Clint Eastwood's Changeling (which may or may not be now known as The Exchange), is a riveting drama about a missing boy and the undying constancy of a mother's love. Angelina Jolie excels in a powerful performance as Christine Collins, whose nine-year-old son, Walter, disappeared in 1928. Five months later, police returned to her a boy they said was Walter; Christine alleged that the boy was not her son.

At the time, the Los Angeles police department was under considerable pressure due to the efforts of a Presbyterian minister, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malcovich), to expose corruption within the police force. Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan), who heads up the investigation, doesn't particularly care whether the boy is or isn't Walter Collins; he has a publicity campaign to manage that's all about making himself look good, so he tries to convince Christine to accept the found boy as her son. When she fights back by going to the press, Jones has her committed to the psycho ward.

For the first time in Cinematical history we'll have two (count 'em TWO) writers on the ground at this year's Cannes Film Festival: James Rocchi and Kim Voynar. Rocchi's been covering Cannes for us for a few years, and this will be Kim's first time. (Shhh ... she's super nervous, but don't tell anyone.) Anyway, this year's Cannes lineup was just announced, and among the larger, more talked-about films we find Steven Soderbergh's two Che biopics, The Argentine and Guerilla, and Clint Eastwood's Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie (in a role that doesn't find her hanging out the side of a red sports car). According to Variety, the Soderbergh move seems to come last minute, as word had it he wasn't going to finish the films in time for the festival.

Also on the agenda are the premiere of the animated Kung Fu Panda, Woody Allen's new hot, threesome flick, Vicky Christina Barcelona and Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. A few foreign titles making their way to Cannes include Jia Zhangke's 24 City (only Chinese film at the fest), Walter Salles' Linha de passe, Wim Wenders' The Palermo Shooting and Waltz with Bashir, an animated film about Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Of course, enjoying its world premiere on May 18 will be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I don't think I have to tell you that a) I'm extremely jealous of James and Kim, and b) we'll be bringing all of this from France to your computer monitor in just a couple weeks. So keep it tuned in here, folks.

Full Cannes lineup after the jump.

I get very excited about the upturns some actors and actresses' careers take following awards season, especially when those performers end up Oscar winners. I always enjoyed reading the post-Oscar write-ups on "What's Next for ____?", though it's less of a thrill nowadays because I typically already know what is in their pipeline. For example, thanks to Variety, I now know that Amy Ryan will be co-starring in Paul Greengrass' "untitled Iraq war thriller". She joins the movie, along with Greg Kinnear, which already starred Matt Damon (who has worked with Greengrass on two Bourne films) and which reportedly began filming in Spain yesterday. While Kinnear and Damon will both play CIA agents involved in the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Ryan has been cast as a New York Times correspondent investigating the WMD investigation.

A front-runner for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (for Gone Baby Gone), Ryan has already had one heck of a year (she also appeared in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and Dan in Real Life). In fact, I'm sure I'm not the only one to admit I'd never heard of her until 2007. But she may still not be a household name, and that should surely change following her expected win (she's also the best bet for the Golden Globe this Sunday). The supporting actress category is sometimes a bit of a joke, as it was throughout most of the 1990s (starting with Whoopi and ending with Angelina, with a Mira in the middle), but Ryan is hopefully going to be one of the few actresses that shows us how much she deserves the accolades by continuing to take respectable roles. In addition to Greengrass' film, Ryan will be co-starring in Clint Eastwood's The Changeling, which also stars Angelina (whose "What's Next ... " in 1999 included Gone in 60 Seconds and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider). By the way, for those not keeping track, after making The Changeling, Ryan will have worked with four of the ten 1990s supporting actress Oscar winners (Marisa Tomei is in Before the Devil; Juliette Binoche and Dianne Wiest are both in Dan). Perhaps Greengrass can find a part in his new film for Anna Paquin?

Pictured Above: Augie (CHRISTOPHER MINTZ-PLASSE), Danny (PAUL RUDD), Wheeler (SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT) and Ronnie (BOBB'E THOMPSON) in a comedy about two likable losers forced to do community service-Untitled Mentor Project.

