Topher Grace has signed on to co-star with Richard Gere in Michael Brandt’s upcoming thriller, The Double.  According to Screen Daily, “The Double centers on a retired CIA operative who partners with a young FBI agent to investigate the murder of a US senator that bears the hallmarks of a Soviet assassin long believed to be dead.”  Dammit!  What’s the point of winning the Cold War when there are still Soviet assassins running about?

The Double will be Brandt’s directorial debut.  He previously wrote the screenplay for Wanted and 3:10 to Yuma.  He co-wrote The Double with writing partner Derek Haas.  Filming is set to begin this June in Detroit.

Executive vice-president of production Patrick Aiello will produce along with Haas, Industry Entertainment’s Andrew Deane, and Hyde Park Chairman Ashok Amritraj.  Hit the jump for some quotes from Brandt and Amritraj.

Michelle Williams is in negotiations to play one of the lead roles in director Noah Baumbach’s The Emperor’s Children. As we previous reported, the film centers on three Brown University graduates who are approaching their 30′s and are struggling to realize what their lives expectations are. The plot’s timeframe takes place during the events leading up to and directly following 9/11.  According to TheWrap, Williams would likely be playing the character of Danielle Minkoff, a TV documentary producer from the Midwest.  If she signs on, she’ll join actors Keira Knightley, Eric Bana, and Richard Gere.

Baumbach has also been linked to an adaptation of the children’s book Mr. Popper’s Penguins with Ben Stiller, who starred in Baumbach’s latest movie, Greenberg.  It’s unknown which project will be his next.

Is Days of Heaven a masterpiece? It has been canonized, codified, frozen in amber as such. That’s what happens when you’re Terrence Malick. When you make Badlands – one of the greatest debut features ever made – and then Days of Heaven a couple years later and then fall off the radar for a good twenty years, hell, it’s easy to see why the legend of Terry Mailck is so hard to deal with. Here he casts Richard Gere, Linda Manz and Brooke Adams as tramps that settle on a farm, and come to see Sam Shepherd’s character as a mark they can graft. But the film is so much more than that. My review of The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray of Days of Heaven after the jump.

Noah Baumbach, director of The Squid and the Whale and the new movie Greenberg, is now signed on to direct an adaptation of Claire Messud’s 2006 novel The Emperor’s Children. The Wrap is reporting that the Baumbach will be directing the film in place of the previously announced Ron Howard who will now produce with Brian Grazer. The film already has a decent cast established including Keira Knightly, Richard Gere, and Eric Bana.

The Emperor’s Children‘s plot is right up Baumbach’s alley, with a story not too far out of the realm of the director’s previous films. The dramedy will focus around three Brown University graduates who are approaching their 30′s and are struggling to realize what their lives expectations are. The plot’s timeframe unfolds from pre to post 9/11 in New York. Since Gere is a little old to be playing a struggling Brown University grad in his 30s, I’m assuming he’ll be playing more of a supporting role. The film is currently eyeing a summer start date.

Popular speculation views Antoine Fuqua’s picture, Brooklyn’s Finest, to be a re-hashed version of Martin Scorcese’s 2006 Oscar triumph, The Departed.  The assumption is that both movies use the same formula (powerful casts, acclaimed directors, and crooked cops v. career criminals) to tell the same story.  In reality, this comparison makes as much sense as Val Kilmer as Batman.  It quickly becomes apparent that Fuqua has seen those other cops and robbers films, and has literally flipped the script.

The actors themselves best explain why Fuqua’s soon-to-be-acclaimed picture successfully reinvents the cops and robbers formula.  In recent interviews with Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, and Richard Gere, the stars of the film explain what attracted each of them to the project, and what makes this film so unique.

Hit the jump for more:

Today we’d like to share with you an exclusive TV spot we received for director Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day) upcoming cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest.  The film follows three stories: A burnt-out officer (Richard Gere) trying to make it through his last week on the job, an undercover detective (Don Cheadle) who’s been pretending he’s a criminal for so long that his loyalties are starting to lie with his targets, and a dirty cop (Ethan Hawke) trying to provide for his family.  Over the course of a week, all three men find themselves on a dangerous collision course as the NYPD targets a drug-ridden Brooklyn project.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spot along with the official synopsis.  Brooklyn’s Finest hits theaters this Friday, March 5th.

In the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dramatically transformed by their involvement in a massive drug operation in Brooklyn’s Finest, a new crime drama from director Antoine Fuqua.  Starring Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere, the film captures the volatile and deadly world of one of New York’s most dangerous precincts through the eyes of the men and women pledged to protect and serve.

To help promote the March 5 release, we’ve been provided with 9 clips from the film and you can watch them after the jump:

The trailer for Antoine Fuqua’s new film Brooklyn’s Finest has just come online and I don’t believe what I’m seeing.  By returning to the setting of his breakthrough film Training Day, has Fuqua made his first good movie since that film?  And now with Ethan Hawke playing the dirty cop role, is he going to hold his own along side Richard Gere and Don Cheadle?  It all looks that way because Brooklyn’s Finest, which garnered a positive response at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, seems like a pretty damn good movie.

Click over to check out the trailer and hit the jump to read a synopsis.  Brooklyn’s Finest hits theaters on March 5, 2010.

From the exciting world of movie distribution deals comes news that the latest films from directors Steven Soderbergh and Antoine Fuqua will both find their audiences.  Fuqua’s already completed “Brooklyn’s Finest” will go out via Overture after an earlier deal for domestic distribution fell through.  Meanwhile Steven Soderbergh’s “Knockout”, which begins shooting next January, has caught the interest of Lionsgate, the proud studio behind  this week’s number one film “I Can Do Bad All By Myself.”  More after the jump.

A slew of posters hit the web today (I’m not sure the quantity of a “slew” but we have four posters below) and I have witty comments on all of them that I’m sure you will enjoy.  Or you can just skip my words (and make me sad) and just look at the posters.  You’ll find both after the jump.