After getting a glimpse of Matt Damon with more cushin' for the pushin', we now get to see him putting things in his mouth and baring his chest through a sexy Hawaiian shirt. Yes, the above is another picture of Damon as Mark Whitacre in The Informant. The Bad and Ugly has thrown up a handful of stills for Steven Soderbergh's film, from Damon putting what looks like some sort of dental add-on into his mouth, to showing off his expanding waistline in orange shorts and a loud, tacky shirt.

Whitacre seems happy with the casting. He told the Herald & Review: "It's like I was two people. I assume that's why they chose Matt Damon for the movie, because he plays those roles that have such psychological intensity. In the Bourne movies, he doesn't even know who he is." (The pic attached to that piece also makes it more obvious why Damon was chosen.) Matt has definitely morphed himself to play the famous FBI informant, and I wonder: will the morphing Oscar mojo work for him as it did for actresses like Charlize Theron?

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, The Informant hits theaters on March 27, 2009.

That chubby dude to the right is Matt Damon walking to the set for his role as Mark Whitacre in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant. He definitely looks nothing like this, so I guess this is a time before the man embraced the baldness. Still, it's cool to see Damon get a chance to morph physically for a role -- in a way that doesn't have him putting on disguises with the Ocean crew. You can check out a larger version of this picture, plus a bunch of others, over at Just Jared.

To refresh your memories, The Informant is the big-screen adaptation of Kurt Eichenwald's book, which focuses on Whitacre's role as an undercover, FBI informant during the investigation of Archer Daniels Midland and price fixing antitrust case. There should be a lot of meat for Damon to chew on in the role, considering Whitacre's biopolar disorder and strange actions.

Once The Informant is all wrapped, Damon will team up with Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman for the Nelson Mandela film, The Human Factor.

And here are even more casting nibblets from Variety:

First up, there's another model heading to the world of film. Swiss model Julie Ordon has been tapped to star in a new horror film called Catwalk. If any model casting would be appropriate, it'd be in a horror movie on a catwalk. The flick is being directed by Anthony Hickox, and according to this post, it's about a young woman who gets sucked into the dangerous world of high fashion, and doesn't let the gruesome murders of four other supermodels stop her. "Only when a whirlwind of fame starts to threaten her sense of identity, she moves closer to discovering the darker secrets of who and what she is." Hmm. Is she behind the deaths, perchance?

And then there's a little bit of motherly sugar. Candy Clark, who has played a slew of moms (including mother of one infamous cinematic slayer), has added another actor to her movie offspring. She's been tapped to play Matt Damon's mother in Steven Soderbergh's The Informant, which is based on Kurt Eichenwald's book.

Lastly, there's Michelle C. Bonilla, better known as Harms from ER. She has picked up a role in Montana Amazon, to play a mom as well, in the role of "Little Girl's Mother." This is the "dysfunctional road movie" flick I mentioned in a casting bite last month, which happens to feature the likes of Olympia Dukakis and Hayley Joel Osment (remember him?).

I have to hand it to the wardrobe people for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant since it's not easy making a guy who normally looks like this look like such a schlump. The Bad and Ugly have posted some behind-the-scenes photos for the comedic thriller, and even though there is nothing earth shattering going on, they are definitely a step up from the other pics floating around out there.

The Informant is based on the true-life novel by Kurt Eichenwald. The story revolves around Mark Whitacre (Damon), a rising star at the agriculture conglomerate, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). At the urging of his wife (who had threatened to go to the FBI), Whitacre spilled the beans to an agent that he had been involved in a price-fixing scam with other major corporations over the food additive, lysine. As if that wasn't enough of a story, it was later revealed that Whitacre (one of the most high profile, whistle-blowers in history) was suffering from Bipolar disorder and had defrauded millions from ADM.

For such serious subject matter, it came as a bit of a surprise when casting announcements first went out for the film and the list was chock-full of comedic actors (including Scott Bakula and Tony Hale). Soderbergh later confirmed that the film was going to be a "dark comedy", which makes sense because Damon is a pretty funny guy, and a great straight man. Soderbergh has just begun filming on location in Decatur, Illinois and there is no official release date, but The Informant is expected to arrive in theaters in 2009.

