* The notoriously choosey Bill Murray has settled on his next starring role, and it's a film that will reunite him with Scrooged writer Mitch Glazer. He'll take the lead in Rock the Kasbah, the latest from Rain Man director Barry Levinson. Murray will play a burned out music manager on the USO tour with his sole client, but “he finds himself abandoned, penniless and without his passport and discovers a young girl with an extraordinary voice who stows away with him back to Kabul to compete on the popular television show The Afghan Star, Afghanistan’s equivalent of American Idol.” Producers will hit up TIFF in an effort to secure funding, and in that time hopefully Glazer will keep apologizing to Murray for dragging him into Passion Play three years ago. [TheWrap]
* Jared Harris made for a pretty good Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, arguably the best thing about that movie. That may be why Guy Ritchie has sought Harris out for his next film, The Man from UNCLE. Harris' role is unclear, but he joins stars Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer as CIA agents Solo and Kuryakin, who must team to stop a global criminal organization. Hugh Grant, Alicia Vikaner, and Elizabeth Debicki round out a solid ensemble in bringing the cult favorite TV series to the silver screen. Filming begins later this week for release in 2014.
* The financial world thriller Arbitrage came out of nowhere to be not only one of last year's best films, but a career boost for Richard Gere. Now he's set to reteam with the same producers on Franny, which has him as a rich, hedonistic philanthropist who ingratiates himself into the lives of a newlywed couple in order to recreate the life he once had. Andrew Renzi is directing based on his own screenplay, which he developed as part of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Keep an eye on this one. [Variety]
