Doug Liman may be working on a Jumper sequel, but he recently got back to his Bourne Identity roots with Fair Game. The political drama premiered to decent reviews at Cannes this past May and now it is gearing up for a late fall release. It tells the true story of CIA covert officer Valerie Plame, played by Naomi Watts. She is also joined by Sean Penn, Noah Emmerich, Liraz Charchi and Nicholas Sadler. Check out the trailer below via Yahoo. Read the full story

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New York Film Festival committee member, ex-Variety employee and current Indiewire reviewer/blogger Todd McCarthy just published a post updating us in his adventures with the NYFF. One of the films that was rumored to be ready for the fest was the much-anticipated The Tree of Life, directed by Terrence Malick and starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. It missed the fest deadline and now we can only hope for a release date this year. McCarthy said that will not be the case. Check out his statement below. Read the full story

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Three quick casting updates have arrived today. First up is The Other Guys (which is absolutely hilarious and a must-see this weekend) star Will Ferrell is “attached to star in and produce a Spanish-language comedy.” The film, which will be subtitled in English is titled Casa de mi padre or House of My Father. There are no plot details yet, but someone involved with Funny or Die will direct, but not Adam McKay. Having recently rewatched Step Brothers, Ferrell can nail Spanish, but hopefully it won’t be an entire opera this time. [The Wrap] Read the full story

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Continued signs of life for the next Terrence Malick project – this is a good thing. The Tree of Life, written and directed by Malick and starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, was given a PG-13 rating by the MPAA. This means there’s a finished product out there finished enough to rate. [/Film]

Despite Apparition’s current woes, The Tree of Life seems to be solid and still steady for a late 2010 Oscar-fueled release. And while there’s been no word as to which/if any film festival Malick’s fifth feature will premiere at, the more that’s written about it the better it’s chances seem to coming out with distribution and champions behind it.

After all, this is a Terrence Malick film. It wouldn’t be one if it wasn’t difficult to get into theaters.

Are you exited for The Tree of Life? Will it get released this year? Under Apparition’s name?

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Academy voters are already putting in their ballots for these two performances: Meryl Streep has signed on to play former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for director Phyllida Lloyd, who Streep worked with on Mamma Mia!, while Sean Penn has signed on the play Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, the patriarch of “surfing’s first family.” Streep’s film is called The Iron Lady, the script written by Abi Morgan, co-financed by Pathe and Film4 and described as a “story of a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power, and is a surprising and insightful portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman.” [THR] Thatcher made as many enemies as she did friends (if not more), and was regarded by many to be brutal in her tactics and conservation decisions. Streep should destroy the role, appropriately.

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Independent film’s most recent cautionary tale, Apparition, may still have a life to live – they’ll just half to kill off about half their ship to keep on keeping on. Ever since the surprise exit of Bob Berney, co-founder of the independent distribution company, the other half of that equation, Bill Pohlad, has been reeling to get Apparition back on its feet. In order to do this, Pohlad has let go 15 Apparition employees, or 60 percent of his workforce. [Deadline]

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Later this year, Summit Entertainment will release Fair Game, a thriller starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn that will also appear in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Now, Deadline is reporting that Summit has gotten their hands on another Watts-driven film. Read the full story

Doug Liman‘s Fair Game, the story of Valerie Plame starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, won’t premiere for another few weeks at Cannes but it has already found a domestic distributor. Deadline reports that Summit, the distributor of the Academy Award winning The Hurt Locker has closed a deal for domestic rights. In a distributor screening last week Deadline reported: Read the full story

A few weeks ago, word hit that Kathryn Bigelow turned down the Spiderman reboot in order to direct Triple Frontier. Now, First Showing brings us further reassurance and reports that Bigelow plans to shoot the action-adventure story in 2011. Triple Frontier will be located in the border z0ne between Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, but thankfully (because of The Hurt Locker), Bigelow is no stranger to warm weather. Read the full story

With auteur Terrence Malick’s fifth film in as many decades coming out this November, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn as father and son respectively (living in different generations of course), it begs the question: what kind of father will Pitt play?

Apparently not a very good one, a role that could be a refreshing, villainous departure for the perennial movie star cum character actor.

Here’s the verbose (pseudo) synopsis:

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