Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Death Defying Acts, starring Guy Pearce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Saoirse Ronan and Timothy Spall. The film follows famed magician Harry Houdini (Pearce), who, while on a tour of Britain in 1926, enters into a passionate affair with a Scottish psychic (Zeta-Jones). Ah, but this psychic has plans of her own, and, along with her daughter (Ronan), attempt to con the magician by using the one event that's plagued him for many years: the death of his mother. Back when Death Defying Acts premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, our own Scott Weinberg said it was "lovely to look at and packed with some solid doses of charm and wit ... this is full-bore Hollywood fantasy all the way."

Death Defying Acts arrives in theaters in NY and LA on July 11.

You know that man who is playing Howie 'The Captain' Archibald, Nate's dad, in Gossip Girl? It's Sam Robards, the son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall, the godson of Katharine Hepburn. And now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he has nabbed the spot of Catherine Zeta-Jones' ex. Robards will play her ex-husband in the upcoming romcom The Rebound, which is coming to us from Bart Freundlich.

This is the story of a woman who becomes a divorced, single mom in New York City. With the world of men at her fingertips, she turns her gaze next door, to her much younger 25-year-old neighbor (played by Justin Bartha), and begins to rebound. THR says that "Robards' character is shocked to discover that his ex is romantically involved with a younger man." As would anyone ... I wonder if young men hold the key to Catherine's heart, of it if makes her bounce right back to Robards?

In the meantime, if you're a fan of the actor, you can check him out on Broadway this summer. He's replacing Charles Edwards in 39 Steps.

He got the honor of acting in the super-successful, critically acclaimed, award-winning Gigli. (I kid.) Then he got to sink his cinematic teeth into two helpings of National Treasure, and one Failure to Launch. Now Justin Bartha is getting to play the young boyfriend of the one and only Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Variety reports that the actor has signed on to star with Zeta-Jones in The Rebound -- a romantic comedy currently filming in New York City that I first posted about last month when the actress signed on. The film stars Zeta-Jones as a mom in Manhattan who starts to date her neighbor (Bartha), a 25-year-old young man. As I noted then, this seems to be project close to writer/director Bart Freundlich's heart. He just so happens to be Julianne Moore's 9-years-younger husband. Funny enough, that is also the age difference between Bartha and Zeta-Jones, who then, in turn, is 25 years younger than her real-life man, Michael Douglas. It's age gaps all around!

This will mark Freundlich's first written/directed feature without Moore, who has acted in his three other features -- The Myth of Fingerprints, World Traveler, and Trust the Man. How he fares with Zeta-Jones, we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, both Catherine and Justin have other films on the way, like her Death Defying Acts and his Shoe at Your Foot.

A bit of Catherine Zeta-Jones' reality is headed to the big-screen, but flipped. As we all know, she's married to Michael Douglas, who is 25* years her senior (exactly, since they were born on the same day). Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that she will star in a new May-December romantic comedy that Bart Freundlich is directing. Freundlich is a director (Trust the Man), but is probably better known for being the husband of actress Julianne Moore.

The romcom doesn't have a title yet, but it will star Zeta-Jones as "a single New York City mom who captures the eye of her new neighbor, a 25-year-old man." Yes, she's getting a taste of Maude, but with a more respectable age difference. This is also a mirror, of sorts, for Freundlich, who is 9 years younger than Moore. Man, it's May-December all around!

Production is scheduled to begin next month on the 17th, but they haven't finalized a male lead yet. Hmm... What 25-year-old would be well-cast as Catherine's paramour? Maybe Robert Buckley? He's already dealing with this whole theme on Lipstick Jungle.

*Math corrected...

It has been a long, long time since former Cinematical EIC Karina Longworth wrote about Catherine Zeta-Jones being cast as Lana Turner in Stompanato. So long, in fact, that I was only a mere commenter at the time, with hopes and dreams of becoming a Cinematical blogger (yes, that was me commenting on her post). And, more importantly, so long that I was pretty sure the project had either disappeared or at least lost its stars, which included Keanu Reeves as Turner's gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato. Well, according to The New Zealand Herald, Zeta-Jones is still on board, though the script is also still in development. Also, I've discovered that Reeves did indeed drop out of the film. And I've decided to assume that Adrian Lyne is no longer directing (though maybe he is).

