Julie Andrews, Gemma Arterton, Matthew Goode, and Gabriel Byrne have signed on to star in an adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel Crooked House.  In the murder mystery is set against “the backdrop of three generations of a family that lives together in a large and seemingly crooked house.”  Every member of the eccentric family has motive to have killed the multimillionaire patriarch, Aristide Leonide.  Neil LaBute (Death at a Funeral) will direct from a script by Julian Fellowes (The Tourist) and Tim Rose Price (The Serpent’s Kiss).  The $20 million production is scheduled to shoot this summer in the U.K.  The story calls for a large ensemble, so expect more casting notices in the near future.  Andrews, Goode, and Byrne — and sure, let’s throw in the lovely Arterton — is a very good start.

Read a quote from LaBute and the full book synopsis after the jump.

With writer/director Spencer Susser’s Hesher getting released this weekend, I recently got to sit down with the cast and Susser to talk about the film.  Before going any further, if you haven’t seen the trailer, I suggest checking it out here.  While the summer is filled with huge explosions and movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, I promise you…none of them feature a main character as crazy as Hesher.  Playing the lead is Joseph Gordon-Levitt and it’s an awesome performance. The film also stars Rainn Wilson, Natalie Portman, and Devin Brochu.

While I already posted my video interviews with Susser and Gordon-Levitt, I’ve got one more and it’s with Rainn Wilson.  During the interview we talked about the positive response to Super, what attracted him to Hesher, what was it like on set, and we also talked about what’s the last video game he’s played, does he ever get recognized from being in Galaxy Quest, and what is he working on now.  Hit the jump to watch.

Aaron Eckhart is set to reunite with writer/director Neil LaBute for his next film The Geography of Hope. The 1970s-set indie centers on two crooks who flee to Baja, Mexico after a bank robbery gone bad. Once there, they encounter a number of American women and are torn between swindling or romancing them. 24 Frames reports that Ed Harris is set to co-star in the film alongside Eckhart as the other crook.

Eckhart and LaBute have collaborated four times before, most recently with 2002’s Posession. LaBute wrote the script for Hope years ago, but put it on the backburner when his theater career took off. The plan is to shoot The Geography of Hope sometime this year in Puerto Rico.

Director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) has stepped in to replace Neil LaBute in an adaptation of LaBute’s collection of short stories, Seconds of Happiness.  The frame of the narrative takes place on an airplane and examines the interconnecting lives of various passengers through vignettes.  Clearly, this will be just like Lost.  Deadline also reports that Brendan Fraser and Kristen Scott Thomas will be joined by Christina Hendricks, Julia Stiles, and Matt Dillon.  Hendricks will play a woman who catches her husband (Fraser) in a “compromising position.”  Because I’ve never read LaBute’s book but have seen every episode of Lost, I imagine Fraser’s position has something to do with pushing a button every 108 minutes.  LaBute is still on board to produce and shooting is expected to begin this summer.

Hendricks recently signed on to star in the ensemble comedy I Don’t Know How She Does It while Dillon is attached to co-star in Roman Polanski’s God of Carnage and Matthew Weiner’s You Are Here.  Stiles recently co-starred on Showtime’s Dexter.   Hit the jump for the synopsis of Seconds of Pleasure.

When he’s not starring in terrible family films, Brendan Fraser likes to spice things up with forgettable dramas.  Now that he’s not directing hyper-misogynistic movies, director Neil LaBute is content with disposable crap like Lakeview Terrace and the unnecessary remake of Death at a Funeral.  Now the two are teaming up for Seconds of Pleasure, a drama most likely based on LaBute’s book of the same name, which is a collection of short stories.  Deadline reports that Kristen Scott Thomas is also attached and that offers are out to Colin Firth and Ed Harris.  Hopefully, with Seconds of Pleasure, Fraser and LaBute will both get back on track.

Hit the jump for the synopsis of Seconds of Pleasure.

Opening this Friday is director Neil LaBute’s Death at a Funeral, which stars Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Zoë Saldaña, Columbus Short, Luke Wilson, Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, and Keith David.  The movie is a remake of the 2007 British film with the same name, and while most remakes recast everyone, Peter Dinklage is playing the same character again.  So if you’ve seen the 2007 film, you know who he plays and some of the twists and turns.

To help promote the movie, I got to sit down with Danny Glover and Regina Hall.  Hit the jump to watch the interview:

I’ve always wondered if Tracy Morgan is playing himself on 30 Rock, or if it’s all an act.  Also, I’ve seen Morgan on David Letterman and have always wondered if he’s pulling an Andy Kaufman with the way he acts…or if it’s really him.  Based on the Los Angeles press junket for Death at a Funeral, I’m going to say it’s not an act.

The reason I can say that is while waiting in a hallway for my interview with Tracy Morgan and Luke Wilson, I got to hear Morgan saying some of the craziest things during other interviews.  Most of them are not safe to print – let alone say on television.  While we couldn’t hear everything behind the door, we heard enough that every journalist waiting and a few publicists were laughing a lot.   Actually, I felt added pressure walking in to my interview, as I was hoping to get some wild and crazy answers.  Hit the jump to see if I did….

Opening this weekend is director Neil LaBute’s Death at a Funeral, which stars Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Zoë Saldaña, Columbus Short, Luke Wilson, Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, and Keith David.  The movie is a remake of the 2007 British film with the same name.  If you saw the previous version, the remake is the same story set in America.

To help promote the film, I recently got to speak with James Marsden.  In the film, Marsden gets accidentally drugged and spends most of the film dealing with vivid hallucinations.  While the film is a comedy, we talked about how he found the right balance for his performance.  He also told me about some of his deleted scenes, and I asked him what’s up with Enchanted 2.  Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Opening next weekend is director Neil LaBute’s Death at a Funeral, which stars Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Zoë Saldaña, Columbus Short, Luke Wilson, Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, and Keith David.

The movie is a remake of the 2007 British film with the same name, and the project was led by Chris Rock, who explained why he wanted to remake the movie when I spoke to him yesterday.  He also talked about the challenges of getting the cast together and he also told me about his next documentary Credit is the Devil – which he is starting to prep right now.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say:

Opening on April 16th is director Neil LaBute’s Death at a Funeral, which stars Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Zoë Saldaña, Columbus Short, Luke Wilson, Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, and Keith David.

The movie is a remake of the 2007 British film with the same name, and while most remakes recast everyone, Peter Dinklage is playing the same character again.  So if you’ve seen the 2007 film, you know who he plays and some of the twists and turns.

To help promote the film, we’ve been given 6 clips and the synopsis.  Hit the jump to check them out:

Neil LaBute’s (“In the Company of Men”, “Nurse Betty”) next project has been announced. The writer-director will once again be teaming up with producer William Horberg to adapt Charles Willeford’s crime novel “The Burnt Orange Heresy”. The duo recently worked together on the “Death at a Funeral” remake. You can read more about this project and why I think this might be a return to form for LaBute after the jump.