Movie News & Gossip

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Jodie Foster is in negotiations to direct and co-star in the whimsical drama "The Beaver," a film about a man and his beaver puppet, and Mel Gibson is in talks to play the lead role.

Kyle Killen's script centers on a grown man who wears a beaver puppet on his hand that he treats as a real person. Those familiar with the script have compared it to "Lars and the Real Girl" and the work of Charlie Kaufman.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Warner Bros. is about to decide who will wear the super-powered ring in "Green Lantern," the studio's latest DC Comics movie, and the race has narrowed to Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake.

Along with director Martin Campbell and producers Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti, the studio has spent the past five months searching for the actor to play Hal Jordan, the hot-shot Air Force pilot who is chosen by a dying alien to be his successor in an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lanterns.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Columbia Pictures is sending Aaron Sorkin to the plate to take a swing at the baseball drama "Moneyball," which is based on Michael Lewis' best-seller about the Oakland A's and their unorthodox approach to evaluating talent.

Sorkin, whose credits include "A Few Good Men" and "The West Wing," has been brought on to do a new draft of the script, drawing on screenwriter Steve Zaillian's earlier take.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Netflix on Thursday unveiled a partnership with Sony Corp.'s Sony Electronics that will allow certain Netflix subscribers to watch movies streamed from Netflix on certain of Sony's Bravia TV sets.

In the fall, Netflix members on an unlimited subscription plan can use Sony Bravia Internet video-capable HDTVs to watch more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix, the companies said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lions Gate Entertainment Corp said on Thursday it would name Mark Rachesky, its largest shareholder and a supporter of management, to its slate of board nominees as it faces continued pressure from billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Rachesky, who formerly worked with Icahn, is co-founder and president of MHR Fund Management LLC, which holds about 19.8 percent of Lions Gate's common stock. Lions Gate said it would announce the remainder of its board slate in the near future.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Firebrand filmmaker Michael Moore is putting a romantic twist on his latest documentary, calling it "Capitalism: A Love Story."

Moore, who targeted the Bush administration in "Fahrenheit 9/11" and the healthcare industry in "Sicko," is focusing on the global economic meltdown in his new movie which is set for an October 2 release by Overture Films and Paramount Vantage.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Harry Potter" stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint felt the pressure of millions of fans of the boy wizard series when they recently filmed a highly anticipated kiss between their characters Hermione and Ron.

The kiss happens in the seventh and final book in author J.K. Rowling's series and Watson told a news conference on Thursday -- promoting the sixth film "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" -- that the scene was filmed two weeks ago.

NEW YORK - David Arquette is going to sleep in a box in New York City to raise money for the hungry.

The 37-year-old actor is staying in a Plexiglas box above the Madison Square Garden marquee on Tuesday and Wednesday to raise $250,000 for Feeding America — the nation's largest domestic hunger relief charity.