The Movie Insider.com

Tracy Morgan, who most recently appeared in First Sunday, will star in and produce the comedy Freshman Roommates for The Montecito Picture Company and Paramount Pictures, according to Daily Variety. TJ Miller (Cloverfield) will also star in the film. Freshman Roommates asks the question what if those spam emails aren't scams.

Steven Soderbergh is reportedly prepping a 3-D live-action rock 'n' roll musical about Cleopatra. The trades today say that the director is looking at Catherine Zeta-Jones to star as the Egyptian queen with Hugh Jackman as her lover Marc Antony. The $30 million Cleo — to be set in the 1920s — will be shopped for financing and distribution within the next two weeks.

Oscar winner Don Cheadle (Traitor, Ocean's Thirteen) is stepping in to replace Terrence Howard (The Hunting Party) in Iron Man 2, Marvel Studios' sequel to its summer blockbuster, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Jon Favreau is returning as director, and Robert Downey Jr. is expected back as billionaire industrialist Stark/Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow also is expected to be back as Stark's assistant, Pepper Potts.

Stephen Chow will direct Seth Rogen and star opposite him as Kato in Columbia Pictures' The Green Hornet, set for release June 25, 2010, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, presidents of Columbia Pictures.

Looks like Spidey is back for some more webslinging. Sony Pictures spokesman Steve Elzer says negotiations are nearly complete with Tobey Maguire (who had a great cameo in Tropic Thunder) for two more Spider-Man movies. Director Sam Raimi is also expected to return to helm, according to The Hollywood Reporter. No word on Kirsten Dunst returning as Mary Jane yet.

If anyone could turn around the video game spin-off genre, it is Gore Verbinski and that's likely why Universal and Take-Two decided to bring him aboard for Bioshock.

The heads of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced on Tuesday evening that they reached an agreement regarding the contracts with the Hollywood's movie and television companies.

Time Warner Inc. announced today the consolidation of its filmed entertainment businesses, Warner Bros. Entertainment and New Line Cinema. As part of the consolidation, New Line will be operated as a unit of Warner Bros. New Line will maintain separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations, but will closely integrate and coordinate those functions with Warner Bros.

Kristen Bell, the former star of TV series "Veronica Mars," will star in the Disney romantic comedy feature When in Rome, trade paper Daily Variety reports. Bell made a name for herself as the resourceful high school detective "Veronica Mars" in the teen drama series of the same name, which aired on UPN and then the CW, from September of 2004 to May 2007.

27 Dresses and Knocked Up star Katherine Heigl, who tied the knot with Josh Kelly December 23rd, worked out hard to look good in time for her honeymoon. She wasn't as concerned about fitting into her wedding dress as looking like actress Jennifer-Love Hewitt, who was ridiculed for looking fat while pictured on the beach.

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn are apparently clashing on the set of their new holiday comedy, Four Christmases, spies told the New York Daily News. Witherspoon's alpha personality is much different than Vaughn's laid-back approach to work.

Anthony Hopkins will famed mogul Alfred Hitchcock in a new biopic about the revered director. Hopkins insists he has been such a fan of the filmmaker's work over the years, he feels he's the right guy to portray his fellow Brit—and pay a proper tribute to him.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who has a dozen or so projects in development, is now attached to star in a big-screen version of Beau Willimon's play Farragut North for Warner Bros. Pictures. DiCaprio will serve as producer along with George Clooney, who is actually looking to direct and possibly take a role in the film.

Carla Gugino will play the female lead opposite titans Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in the drama Righteous Kill, according to published reports. The long-awaited extending pairing of Pacino and DeNiro features the Oscar winners as New York cops on the trail of a serial killer. Gugino will play a crime scene investigator who becomes a love interest for DeNiro's character.

There were some very lucky fans this weekend. Comic-book geeks at the Wizard World convention in Chicago over the weekend were treated to the first look at footage from The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated "Batman" sequel, the WizardUniverse site reported.

Universal Pictures has made a two-year, first-look producing deal with Vince Vaughn and his Wild West Picture Show Productions. Daily Variety says the agreement begins with three features, each of which could be a starring vehicle for Vaughn. Vaughn has set in development "Male Doula", a high-concept comedy based on his idea, to be scripted by Dana Fox ("What Happens in Vegas...").

Looks like everybody wants to work actress-singer Jessica Simpson. The full cast of Warner Bros. Pictures' comedy Major Movie Star, which stars Simpson, has been announced. Vivica A. Fox ("Kill Bill: Vol. 1"), Steve Guttenberg ("Veronica Mars"), Ryan Sypek ("Wildfire"), Cheri Oteri ("Saturday Night Live"), Olesya Rulin ("High School Musical"), Keiko Agena, Jill Marie Jones ("Girlfriends"), Aimee Garcia ("George Lopez") and Gary Grubbs (Ray) have all joined the cast.

It looks like Nicolas Cage won't be appearing in Brian DePalma's prequel to "The Untouchables" after all. Slightly over a week after Daily Variety reported that Cage would play Chicago mobster Al Capone in The Untouchables: Capone Rising, the trade paper is now saying that scheduling conflicts will prevent Cage from doing the film.

While there was just talk of The Jetsons and Land of the Lost, it now looks like Robert Rodriguez's next project will be a remake of Barbarella instead. The long-gestating project is set up at Universal.

Universal Pictures and Darren Aronofsky have turned to the world of ballet for what they hope will be his next directing effort. Aronofsky is attached to helm Black Swan that looks at the manipulative relationship between a veteran dancer and a rival.