* Steve Carell is set to produce and star in Conviction, a film based on the Black List script by Jonathan Herman. Picked up by Warner Brothers a couple of years ago, the rather standard sounding story focused on a robber jailed after a job goes belly up, and is then convinced by the FBI to help them capture his protege. Initially described as being the same style as Michael Mann's Heat, Deadline reports the story is being reworked into something along the lines of 48 Hrs. Which means it'll be more silly, buddy cop story than gritty crime noir. Ugh.
* Taylor Lautner and Gus Van Sant, the guy who brought us Milk and Paranoid Park? On the surface it's an oil and water combination that can't possibly lead to anything worthwhile, but we'll just have to wait and see, won't we? Oh I wasn't just bringing it up for nothing. The Twilight star is set to produce and star in Van Sant's next film, which will be based on a non-fiction The New Yorker article Lautner optioned. Straight up. The dude reads The New Yorker. They must have awesome comics. Details are sketchy at this point, but more info is expected later in the week. [THR]
* The other Linda Lovelace flick(not the one with Malin Akerman and Matt Dillon) has been trying to find a lead actress to play the famous Deep Throat queen for months now. At one point Kate Hudson and James Franco were attached to star, but that fell through. In July Olivia Wilde was reportedly circling it, but she's mentioned for everything. Now Variety reports that Amanda Seyfried(In Time) and Peter Sarsgaard(Green Lantern) have officially come aboard. Seyfried will play Lovelace, while Sarsgaard is her husband/manager/pimp/scumball Chuck Traynor, who reportedly abused the actress in some pretty heinous ways. The film is directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman(Howl), based on a script by W. Merritt Johnson(Temple Grandin) and Andy Bellin.
