur.

Hilary Swank has confirmed what was reported a while back -- her next project is a big biopic of flying ace Amelia Earhart. Collider reports that Swank gave some details at the recent junket for my-husband-just-died romcom weepie P.S., I Love You. "It's happening," Swank says of the Earhart film. "I start doing my research in January. It's my next project." She goes on to note that the strike may put a crimp in the plans, as the script is not quite finished. "The film's almost done, but with the hopes that ... we're not filming that till late February, so while I'm doing my preparation and breaking down the script -- sorry, not breaking down the script -- when I'm doing my preparations in breaking down Amelia, who she was and doing all that research, hopefully the writers get what they need and we can start working on that. It's very minor, minor work that needs to be done on the script." Swank also said the film does not attempt to offer a solution to the mystery of Earhart's disappearance.

Want to hear more? As is often the case, the Australian press is out in front on this. A couple weeks ago, The Australian broke the story that Philip Noyce is attached to direct this film, and it already has a title -- The Story of Amelia Earhart. Catchy. The paper also revealed that Noyce will shoot the film in Hawaii and Nova Scotia. That's it for details thus far, but expect more casting news and the like in the next month, assuming this picture doesn't become the latest in an increasingly long line of strike casualties.

I know I make it look easy, but it's tough to be this prescient. A few days ago, we got word of an unspecified Amelia Earhart project being ramped up for a pre-strike shoot, and at the time I pointed out that the whole idea of doing this story as an indie film -- as the mystery project was then described -- is absurd. There's hardly ever been better fodder for a big-budget piece of Oscar bait than the story of Earhart, the legendary flying ace and early feminist hero who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, never to be seen again. Hollywood apparently agrees -- the New York Post is reporting that two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank has just put pen to paper to star as Earhart in a biopic. According to the paper, Swank's agents had to ditch a party the other night to take "urgent calls about the deal," and the next day she signed on to the project. This all sounds so on-the-money that I'm already onto wondering who is going to direct this thing. In my earlier post, I mentioned Scorsese, but since he's already put his stamp on Howard Hughes, you can rule him out. How about Anthony Minghella? Joe Wright? The project needs a majestic scope.

As of right now, there's no further information available on the film or Swank's deal, but let's keep the speculation train going: Who should play Fred Noonan, the co-pilot who went down with Earhart? How about Luke Wilson, in a grown-up role for a change? Who should play the wealthy feminist who bankrolled her flights? I said Susan Sarandon last time.and I'll stick with that. Stay tuned as more information on the project comes into focus -- I'm sure the moneymen will be watching to see how well P.S., I Love You does this Christmas.

I was talking with someone earlier today about the list of pre-strike projects that was released over at ComingSoon.net, and we both had the same reaction: what's with that Amelia Earhart project? It's apparently an indie film that's in the works -- a documentary, maybe? -- but this is the first I've heard of it. Indie is exactly the wrong way to go with this, by the way -- it strikes me as the kind of material that would make for a big-budget, major star vehicle with someone like Scorsese behind the lens. Earhart was thirty-nine when she went down in her last round-the-world flight, so any A-list actress in her mid to late-thirties could take on the role. Cate Blanchett? Sold. Greenlight. Earhart's life story is also the stuff Hollywood movies are made of. She had near-death experiences in her early flying career, she was down and out for a time, and then she got sponsorship from a wealthy society feminist (Susan Sarandon) who wanted to show that a woman could do what Charles Lindbergh did. You can't make this stuff up, people.

The film could also choose its own ending. To date, there are three competing theories on what happened to Earhart, though only two of those have substantial backing. The first is that her plane simply ran out of gas and crashed at sea, and would never have been found in the ensuing years because the ditch area is over 18,000 feet deep. Much evidence supports this. There's also been a long-debated second theory, that Earhart and her co-pilot made it to nearby Gardner Island, where they presumably starved or died of crash injuries. So much physical evidence has turned up to support this theory that a team was there investigating as recently as August, 2007. Then there's a third, more far-fetched theory that says Earhart ditched the plane on Saipan and was captured and killed by the Japanese. Which one to choose?