1000 teenage heads just exploded. Apparently Harry Potter star/college student Emma Watson is the top contender to take on the role of Claudia in Fox 2000’s adaptation of Catherine Fisher’s teen fantasy/sci-fi novel Incarceron. In December, Taylor Lautner was tapped to take on the lead role of seventeen-year-old Finn in the film, who is imprisoned in Incarceron, “a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness.”

No director is currently attached, but Just Jared reports that John Palermo (X-Men: The Last Stand, Wolverine) is producing. If Watson signs on, Fox will surely want to get this project going as soon as possible. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (Accepted, the upcoming Tower Heist) will pen the screenplay. Watson has Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 coming out this summer, and My Week With Marilyn hitting theaters sometime this year. Hit the jump to read the synopsis for the Incarceron.

Fox 2000 has hired Mark Bomback (Unstoppable) to adapt Robert Kurson’s Shadow Divers, the account of two divers who tested their physical limits to solve the mystery of how a German U boat came to be within just sixty miles of the coast of New Jersey.  Marriages dissolved and friends died in the process, but the once bitter rivals developed “an almost mystical sense of brotherhood.”

Shadow Divers is housed at Tony and Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions.  Hit the jump for the synopsis of Kurson’s book.

The last time Reese Witherspoon brought the life of an iconic female singer to the screen — playing June Carter in 2005′s Walk the Line — she was rewarded with an Oscar.  Sensible, then, that Witherspoon has signed on to produce and star in a biopic centered around jazz/pop singer Peggy Lee.  Witherspoon is reportedly the driving force behind the Fox 2000 project: the actress secured the rights to Lee’s story, pitched the idea to her former Legally Blonde producer Marc Platt, then sought the services of writer/director Nora Ephron (Julie & Julia).

As Ephron is fan of Lee’s work, she agreed to pen the script and is attached to direct.  Hit the jump for background information on Lee’s career.

An adaptation of Yann Martel’s acclaimed novel Life of Pi has been in development for years now, but it seemed like its cinematic reality was imminent.  Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) was on board to direct to the would-be 3D picture with an allotted $70 million budget, and persistent producer Elizabeth Gabler was targeting an August shoot for a 2012 release.

And yet, 24 Frames reports that it appears the project has been put on hold.  Until Lee and producer Gil Netter can find a way to come up with a lower number, the adaptation will not move forward at the current budget.

Sustained by Gabler’s passion for the project, Pi has attracted an array of notable suitors over the years: M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuarón, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet have all been attached at some point to depict the tale of a teenage boy stranded at sea with a Bengal tiger.  Hit the jump for a full plot synopsis.

You can check out Mickey Rourke being great this weekend in Iron Man 2 as baddie Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, and the Oscar-nominated actor (who should’ve won) is showing no signs of slowing down.  Deadline reports that Rourke is in negotiations to star in two upcoming films from director Tony Scott (Man on Fire).  The first film is Potzdamer Platz, which we reported on last month.  The drama centers on “two soldiers in a New Jersey-based crime family who try to expand internationally.”  Javier Bardem and Jason Statham are also still circling the flick.  The title is likely to change since it refers to a bustling German commerce center and Scott’s film is being set in Puerto Rico.

Hit the jump for details on Hell’s Angels, which would have Rourke playing the founder of the notorious biker gang, Sonny Barger.

Fox 2000 has emerged victorious from the bidding scrum over the rights to Incarceron, the latest British sci-fi/fantasy young adult novel to belatedly find itself on the New York Times bestsellers list. Granted, Catherine Fisher’s novel was on the children’s books list but that did not deter Fox 2000 from flying its people out to London to settle the deal with Fisher’s representatives. According to Variety, initiating the whole process was Allan Mandelbaum of Seed Productions, Hugh Jackman’s studio.

Seed is still looking for the property that will allow it to grow independently of Jackman’s box office success and Incarceron just might do the trick. Taking place in the future, Incarceron refers to a bizarro version of Truman Burbank’s Seahaven. It is a living building which acts as a permanent repository for the descendants of the original prisoners. A young man named Flinn finds himself there yet somehow has memories of life on the outside. Through a mysterious crystal key he contacts Claudia, the Warden of Incarceron’s daughter. She is also trapped in a prison of sorts, a technologically advanced world designed to look like the 17^th century. Together they begin an adventure that Seed hopes will have the legs to turn into a franchise. For now, the project is out to writers and directors. More information as it comes.