The Movie Insider.com

Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men) has lined up a lead role in the drama Biutiful, according to Daily Variety. The trade paper says that the film is about "a man embroiled in shady dealings who is confronted by a childhood friend, now a policeman." The trade doesn't specify which character Bardem will be playing.

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.

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.

Director Mark Romanek has reportedly quit The Wolfman after a dispute with Universal Pictures involving the horror film's budget. Romanek, who has filmed numerous music videos and the feature film One Hour Photo, left The Wolfman project just weeks before he was scheduled to begin shooting it, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Ellen Page, who has been everywhere promoting Juno, will star in Whip It!, which marks Drew Barrymore's directing debut, Daily Variety reported on Wednesday. Page will play a Texas teen who is always being pushed into entering beauty pageants.

Spider-Man 2 director Sam Raimi will return to his genre roots to helm Drag Me to Hell, a supernatural thriller he wrote with his brother, Ivan Raimi, Daily Variety reported. After Drag Me to Hell, Raimi is expected to helm the Hobbit films for New Line and MGM now that Peter Jackson, who will executive-produce the movies, has made it clear he won't direct them, the trade paper reported.

One of the most anticipated movies of 2009 finally has a release date! A May 1, 2009 release has been set for the X-Men spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman, according to Daily Variety. Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) will in the director's chair.

Screenwriter Ehren Kruger and penning tag-team Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are in negotiations to co-write the screenplay for DreamWorks/Paramount's upcoming sequel film Transformers 2, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Director Michael Bay, star Shia LaBeouf and producers Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Don Murphy are all on board for the sequel, as is executive producer Steven Spielberg, the trade paper reported.

Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal are in negotiations to star together in Brothers, Jim Sheridan's adaptation of the 2004 Susanne Bier drama, according to Daily Variety. Bier's acclaimed Danish-language film starred Connie Nielsen, Ulrich Thomsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas and focused on a young man who cares for his brother's wife and children when the brother goes off to war.

Scarlett Johansson will play a femme fatale in Will Eisner's The Spirit, being directed by Frank Miller for Odd Lot Entertainment and Lionsgate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The Spirit is Miller's (Sin City) adaptation of the classic Eisner film-noir comic series. Johansson is in final negotiations to play a dangerous beauty named Silk N. Floss.

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn are in final negotiations to star in New Line Cinema's comedy Four Christmases. According to the industry trade papers, the Matt Allen/Caleb Wilson-scripted film focuses on a couple (Vaughn and Witherspoon, presumably) who attempt to visit all four of their divorced parents' homes over the Christmas season. Hilarity of course ensues all over the place.

Famed writer and producer Aaron Sorkin ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", "The West Wing") has signed a three-picture deal with DreamWorks Pictures, a pact that will kick off with The Trial of the Chicago 7, according to the industry trade papers.

Director D.J. Caruso and star Shia LaBeouf are looking to rekindle their Disturbia magic with the thriller Eagle Eye. And get this, it is considered to be a high profile project for DreamWorks, since it came from an original idea by none other than Steven Spielberg.

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.

Sony Pictures has optioned the rights to "Green Hornet", the classic story of a crime-fighting hero whose adventures were chronicled over the generations on radio and television and in comic books, the studio announced.

Video-game publisher Capcom is getting into film production with a new original film based on the game Street Fighter.

Director James Cameron say he has pushed back the release date of his upcoming sci-fi epic movie Avatar to the summer of 2009.

The first image of the title character in the upcoming sequel film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer has finally been revealed...

Andre "Andre 3000" Benjamin will star opposite Will Ferrell in a new basketball comedy.

The movie version of Microsoft's Halo video game is looking for a new distributor.