THE DOUBLE HOUR (Cast News)

• THE DOUBLE HOUR

Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton and Michelle Williams are set to headline a remake of the 2009 Italian thriller The Double Hour, Deadline reports. The original film, which received a domestic release in 2011, was directed by Giuseppe Capotondi and is officially described as follows:

Michelle Williams

Guido (Filippo Timi), a former cop, is a luckless veteran of the speed-dating scene in Turin. But, much to his surprise, he meets Slovenian immigrant Sonia (Ludovica Rappoport), a chambermaid at a high-end hotel. The two hit it off, and a passionate romance develops. After they leave the city for a romantic getaway in the country, things suddenly take a dark turn. As Sonia's murky past resurfaces, her reality starts to crumble. Everything in her life begins to change—questions arise and answers only arrive through a continuous twist and turn of events keeping viewers on edge until the film's final moments.

Edgerton can be seen on the big screen now in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby while Michelle Williams recently starred in Sam Raimi's Oz The Great and Powerful.

Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) will write and direct the remake with Silver Reel Entertainment and Lotus Entertainment financing and seeking a buyer at Cannes.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 5 (Writer hired)

• MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 5

Paramount Pictures has hired Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce to pen Mission: Impossible 5, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Drew Pearce and Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 3 

Tom Cruise will star in and produce the fifth installment and is expect to shoot the movie in the fall after filming Warner Bros. Pictures' The Man From U.N.C.L.E..

The trade adds that Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) is in discussions to direct the film.

The film will be developed by Cruise, Paramount and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, who served as producers on previous films in the hit series. Skydance Productions, who served as co-financers and executive producers of the last installment, will work closely with the team in the development and production process.

The 4th installment in the globally successful franchise Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, earned nearly $700 million around the world and became Cruise's highest-grossing film to date.

CHEF (Cast News)

• CHEF

Jon Favreau and Scarlett Johannson to reunite

Scarlett Johansson has joined the cast of writer/director Jon Favreau's Chef, which also stars Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo and Bobby Cannavale.

"Scarlett is a tremendous talent and I'm honored to be collaborating with her again. I'm so fortunate to be working with such a fine ensemble," said Favreau in a statement.

Scarlett Johannson

Favreau directed and co-starred with Johansson in Iron Man 2. Johansson also starred in Iron Man 2 and Marvel's The Avengers with Downey Jr.

The film follows a man, Carl Casper (Favreau), who loses his chef job and cooks up a food truck business in hopes of reestablishing his artistic promise. At the same time, he tries to reconnect with his estranged family. Johansson will play a woman named Molly, a restaurant manager and love interest of Favreau’s character.

Production begins on July 8 in Los Angeles.

THE WILD BUNCH (Cast News)

• THE WILD BUNCH

 Will Smith is looking to star in and produce a contemporary remake of Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western classic The Wild Bunch.

Will Smith

The original story follows an aging group of outlaws in 1913 looking for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them. It starred William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, and Warren Oates.

The Wrap reports that modern remake involves cartels south of the border, and it's "expected to follow a disgraced D.E.A. agent who assembles a team to go after a Mexican drug lord and his fortune." 

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. (Trailer)

• AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Last spring, Bob Iger sent us some bonus footage from The Avengers, with a simple question, ‘Is there a show here?’” said ABC Entertainment Group chief Paul Lee at the network’s upfront presentation recently.

Joss Whedon was nervous and rambling as he faced TV media buyers and advertisers right before the end of the presentation. He appeared on stage with the entire cast of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge. Whedon at first tried to be funny. “I’ll be brief. I was born…” But then he grew serious. “I wasn’t born. I was grown in a lab… and fed on Marvel Comics — and that turned out OK for me.” As to why Avengers was so successful, Whedon said, “It worked because everyone felt included” and predicted the TV show would have the same effect on viewers.

He praised S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s unorthodox leading man Clark Gregg as “an actor so talented even I couldn’t kill him” so Whedon said he “built S.H.I.E.L.D. around him” because he “had a story to tell [how] to be an ordinary person in an increasingly extraordinary world. We wanted to say that everybody could be a part of this - men, women, children and “grownups who love comic books”.

Earlier in the day Paul Lee told reporters that SH.I.E.L.D. “tested so well in all four quadrants”.

Here’s the extended trailer which ABC showed at its upfront and just released now:

Clark Gregg spoke with EW about the upcoming series and how Coulson fits into the grand mythos of the Marvel universe.

“Agent Coulson represents the people who don’t have superpowers, the guys who actually can be killed — or at least seem to be and yet come back sometimes … Marvel has such a lock on how to do really incredibly visual affects and stunts that we’ve got stuff on our show that I just don’t think we’ve seen on TV before.”

Gregg doubled down on his bet that you'll love the show too.

“If you love The Avengers, if you love any of Joss Whedon’s work, you’re going to absolutely love the show. It’s about these people living in a super world dealing with being human. You see these superhero movies and you see the superheroes struggle but you don’t see how humans do in a world like that. That’s what will draw people in. It’s so human. And it’s so super and awesome still.”

If there's one person we've learned we can trust in the Marvel universe, it's Phil Coulson.