As the two competing Linda Lovelace biopics continue to race toward the finish line, one moves closer to release as production on Lovelace began today.  Variety reports that Hank Azaria, Bobby Cannavale (Win Win), Chris Noth (Sex and the City), and Robert Patrick have all joined the cast of the now in-production indie. Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (Howl), the film has Amanda Seyfried set to star as the titular porn star, with Peter Sarsgaard in place as Lovelace’s husband (whom she claims for coerced her into pornography). But that’s not all, as James Franco is also apparently in talks to appear in the film as one Hugh Hefner. Franco was initially eyed to take on Sarsgaard’s part, but the thought of Franco playing Hefner in full force is almost too good to be true.

Franco’s role would be little more than a cameo, as the Hefner sequence simply involves Lovelace and her husband attending a screening of Deep Throat at the Playboy mansion. Hit the jump for more on the project.

Documentaries are supposed to be boring. Old people sitting in front of a camera talking about events we didn’t care to learn about when they really happened. Documentaries are supposed to be educational, enlightening even. Something your teacher makes you watch in class or your grandmother tapes on the History Channel onto VHS. Academy Award winner Brigitte Berman (1985’s Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got) sticks within this formula however to create a genuinely interesting and entertaining, yet shallow film about the life of Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Magazine. Hit the jump for my full review.

In Brigitte Berman’s new film, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, the Academy Award winning Canadian filmmaker profiles the outspoken, flamboyant founder of the Playboy empire and reveals Hefner as both a hedonistic playboy, but, more importantly, as the man who’s been a groundbreaking advocate and catalyst for First Amendment rights and social and racial justice.

When Hefner launched Playboy magazine in 1953, he became a champion of the sexual revolution and, immediately, the forces of Church and State initiated a war against him that raged over the decades. With humor and insight, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel captures Hefner’s fierce battles with the government, the religious right, and militant feminists. The film also features compelling interviews with a remarkable Who’s Who of the decades and rare footage that present a snapshot of the life of an extraordinary man and the controversies that surrounded him.  Continued after the jump:

Brett Ratner has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most successful directors with eight features films grossing over $1.5 billion worldwide. Best known for the Rush Hour films, X-Men: The Last Stand and Red Dragon, the filmmaker is releasing his 90-minute, re-edited and remixed version of the Bollywood film Kites, starring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori.

Kites: The Remix follows J (Roshan), a mortally wounded man left for dead in the harsh terrain of the Mexican desert, who is on a quest to find the love of his life, Natasha (Mori). It is a story of passion that goes beyond boundaries and cultures, and defies every rule, and it was that relationship that caught the attention of Ratner, when he initially saw the film.

While at the film’s press day, Brett Ratner talked exclusively to Collider about how this unusual project came about, why he decided to re-edit a Bollywood film and what he thinks it will take for a Bollywood movie to make it big in America. He also talked about his next projects, the chances of Beverly Hills Cop IV and Playboy coming to fruition, and the TV pilot for Chaos that he recently directed, and says his next directing gig will be Tower Heist which he wants Ben Stiller to star in.  Check out what he had to say after the jump:

So it’s pretty much common knowledge that a film chronicling the life and times of Playboy founder and Viagra enthusiast Hugh Hefner has been in the works for a long while now. While an announcement was made some time ago that scribe John Hoffman was set to tackle the script for director Brett Ratner (thing’s got class written all over it), it now seems that a new writer is being courted to pen the screen play for the long gestating biopic. A writer who’s name just screams “period piece about a smooth, urbane, swinging businessman who created the ultimate gentleman’s periodical,”… Diablo Cody. Yes, you read that right. Straighten your ears and bow tie, and go ahead and hit the jump to read more.