I'm especially excited about this film because I recently read Turner's autobiography, Lana: The Lady, the Legend, the Truth, and finally learned all I needed to know about the Stompanato scandal. For those unfamiliar, I'll keep it simple: Turner, who was married like a million times, had a gangster boyfriend named Johnny Stompanato. Only she didn't know he was a gangster. She didn't even know his name in the beginning. But he was abusive and obsessive and was badly affecting her career, so one day she stabbed him. Oh, wait, that was her teenage daughter, Cheryl, who done it. Yet many people have alleged that Turner was the actual murderer (still in self-defense, of course).

Anyway, one thing I remember from her autobiography is that she wrote about being asked who would play her in a biopic. She didn't say Catherine Zeta-Jones. Actually, she claimed the woman hadn't been born yet. At the time of the claim, Zeta-Jones had already been born. So much for Turner's ability to see the future.

According to the New York Daily News, Catherine Zeta-Jones will no longer co-star in Nine, the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, which itself was an adaptation of Fellini's classic film 8 1/2. Zeta-Jones would have played the role of Claudia, "the alluring muse of skirt-chasing director Guido Contini." The reason for the falling out is allegedly -- it's always allegedly with the Daily News -- because director Rob Marshall (the inexplicably Best Picture-winning Chicago) "wouldn't give in to her demand to beef up her role." The script is adapted by Michael Tolkin (The Player), and apparently the creative team wasn't willing to change the story around. A friend of Zeta-Jones told the Daily News "She was never 100% committed to Nine. She had a meeting with Rob. She'd love to work with him again. But she felt she'd done the same sort of role in Chicago. The script wasn't an issue."

Marshall has moved on and is looking for a younger actress to hop in and play Claudia. The list of possibles includes Natalie Portman, Liv Tyler, Keira Knightley, Kate Hudson, and Gwyneth Paltrow. (In what world is Gwyneth Paltrow a reasonable substitute for Zeta-Jones?) The cast of Nine, one of the more attractive bunches of actors in recent memory, features Javier Bardem as Guido, Sophia Loren as Guido's mother, Penelope Cruz as his mistress Carla, and Marion Cotillard as Luisa Contini. Reportedly (another word for "allegedly"), Katie Holmes was "heartbroken" when Marshall turned her down for a role. Who would you guys like to see in the part? We'll keep you posted on how this drama turns out.

Additionally, Variety has announced today that the Weinstein Co. has officially delayed production on Nine due to the script not being ready.

Variety is reporting that director/choreographer Rob Marshall and uber-producer Harvey Weinstein have started putting together a cast for Nine, a film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Javier Bardem was just offered the role of director Guido Contini, who "experiences a creative and personal crisis as he tries to balance all the women in his life." The musical was inspired by Federico Fellini's classic 8 1/2, and the Contini role was originated onstage by the great Raul Julia. In its recent Broadway revival, Contini was played by Antonio Banderas. I love Bardem, but I have to wonder why Banderas isn't reprising his role here. He played the part in 2003 and he still looks like a million bucks, so the reason can't be that he's gotten too old. Curious.

Regardless, the real appeal of this film is going to be its women. If Marshall gets his first choices, this will be one beautiful cast. Marion Cotillard (Russell Crowe's love interest in A Good Year) is set to play Contini's wife. Penelope Cruz, whom I never thought too highly of until her terrific work in Volver, is in talks to play Contini's mistress, Carla. Marshall hopes to sign his Chicago co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones to play "the director's muse." Zeta-Jones isn't signed yet, but judging by what she told MTV's Movie Blog last month, she's a done deal. Said Jones, "I'd read the phone book with Rob Marshall. To put a musical in a director's hands, for me it can only be [him]." Marshall is also trying to get Sophia Loren, one of the sexiest women of all time, on board to play Contini's mother, who comes to Contini as a ghost. Michael Tolkin, best known for adapting his novel The Player for Robert Altman, is adapting the script. I'm no fan of Marshall, I thought Chicago was insanely overrated, and Mem-Snores of a Geisha was agony to sit through. Still, I dig musicals and it'd be great to see all of these gorgeous women on the big screen at once.

