News

The body swap comedy formula is getting another go around the yard - this time with pets according to Variety.

New Line Cinema and Mandalay Pictures are developing "Furry Friday", a live-action family film which aims for a four-legged take on the classic body-swapping comedy. This time instead of a mother-daughter swapping minds, it's a dog and a cat.

David H. Steinberg ("Puss in Boots") has been brought onboard to rewrite the script's first draft by Cathy Schulman ("The Illusionist") and Adam Stone ("Limitless"). The latter two will produce the film.

We've seen many versions of the bodyswap formula before, including the Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman-led "The Change-Up" opening this Summer. From two versions of "Freaky Friday", to Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin in "All of Me", Guy Pearce and Claudia Karvan in "Dating the Enemy", Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron in "Like Father, Like Son", Rob Schneider...

Director Nick Hurran (Little Black Book, It's a Boy Girl Thing) has come aboard to direct Dusty, a biopic on late singer Dusty Springfield.

Nick Hurran will direct from a screenplay by Ray Connelly, which is based on the book A Girl Named Dusty by Sharon Davis. No story details were given on the biopic.

Dusty Springfield had such chart-topping hits as Son of a Preacher Man and I Only Want to Be With You. The singer had 18 singles on the Billboard Top 100 charts from 1964 to 1970. She died of cancer in March 1999 at the age of 59.

No production schedule was given for Dusty.

Dusty comes to theaters in 2013. The film is directed by Nick Hurran.

David Furnish and Elton John have a hit on their hands and box office takings are up on last year. Impossible? Both are true

The winner

Twelve years after it unveiled its first movie Women Talking Dirty, David Furnish and Elton John's production company Rocket Pictures has finally come good with animation Gnomeo and Juliet, a bonafide hit with £2.92m in three days at the UK box office.

While Women Talking Dirty and Rocket's second attempt It's a Boy Girl Thing suggested that producer Furnish was, in American parlance, not ready for primetime, Gnomeo & Juliet indicates that hard lessons have now been learned. Given the film's commercially appealing outcome, it's reasonable to assume that the successive contributions by a total of nine screenwriters saw the long-in-development film gradually come into focus. Credit goes to director/co-writer Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2) and the producer team that patiently shepherded the film into production over many years.

You know what you're getting with most teen novels: boy meets girl, girl isn't sure how she feels about boy, boy and girl figure it out. Occasionally there's a vampire thrown in for good measure, but in Cycler, which has just been optioned for the screen, there's a different twist: for four days every month Jill turns into Jack,Written by Lauren McLaughlin, a former Lionsgate executive who's already written the screenplay and a sequel, the story provides an unusual twist on the "time of the month", with teenager Jill worried about who'll ask her to prom but also concerned that Jack might turn up on that day instead. What's more, Jack has a crush on Jill's best friend and Jack's personality is getting stronger and stronger, lingering in Jill's head even after he's gone.It's an intriguing concept, one that goes a step further than the slightly similar body-swop...

Samaire Armstrong and Kevin Zegers are toplining It's a Boy Girl Thing, a romantic comedy that Nick Hurran is directing. Elton John's Rocket Pictures and Prospero Pictures are producing. The Geoff Deane-written script revolves around two teenage next-door neighbors (Armstrong, Zegers) who are sworn enemies. Waking up one day to find themselves in each other's bodies, each sets out to destroy the other's high school reputation before going from infuriation to infatuation. Also cast in the film are Sharon Osbourne and Maury Chaykin (Where the Truth Lies) as Zegers' parents and Mpho Koaho (Four Brothers) as Zegers' best friend.