As we told you earlier, Universal Pictures has released their upcoming 2008 film slate, including a ton of photos to go along with what looks to be a pretty solid list. Above you can check out the first image from the Untitled Mentor Project (aka Little Big Men on IMDb), starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, following up his superb debut as McLovin' in Superbad. Below, check out an image of Angelina Jolie from Clint Eastwood's The Changeling, which comes with the caption: "Christine Collins (ANGELINA JOLIE) is introduced to a boy claiming to be hers by Captain J.J. Jones (JEFFREY DONOVAN) in a provocative thriller that tells the shocking tale of a mother's quest to find her son, and those who won't stop until they silence her-Changeling, from director Clint Eastwood.

Lots more after the jump ...

Variety reports that Paramount has secured the life rights to Kathi Lynn Austin for an action flick starring Angelina Jolie. Austin is an intelligence operative who has worked with the UN Security Council and whose career has been spent tracking down some of the world's most dangerous arms dealers and terrorists. Jolie's manager, Geyer Kosinski, will produce the film that "was pitched to Paramount as a story that was similar in spirit to The Bourne Identity". The story centers on a fictional arms dealer who was based on an infamous Russian dealer named Victor Bout. Bout was a former KGB major and earned the catchy nickname, "The Merchant of Death" (Nicolas Cage's character in Lord of War was said to be loosely based on Bout).

Jolie is still shooting the period drama The Changeling with Clint Eastwood for Universal and it has been announced that she will finally get to play the iconic tough girl, Dagny Taggart in the adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. According to Variety, Kosinski has been looking long and hard for a property with some serious franchise potential for Jolie. It makes sense, since both Tomb Raider and Mr. and Mrs. Smith failed to ignite long term franchises. Jolie is a natural when it comes to action films, so the exploits of a globe-trotting super-spy just might do the trick. Paramount is already lining up a short list of writers to kick start the film into production as soon as possible. But, like so many other films, this one is going to have to wait until the strike finally comes to an end.

More folks have joined Angelina Jolie in Clint Eastwood's The Changeling, and pics of a 1920s Jolie have arrived online. (You can begin your happy dance ... now.) The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore and John Malkovich will join Jolie in this drama based on a real-life tale for Universal and Imagine. In the flick, Jolie plays a woman whose son goes missing in 1920s Los Angeles. When the wrong child is returned to her, she naturally freaks on law enforcement who then throw the gal into an insane asylum for disagreeing with them. And you think Britney Spears has it rough! Eventually, the kid admits to fraud, and the woman goes after the cops, the mayor and the city seeking changes in the insanity legislation. I'm sorry, but shouldn't a mother know who her child is? Weird.

Donovan will play the police captain, with Feore as the chief of police and Makovich as a reverend. Additionally, the first pics of Jolie on set in 1920s garb have arrived online, courtesy of Just Jared (who have roughly 15 shots of the gal). I'd say she looks pretty damn authentic (love the red lipstick), but that's me. The role seems like a perfect fit for Jolie, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role as a girl in a mental hospital in 1999's Girl, Interrupted. So we know she can play nutty. It also looks like they're prepping this one for a late Oscar run (it has Clint Eastwood's name on it -- why the heck not?), as it's currently set to be released on November 7, 2008.

Yes, Nelson Mandela is still alive, despite what President Bush said (I know it was taken out of context). And now the previously announced Mandela biopic is also very much alive, and may even get a multiple Oscar-winner as its director. According to Variety, Clint Eastwood is interested in helming The Human Factor, an adaptation of the same-titled book by John Carlin (with subtitle: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World). The film won't actually be a full biopic, though; instead, it focuses on the former President of South Africa post-imprisonment, on the eve of apartheid's end. It also deals with the 1995 Rugby World Cup and how it aided in the post-apartheid healing of South Africa. The adaptation has been scripted by South African screenwriter Anthony Peckham (Don't Say a Word).

We've already learned that Mandela will be portrayed by Morgan Freeman (perfect choice), who will also be producing with his company Revelations Entertainment (10 Items or Less). Now possibly joining Freeman on screen is Matt Damon, who is in talks to play the captain of rugby team the Springboks. Although both Freeman and Damon contributed to the 3D IMAX documentary Magnificent Desolation, the two have never acted together. Freeman and Eastwood, though, have collaborated a few times, and it was due to working with the actor-director on Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby that Freeman reportedly requested Eastwood's filmmaking talents for this project. My guess is that Eastwood appreciates the opportunity, as it sounds like something that will garner him yet another Oscar nomination. However, it won't be the director's next film; that has already been announced as The Changeling, with Angelina Jolie.