I don't like movies in which a strong, confident woman learns (often through humiliation) that her life simply isn't going to be fulfilling until she finds herself a man and maybe a child or two. I don't care if it's Bette Davis in Now, Voyager or Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, it's insulting to single women, and I was a single woman for long enough that I still feel insulted. This was the bias I carried into No Reservations, in which Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a top-notch chef and single woman whose life is obviously missing something, and I don't mean a kitchen blowtorch, either.

Zeta-Jones stars as Kate -- and when a single female character shares the name of the title character in The Taming of the Shrew, alarm bells start ringing in my head. Kate is an untiring perfectionist in the kitchen of the bistro where she works to create lovely and delicious cuisine, and you notice that the men in her domain are relegated to the jobs of servers and line cooks. She has a lovely apartment, she dresses beautifully, but she has to see a therapist for "anger issues" because she insults the diners when they don't like her cooking. Oh, and she's not interested in a relationship with her neighbor or anyone else for that matter.

After a tragic family accident, Kate is faced with the possibility of raising her niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin), who is still suffering from grief and shock. When Kate takes time off from the restaurant, her boss (Patricia Clarkson) hires a man to help out, an Italian cook named Nick (Aaron Eckhart). Kate resents the intrusion, but Nick turns out to be an opera-singing, life-loving guy who also gets along well with kids ... I don't need to draw you a picture.

Taking potshots at people can seem fun in the moment, but regrettable later. Especially when someone shoots back. For example, in choosing this list of the most overrated actors, I might at one time have chosen someone like Tobey Maguire, Mark Wahlberg or Ryan Gosling. At various points in the past, I was convinced that none of them could act a lick and they all proved me wrong. I could also shoot fish in a barrel, taking aim at people who are already down, like Freddie Prinze Jr., Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker, Paul Walker or Ryan Reynolds. Or Jennifer Hudson, whose flash-in-the-pan Oscar win will probably prove to be a hilarious mistake. History tends to sort things out into their proper places, which is why I ended up not choosing anyone from cinema's glorious past (I wrestled with Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck, but decided against them). So in choosing this final seven, I went with people who, at this moment, feel "overrated." They're all currently working, and each could use a serious career adjustment.

1. Ben Kingsley
Is there a more arrogant, conceited, pretentious actor alive? And why does no one ever call him on it? I wrote a nasty review of House of Sand and Fog in 2003 and got volumes of angry e-mail from his fans and supporters, but it remains that Kinglsey can barely disguise his own smugness even while acting. The last straw came during the opening credits for the small scale "B" picture Lucky Number Slevin: "Sir Ben Kingsley." If he can't even loosen up for something that silly, then what good is he? He is also a screen hog, overshadowing all his co-stars with his scenery-chewing. His one great achievement came in Schindler's List, in which he generously allowed the leads to shine, while he did marvelous things in his small, meek role. He needs more jobs like that.

Is it just me, or did Catherine Zeta-Jones go from smoking hot to soccer mom in the span of, like, one movie? I will forever remember my first introduction to Zeta-Jones, watching her slither under a laser beam in Entrapment. Yowsers! But, with the exception of Chicago and Traffic, all she's ever been is a pretty face who delivers lines and remains in the spotlight because she's married to Michael Douglas. That said, I'm all for giving the gal a big starring role to see if she has it in her to own a movie. Her latest, No Reservations, now has a trailer online -- and, fingers crossed, hopefully folks will gobble it up without sending it back to the kitchen.

Capitalizing on the recent wave of food-related shows (the only reason I'm slightly overweight is because I'm addicted to every single show the Food Network airs -- damn you Iron Chef!), No Reservations revolves around a hard-edged chef (Zeta-Jones) whose life is turned upside down when she decides to take in her young niece (Abigail Breslin) following a tragic accident. Throw in a competitor-turned-romantic interest in Aaron Eckhart, add a pinch of funny and a dash of heart -- and this could turn out to be a winning recipe. Scott Hicks directs, while Patricia Clarkson and Bob Balaban (the scene in which he's eating a meal prepared for him by Zeta-Jones immediately conjured up images of that Seinfeld episode -- you know the one) also star in the pic. No Reservations will be served in theaters on July 27.