We found out from Erik back in February that Ellen Page is becoming a mom for the upcoming weird psychological thriller Peacock, which will co-star Cillian Murphy. Now Variety reports that three more have joined the cast -- Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman, and Josh Lucas. (Who they will play has not been revealed.) This film is sounding better by the minute!

If you remember back, this story focuses on Peacock, Nebraska, where Murphy's character has a split personality -- a man and wife. That's not quite as weird as the fact that he fools the whole town into believing that there are two people. (I guess this is some sort of Clark Kent/Superman thing where no one notices that they're never at the same place at once.) Anyway, Page plays a young mom "who holds the key to his past and sparks a battle between the personalities."

Oh, but it gets better. The description with this story says: "a quiet bank clerk's (Murphy) life is shattered by a train crashing into his back yard revealing a woman living there." (Page, perhaps?) A train crashes onto his lawn? Revealing a woman living there? Umm... Is there some bomb shelter? Is his back yard just really, really cluttered? I don't get it. Whatever the case, it sounds like an insanely interesting story.

ComingSoon.net reports that Lena Headey, of 300 and Fox's The Sarah Connor Chronicles, has just signed on to play opposite Josh Lucas in Tell-Tale. The movie is inspired by the famous Edgar Allen Poe story, but doesn't seem to have much in common with it other than the titular heart. Lucas plays a single father who is the recipient of a heart transplant, only to discover that his donor met a grisly fate.

If Lucas is the single father, I imagine Headey is either the transplant surgeon or a police officer who helps him -- and naturally, the love interest. The movie is being produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, and will be directed by Michael Cuesta.

I'm happy to see Headey land a nice big movie part again. She's a fine actress and one I have an admitted girl crush on after 300. I was really surprised her career didn't skyrocket after playing Queen Gorgo -- her memorable "You will not enjoy this!" received enormous cheers in theatres around the world. As Connor is still up for renewal, I hope Tell-Tale will keep her in the Hollywood consciousness.

The Hollywood Reporter announced that Jon Hamm, star of *HBO's Mad Men, has signed for a role in the update of the sci-fi classic. Hamm plays Don Draper on the series about the heyday of the advertising business. Hamm will join Keanu Reeves as the alien Klaatu, and Jennifer Connolly will play a research scientist. According to THR, Hamm will play "Dr. Granier, a NASA official who recruits Helen (Connelly) for the scientific team investigating an alien's arrival on Earth". For those of you out there who aren't familiar with the 1951 classic, it centers on an alien and his giant robot friend who land on earth to chastise man about their violent ways. They bring a simple message to earthlings, "Live in peace or be destroyed". Of course, we don't listen and it all goes downhill from there. Variety had reported that the film was going to get a little modernizing in both the story and the FX department, saying, "The 1951 film's premise, a response to the rise of the Cold War after WWII, is being updated, and the film will use advances in visual effects."

News of the remake first surfaced back in February, and the jury is still out on whether Keanu Reeves is the right choice as the harbinger of earthly doom. Scott had brought us the news back in April that Scott Derrikson had been hired for the remake and that Last Castle scribe David Scarpa is in charge of the script. The production is expected to be an expensive affair and locations have already been scouted in Vancouver for the lengthy shoot. Hamm is currently filming Boy in The Box with Josh Lucas while Mad Men is on break. The Day the Earth Stood Still is set for release on December 12th, 2008.

*Correction: Mad Men airs on AMC.

Actress Rhona Mitra is definitely no stranger to the ways of the law. She spent a good deal of time on The Practice, and then jumped ship for the ultra-wacky law show Boston Legal. Since then, well, she's not only got nipped and tucked, but she's taken some time for Skinwalkers, the flop that is The Number 23, and Shooter. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that she's going to co-star in a new indie thriller called The Boy in the Box -- written by actor Glenn Taranto and helmed by Anders Anderson.

