It’s easy to forget about it since it came out so early, but for my money director Joe Carnahan’s survival drama The Grey is still one of the best films of 2012.  It was considerably more low-key than his last pic, The A-Team, but I felt that Carnahan and Liam Neeson crafted something really special.  It looks as though the director may be sticking with “low-key” for his next project, as he’s now set to direct Patrick Wilson in the low-budget actioner Stretch for IM Global and Blumhouse Pictures, the studio behind the Paranormal Activity series, Sinister, and Insidious.

Hit the jump for more.

Three projects took a big step toward theaters today:

• IM Global will finance Catherine Hardwicke’s Plush, an erotic thriller led by Emily Browning, Xavier Samuel, and Cam Gigandet.
• Strand Releasing has acquired the U.S. rights to Simon Aboud’s Comes a Bright Day.  Craig Roberts and Imogen Poots star in the British production set during the robbery of a London jewelry store.
• GKIDS signed a deal with Studiocanal to release an English-language version of Ernest & Celestinein the States in Fall 2013.

Hit the jump for details on each project.

As the Cannes Film Festival ramps up, expect plenty of deal-making news regarding casting, director hires, and distribution as producers find the cash to hire actors and directors, and get studios on board to finance and distribute their movies.  For example, IM Global has announced it will shop nine movies to buyers at the festival including the supernatural thriller Spectre from director James Wan (Insidious).  Variety reports that Nicole Kidman is in talks to star in the film.

Kidman is also circling the drama Our Wild Life and earlier this year she signed on to star opposite Colin Firth in Chan-wook Park’s Stoker.  Kidman will next be seen alongside Nicolas Cage in Joel Schumacher’s Trespass.

Last month, we reported that The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal were planning to direct an indie feature before going to work on Triple Frontier.  At the time, I speculated that it could an adaptation of David David Rohde’s series of articles for The New York Times, Held by the Taliban.  Variety reported that the story would “concern black ops.”  Now Variety is reporting that “the plot concerns the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.”  IM Global has secured the worldwide rights to the untitled featured.

So it’s looking like Bigelow will head back to the Middle East for her highly-anticipated follow-up to The Hurt Locker.  With filming on Triple Frontier already scheduled for the fall, I wouldn’t be surprised if work on this untitled indie feature starts no later than spring. [Update: Variety has updated their story and we have now been informed that the story has nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden.]

Last week we reported Dwayne Johnson had replaced Clive Owen in director Simon West’s (Con Air, The Mechanic, Tomb Raider) Protection.  I guess the casting is now official as we’ve just gotten a press release.  While most of the info was already known, there were a few new details on the film like the budget will be $35 million, Johnson’s character is called ‘Hombre’, and it’s scheduled to shoot this fall in New Mexico.  For the new synopsis and the full press release, hit the jump: