My first thought should be to congratulate Halle Berry on her pregnancy, which she finally, officially announced on Access Hollywood Tuesday. But instead, I'm thinking primarily about John Singleton, who stands to lose by the news. The Boyz n the Hood director is having some bad luck of late -- in case you didn't hear, he accidentally killed a woman recently -- and Berry's bun in the oven has unfortunately affected Singleton's latest project. He was set to direct Tulia, a Southern courtroom drama with Berry and Billy Bob Thornton, but now, thanks to the actress' unavailability for the next six months or so, the film has been postponed -- if not canceled. According to TMZ, Lionsgate has definitely halted production, which was scheduled to begin shooting in October, with no word on when it would resume. The gossip news site did learn, though, that the project hasn't been shelved entirely.

I had been excited for Singleton when he took over Tulia from Carl Franklin. Here, I was thinking he could work with the reunited Berry and Thornton, who paired up on Monster's Ball, and direct the actress to another Oscar nomination (she won for Ball). And then his career would pick up again, proving that his status as youngest director to ever be nominated for the directing Oscar was not a fluke. Maybe it wouldn't get him another nomination, but it would hopefully get him enough respect to finally get him his Luke Cage greenlight. Now, even if Singleton does remain attached to Tulia, it won't be bringing him to any Academy Awards until at least 2010. Currently, Singleton is also having trouble as a producer. He worked with filmmaker Franc. Reyes on the new release Illegal Tender, which has only made $2.5 million in its first two weeks -- most of it earned opening weekend before a near-60% drop. Considering Reyes' previous film, Empire, grossed seven times that amount, Singleton could be blamed.

[via WENN]

Franc. Reyes is the man responsible for the 2002 crime flick, Empire, which starred the likes of John Leguizamo, Peter Sarsgaard, Vincent Laresca and Isabella Rossellini. (Oh, and by the way, the period after his first name is supposed to be there. I don't know why, and neither does our Erik Davis.) Despite the film's cast, the movie got less-than-stellar reviews. Undeterred, the writer/director is following it up with The Ministers, which is currently filming in New York City. At first, it was looking to be a feature free of big names, besides the return of Leguizamo. Now it seems that the film will be topped off with one more -- Harvey Keitel.

The film centers on a female NYPD detective who lost her father years ago to a group named the Ministers. When the group reinvigorates their killing ways, she attempts to avenge her father's death. Unbeknownst to her, she is already romantically involved with one of the Ministers. Keitel is close to signing a deal to be one of the good-guy cops. However, "an unfortunate incident" sends him on another life path. That's all sorts of ambiguous. I'm not sure if that is suggesting that he's gone bad and is, perhaps, one of the Ministers, or if it's something more mundane. Regardless, we'll see a lot of Keitel in 2007, although I suspect not in his infamous full-frontal fashion, as he has 3 other films coming up this year -- My Sexiest Year, National Treasure: The Book of Secrets and The Dust of Time.