No, this is not a retro celebrity biopic about Corey Hart. Rather, it's about a "small-town police chief (Jon Hamm, We Were Soldiers ) determined to discover the truth behind the mummified remains of a boy who was murdered a half-century earlier." Mummification -- that's not something that pops up in a thriller every day. Or in life for that matter. Anyway, Mitra will play "the police chief's wife, who is trying to move on after the disappearance of their own son eight years earlier." No wonder he's obsessed.

But there's even more cast on this sucker. The film is re-teaming Mitra with Sweet Home Alabama co-star Josh Lucas, who will play the slain child's dad. I imagine that means flashbacks -- since Lucas sure as hell isn't old enough to have a son who has been dead for 50 years. Wrapping things up, there's Dawson Leary / James Van Der Beek, Marcus Thomas (You Kill Me), the young tyke Jimmy Bennett (Evan Almighty) -- who I imagine will play the slain kid, and Jessica Chastain (Law and Order). I'll just go out on a limb and say Dawson did it! He's got a good creepy look to him when he wants to. As for you Buffy and Grey's fans out there, Box also has the vengeance demon/overachieving doctor Kali Rocha.

It'll be a little while before this film gets up and running. Having tackled the skinwalkers, Mitra is about to head for New Zealand and face lycans in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Notorious Italian banker Roberto Calvi is about to head to the screen once again. In 2001, there was the Italian feature film God's Bankers -- The Calvi Case, but more recognizably, there's The Godfather Part III, where the character Frederick Keinszig is based on him. Now, Variety reports that shot number three is ringing out in the form of a U.K.-Canadian thriller written by Brian Phelan and helmed by Andy Morahan called God's Spy. (He just happens to be the directorial eye behind Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go Go and Guns 'N Roses November Rain.) It might not be a big-studio production, but it has got a great cast. Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) is starring along with Jordi Molla (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Giancarlo Giannini (Casino Royale), and the wonderful, epic, current acting powerhouse Peter O'Toole (you should know at least a few movies he's been in!).

What you may not be familiar with is the story of Calvi. He was an Italian banker (dubbed God's Banker by the press) and Mason who had close ties with the Vatican. His bank, Banco Ambrosiano, collapsed in a scandal during the '70s and '80s and has been steeped in controversy ever since -- especially once he was found hanging under London's Blackfriars Bridge. As for the film, it mixes all of this with the fictional story of "a young Wall Street trader, played by Lucas, who is really a Jesuit priest working undercover to gain experience of the financial markets. He becomes caught up in a shady political and financial conspiracy." The production has a solid $15 million backing it, and will start shooting next year in Montreal.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Josh Lucas will star in Tell-Tale, a psychological thriller directed by Michael Cuesta. Cuesta directed two very good indies -- L.I.E. and Twelve and Holding, and has helmed episodes of two of my favorite shows -- Six Feet Under and Dexter. The film's producers include big-time directors/brothers Tony Scott (Top Gun) and Ridley Scott -- who is currently tearing up the box office with the terrific American Gangster. The script was written by Dave Callaham, who also penned the video game adaptation Doom. (Had to look that up because THR managed to mention every aspect of the film but the screenwriter -- see why writers feel under-appreciated?)

Tell-Tale is a contemporary adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic story "The Tell-Tale Heart," (which was also reimagined as a hilarious Simpsons episode -- "Lisa's Rival"). Lucas will play a "single father whose recently transplanted heart leads him on a frantic search to find the donor's killer before a similar fate befalls him." I love the Poe story, so I'm up for this new take. Lucas was rumored to be playing Captain Pike in the upcoming Star Trek film, but we learned this morning that's not the case. What I really think Lucas should be doing is a movie where he, Matthew McConaughey, and Bradley Cooper try to tell each other apart for two hours.

Death in Love is going to have many warm blooded women running to the movie theatres, as it's just been announced the film will feature a whole mess of Hollywood's young male heavy hitters. Best known for The O.C., but definitely memorable in Thank You For Smoking, Adam Brody will play a scam artist (according to the Hollywood Reporter) who trapezes into the life of Josh Lucas -- ahem, ladies?! -- in order to help instill meaning into his otherwise lackluster days. Lukas Haas -- who I've had a fondness for since before Mars Attacks! -- will be playing the brother of Lucas. The story revolves around the two brothers who are unhappy with their circumstances and somewhat lost in life. While one (Haas) works on his relationship with mom (Jacqueline Bisset ), the other (Lucas) befriends a scam artist (Brody). From there, we're not sure what happens -- as of now, that's all they're giving us.

