A project goes dead, and Dwayne Johnson is there to resurrect it. TheWrap reports that he’s been attached to Dan Mintner: Badass for Hire, a picture which had originally been put into motion in 2008 but, with another Presidential election in full swing, has come back at New Line Cinemas.

They’re using Chad Kultgen‘s original spec — this is not to say a few rewrites won’t be employed; it’s inevitable — in which this titular character, “the ultimate badass,” finds himself, never mind that this is a comedy, “embroiled in a kidnapping drama.” I can only guess that Dan Mintner will, therefore, allow Johnson to employ the sort of physical comedy which has marked much of his career; seeing as that tends to work, fine by me.

One other casting tidbit arrives by way of Deadline, from where we’ve been told that Abbie Cornish is coming aboard Fellini Black and White. The actress who once killed somebody by holding up a little girl on ice skates is expected to play Betty, a fictional woman who, in Henry Bromell‘s film, encounters the very real icon during his first trip to the United States.

Should previous reports have been on-point — we’ll go and assume that’s the case — they’ve previously described her character as a veterinarian caught up in “the jazz and surf scenes” of late ’50s California. Wagner Moura (Elite Squad) is playing Fellini, who got lost in Los Angeles when he made a visit to the 1958 Academy Awards (Nights of Cabiria was nominated for [and eventually won] Best Foreign Language film.); the picture implies this lost time gave inspiration for his transition into a career which embraced more modernist, surreal styles.

Cornish, an actress I’ve generally appreciated up to this point, marks an interesting move for the well-cast Fellini Black and White. Along with her Brazilian co-star, the actress is joined by William H. Macy, Peter Dinklage, Terrence Howard, and Nina Arianda as Giulietta Masina. Bromell will get underway with production at the start of 2013.

Coming off this announcement, does Dan Mintner have any appeal? How are you liking Fellini Black and White up until now?