Humpday Trade(ing?) Post

Angelina Jolie is in discussions with Ridley Scott to star in his Gucci film, based on the true story of the fashion family's infighting during the 70s and 80s when the label was bringing in $500 million annually. There was scrapes and tiffs amongst the Gucci family until Maurizio Gucci seized the company throne. Things went well for Maurizio until 1995 when he was gunned down in Milan.

Maurizio's ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiano, was sentenced to 29 years in jail for the killing and she represents the part Angelina Jolie is considering in the new film. Fox 2000 is trying to get this project shooting by 2010, so Ridley Scott is working on the script and talking to Leonardo DiCaprio about taking on the role of Maurizio (DiCaprio is not officially or unofficially attached at this point).

Jolie will next got in front of the lens for The Tourist with Sam Worthington and Ridley Scott is in post-production for his Russel Crowe version of Robin Hood.

Ann Peacock, who wrote the adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe as well as penning the epic Odysseus and selling it to Warner Bros in a bidding war, has been assigned to adapt the novel Airman by Eoin Colfer.

Airman follows Connor, the son of the King's bodyguard who lives on a small island off Ireland. When the King is murdered, Conner is accused and thrown into prison where he spends months designing a flying machine he will use to rescue his family.

Airman will be produced for Disney by Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers. You know what that means? Yup: motion capture lives. Let's hope A Christmas Carol is worth it, and maybe we'll get Airman 3D.

Ellen Page is out of the gestating Jane Eyre adaptation for Ruby Films. The Charlotte Bronte novel was last brought to screen in 1996 with Charlotte Gainsbourg, and it's about time we did it again. Or so thinks Ruby Films.

They're doing a pretty good job of making this one interesting, because they've just attached Cary Fukunaga, who one the Best Director prize at this year's Sundance with Sin Nombre. There's also a script by Moira Buffini, one of the UK's leading adaptation screenwriters with a screenplay bought based on Posy Simmonds' graphic novel "Tamara Drewe" as well has her own chic vampire project Byzantium.

The hope is that Fukunaga will speed the project's pre-production so the film can start lensing next year and start casting within months. Rumor is this adaptation of Jane Eyre will focus more on the Gothic themes of the novel, though if they make Bertha an actual vampire, I will moan myself right out of the theater.