Boaz Yakin (Remember the Titans) wrote and will direct the film -- this coming from a guy who has quite the eclectic resume. I'm amazed sometimes at the vast differences between the stories he chooses to tell in his films (Uptown Girls versus From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money) and admit to watching -- gulp, and enjoying -- Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights while sick with the flu. The film is already set to shoot in New York and if I had my way, would be in theatres tomorrow.

James Denton and Jon Cryer -- two guys who have found enormous recent success on the small screen -- are heading to the bigs for the psychological thriller Tortured. The film starts production on Monday, Erik brought you a bit of news on it last week. Denton is best known for his nuanced portrayal of hunky plumber Mike Delfino on Desperate Housewives, a role that I'm sure has led to countless saucy jokes involving the words "pipe," "tool," and "plumbing." Cryer plays Charlie Sheen's brother on the smash comedy Two and a Half Men, but to an entire generation, he will forever be known as "Duckie" from Pretty in Pink. The guy could cure cancer and I'd still think of him lip-syncing to Otis Redding to impress Molly Ringwald.

Tortured stars Morpheus himself Laurence Fishburne and Cole Hauser. (I have this theory that Hauser and Josh Lucas are the same person, but that's a discussion for another time). Tortured is about "an FBI agent (Hauser) who goes undercover as an organized crime enforcer. When he's ordered to undertake the weeklong torture of an accountant (Fishburne), he begins to question his roles." For his first feature film since 2001's Glam (missed that one), Cryer will go against type to play Hauser's (wisecracking?) partner. Denton will play their supervisor. Nolan Lebovitz (Dr. Benny -- missed that one, too) wrote the script and will direct. Denton's next film is Undead or Alive: A Zombedy, which co-stars Chris Kattan as "a cowboy with a broken heart." My prediction on that one? $100 million easy.

Screenwriter Robin Swicord loves to adapt books for the screen, and she has shown some great diversity in her choosing of source material (Little Women; Matilda; Practical Magic; Memoirs of a Geisha). Now, according to Production Weekly, she is working on bringing Jane Austen to the big screen. No, not the author, who has been adapted enough already, but the book, The Jane Austen Book Club. Written by Karen Joy Fowler, the novel follows the lives of six members of the title group and the relationships and affairs between them. The film version, which begins shooting in November, is set to star Maria Bello, Jimmy Smits, Emily Blunt, Josh Lucas and Ellen Burstyn. What this means for the status of Swicord's feature directorial debut, The Mermaids Singing, which is also an adaptation, is unknown -- it does have a poster, though, so that's good, I guess?

I haven't read the best selling novel, but I do know that it deals with characters discussing literature, which doesn't sound very cinematic to me. Certainly a book that celebrates reading is an ironically inappropriate source for a film. Even if they changed the name to The Jane Austen Film Club, it wouldn't change the fact, either.

• Firewall - Like Rip Van Winkle with a $25 million per picture deal, nap-addled gruff boy Harrison Ford has seen his career hibernate for more than a decade now, scoring hit upon forgettable hit. Ford's latest variation on a theme is, like the bulk of his post-Indiana Jones filmography, predictable formula fare, and therein lies its broad appeal. In what ultimately feels like a diluted remake of Ron Howard's 1996 thriller, Ransom, he plays a bank security expert whose family is held captive in exchange for his aid in electronically liberating $100 million. Bad guy Paul Bettany sneers and jeers so much that we know from the moment he turns up that Ford is going to heroically beat him and his dirty, dirty bastards, and our belief that goodness triumphing over ee-vil will be renewed. Able British stalwart Richard Loncraine, who directed Bettany in Wimbledon, paints this one by-the-numbers, and anyone looking for what might be their last Harrison Ford fix before Indy 4 (and presumed retirement) will get what they paid for, though very little more.