When we encounter prostitutes in the movies, they're almost invariably destitute, sick, absurdly dressed, and roaming the red light district in search of a client or a fix. That may well be accurate for a majority of women in the profession, but the rarely-glimpsed high-priced call girl is just as much of a curiosity. After he finishes The Informant with Matt Damon, Steven Soderbergh will direct The Girlfriend Experience -- a look at the life of a prostitute who commands a fee of $10,000 a night and earns over $1,000,000 a year. The filmmaker dropped a hint about this project over a year ago, but now plans for the movie are coming together, and we have a lot more details.

The movie, written by Ocean's Thirteen scribes Brian Koppelman and David Levien along with Soderbergh, will be shot over 14 days this fall, in the same improvisational style Soderbergh used for Bubble. It will also follow Bubble's controversial pattern of a simultaneous theatrical and DVD release. According to the Variety story, Soderbergh is considering casting an adult film actress, instead of a Hollywood star, in the lead role. The title refers to encounters where men pay not only for sex, but also for the woman to act like the perfect girlfriend in the experience.

Dear Lord, Soderbergh is prolific: if his two (already-completed) Che Guevara movies hit their 2008 release dates (they're premiering at Cannes), and The Informant and The Girlfriend Experience stay on track for 2009, he will have directed 13 movies in a 10-year span. The man loves to work. This new project is particularly intriguing since it looks like it might give us a well-researched look into a world that I, at least, know virtually nothing about. And it might also confound the usual arguments for why prostitution is a Bad Thing...

There have been some questions raised about the accuracy of Kurt Eichenwald's account of Mark Whitacre and ADM, but whatever might be the truth, The Informant should make for a pretty darned entertaining drama. Imagine a man who becomes the highest-level whistleblower in US history, switches sides to work for the FBI for three years, defrauds his company, lies, and ultimately reveals that he suffers from bipolar disorder.

Paul Greengrass' film already has Matt Damon signed on to play Whitacre, and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that more cast have hopped onboard -- all of which, surprisingly, have notable comedic work. The new players are: Scott Bakula, Joel McHale (The Soup), Mike O'Malley (Yes, Dear), Andrew Daly (Semi-Pro), Adam Paul (Hollywood Residential), Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men), and "comedian-actors" Tom Wilson, Rick Overton, and Tom Papa. (This Tom Wilson, I wonder?)

If you think this looks like more comedy than could possibly be coincidental, you'd be right. A source told THR that Soderbergh wants the thriller to have "dark comedy elements. He chose comedic actors who haven't been overexposed on film, planning to have them play their roles seriously and have a humorous tone emerge naturally.

Great idea, or trainwreck waiting to happen? Weigh in.

Frankly I'm amazed that the announcement for a fourth Bourne movie wouldn't get a little more fanfare than buried half way down an article. In a press release in Variety, Universal announced that Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass will be returning for a new installment of the Bourne franchise. Originally, when the two were peppered with questions about a fourth film, they had the stock answer that Damon would only reprise his role if Greengrass returned to direct, and Greengrass would only return to direct if Damon was willing to star. Confused? Don't be, it was basically the PR equivalent of keeping the idea of a film on the back-burner without promising anything too specific.

Universal released the info in a release about their upcoming slate of films, and according to them both Damon and Greengrass are definitely returning to work together on the spy franchise. There are two books left in the Bourne series, so at least there would be some source material to start with. The two are currently working on the Iraq drama, The Green Zone, and Damon has already signed to star in The Informant for Steven Soderberg and is also in talks to star in The Human Factor for Clint Eastwood. Greengrass is also going to be busy with his upcoming Vietnam drama, They Marched into Sunlight. So it could be as late as 2010, before the two can even get started on making another Bourne flick, let alone get one into the theaters. However, with Bourne Ultimatum taking home three Oscars last night (three!), I imagine the fourth flick might be made a priority. For Universal's sake, I hope this one is a done deal. I can't help but think how embarrassing it must have been for MGM's Harry Sloan when his studio got a little overzealous about a certain spy franchise.

[via Empire]