For those looking for a Mandela movie in the meantime, perhaps someone will finally pick up U.S. distribution rights to Bille August's new film, Goodbye Bafana, which features Dennis Haysbert as the iconic prisoner-turned-leader. Erik caught the pic in Berlin earlier this year and called it, "a perfect movie -- one that gets it all right," and it is very surprising that there's no plans yet to release the film here. Perhaps someone is waiting until they can pit it against The Human Factor, in order to fulfill the new Hollywood law that all biopics must have a dueling competitor.

One of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood has decided that she's ready to start spending more time with the family. Angelina Jolie told reporters in Cannes that she will take a year off following two months of work later this summer. I believe the exact quote was: "I take two months off, then I work for two months. Then I take a year off." Ah, but that only gives the paparazzi more time to catch Jolie in mama mode: "Look, there she is with Brad in the garden! And there she is playing jump-rope in the middle of some remote jungle!" While the folks from People Magazine look forward to capturing those ever-so-precious Jolie-Pitt moments, the rest of us now wonder which film(s), exactly, she'll be working on prior to taking that break.

Taking a quick look at the woman's upcoming film slate, it appears the work she's doing now is for the action flick Wanted. After that, she has both The Changeling (for Clint Eastwood) and Atlas Shrugged on her plate. Is two months enough time to shoot multiple films? Is Atlas Shrugged far enough along that they'll be ready to shoot in two months? Last I checked, the film hired a writer (Randall Wallace), but didn't even have a director. Chances are Atlas Shrugged is being, well, shrugged off for the time being. As far as hubby Brad goes, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions -- the guy is currently in pre-production on three films (Burn After Reading, Dirty Tricks, State of Play), with two more to follow after that. Thus, Angelina's "year off" might find her traveling to a number of different movie sets while Brad brings home the bacon. So much for Tomb Raider 3, huh?

Halloween is a great time of year if you love horror movies. I'm not what you'd call a horror buff -- I'm way too much of a weenie. I'm the person you see at horror flicks hunched way down in my seat with my jacket ready to hide my face in if it gets overwhelming. Plus, I have a very active imagination, and when I see a really scary movie it stays in my head, and then late at night when I'm taking a relaxing bubble bath after the kids have gone down for the night, I'll hear the voice of Pennywise the Clown giggling in the drain, telling me how "we all float down here." God, I hate clowns.

Nonetheless, there is something shiveringly delicious about being scared just the right amount, isn't there? That rush of adrenaline, that thrill of being in danger, tempered by the knowledge that we are perfectly safe in a theater seat with a bag of popcorn and a box of Whoppers to help see us through. Here are some horror flicks that really scared me, that stayed in my head somewhere to haunt me late at night, to come creeping out of dark shadows. They're scary, but oh so good ...

The Changeling -- This is my favorite horror movie ever. George C. Scott stars as a writer who, after the death of his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, rents a spooky mansion. All by himself. Right away, creepy things start happening -- and I mean creepy. This film is packed with send-a-shiver-up-your-spine moments: The spooky voice of Joseph, a ghost child recorded on tape during a seance, audible only when it's played at the right speed; a ball bouncing down the stairs; visions of a bathtub with a drowned child. Look! I have goosebumps just thinking about it! And yet this is one scary movie I can watch over and over again. Once you've seen this movie, you'll never look at wheelchairs the same way again.

Do we need another Nixon film? Between Oliver Stone's Nixon and the fluffy satire Dick, we're pretty fulfilled as far as Tricky Dick portrayals go. But neither of those films showed Richard Nixon after his resignation from office. Perhaps because his last twenty years weren't that cinematic. At least one moment is dramatic enough for the stage, though; Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon presents the story of a 1977 television interview with Nixon conducted by David Frost. Now Ron Howard is thinking that it could be adapted for the screen as his next project. The question would be whether or not he'd cast Frank Langella, who is currently playing the part of Nixon in the London stage production. Another concern might be that this film will seem too similar to Good Night, and Good Luck (which also featured Langella); though it won't have to be in black and white since the interview was conducted in color.

A few months ago, Mark mentioned that Howard is also considering directing the thriller The Changeling. My guess is that his decision will come down to which film has a better part for Tom Hanks -- unless he decides to cast Hanks in a part not suited for him (think The Da Vinci Code); I think it would be neat to see him play Nixon. And when I say "neat to see", I really mean "neat to make fun."