Another day, another Nicholas Sparks feature film adaptation.  With The Lucky One’s release this past April and Safe Haven set to hit theaters in February, Warner Bros. is putting yet another Nicolas Sparks adaptation in the pipeline.  Deadline reports that Michael Hoffman (One Fine Day, The Emperor’s Club) is in talks to direct The Best of Me, with The Lucky One scribe Will Fetters being courted to rewrite the screenplay.  The story centers on two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks (aren’t they all?) who fell in love in high school but were torn apart shortly thereafter, setting them on two radically different paths.  They reconnect in their hometown twenty-five years later at a funeral, where they’re forced to drum up the past and confront painful memories.

Hoffman most recently directed the remake of Gambit with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz, which hits theaters early next year.  Sparks will produce The Best of Me alongside Denise DiNovi.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the novel.

Though we got out first look at some footage from the film just yesterday, the first full trailer for Gambit has now landed online.  The pic is a remake of the 1966 film starring Michael Caine as a cat burglar who recruits a showgirl (Shirley MacLaine) to help him heist a priceless antiquity.  The update was written by Joel and Ethan Coen and stars Colin Firth as a London art dealer who enlists a Texas Rodeo Queen (Cameron Diaz) to help him con the richest man in England.  The trailer makes the film look like a lot of fun, and the Coen brothers’ touch is quite evident.  The goofiness is reminiscent of Raising Arizona, and Alan Rickman is delightfully eccentric as the target of the con.  Performance-driven comedies are few and far between these days, and Gambit appears to be a breath of fresh air.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Directed by Michael Hoffman, the film also stars Stanley Tucci and Cloris Leachman.  Gambit will be released on November 21st in the UK and sometime in early 2013 in the US.

A few release dates have been shifted for some promising upcoming pics.  Briefly:

• Director Martin McDonagh’s (In Bruges) dark comedy Seven Psychopaths, starring Colin Farrell, has been moved up a month to October 12th.
• Joe Wright’s (Hanna) adaptation of the classic tome Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, has been pushed back slightly to November 16th.
• The remake of Gambit, starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz, has been pushed to an unspecified date in Winter 2013.

Hit the jump for more details.

CBS Films has done a bit of release date shuffling for two of their upcoming releases.  First up, director Michael Hoffman’s remake of the 1966 caper comedy Gambit has been moved up from January 11th, 2013 to October 12th of this year (per Box Office Mojo).  Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth star as partners in a con to sell a fake Monet painting, and the film has a script by Joel and Ethan Coen.  Given the caliber of talent involved, the January date was always a bit of a puzzler.  The film will now square off against Ben Affleck’s stellar looking period thriller Argo and the Kevin James “comedy” Here Comes the Boom.  Hit the jump for more, including release date news concerning The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu’s airplane thriller 7500.

Director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) initiated principal photography last week on the remake of the 1966 caper comedy Gambit.  Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth are subbing in for Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine, respectively, as partners in a con to sell a fake Monet painting.  Stanley Tucci and Cloris Leachman have just signed on to the production; they will be joined by Alan Rickman and Tom Courtenay.  Factor in the Coen Brothers wrote the screenplay, and there’s plenty of talent on both sides of the Gambit camera.

Production is in London right now, with plans to shift to New Mexico.  See the first official image of Diaz and Firth in costume on the Gambit set along with the official press release after the jump.

CBS Films has acquired distribution rights to the Joel and Ethan Coen-scripted remake to the 1966 Michael Caine-Shirley MacClaine caper comedy Gambit. The remake, from director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station), is set to star Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz. Firth will play a London art curator who plots an elaborate scheme to con a wealthy collector into buying a fake Monet painting. As part of the ruse, he recruits a Texas steer roper (Diaz) to play the part of a woman whose grandfather liberated the painting at the end of WWII.

Deadline reports that filming is set to begin in London this May. It appears that this will be the first film Firth will shoot following his Oscar win last month for his brilliant turn in The King’s Speech. Relatively new to the movie-making business, CBS Films recently scored a hit with The Mechanic and currently has the fantasy-romance Beastly in theaters. Diaz will next be seen in the R-rated comedy Bad Teacher.

Dakota Fanning has signed on to Girls Night Out.  The charming premise has Fanning playing the teenaged British Princess Margaret and going out on the town with her sister (and current Queen) Elizabeth on V.E. Day in 1945.  THR reports that Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) will direct after he finishes up work on the remake of Gambit starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz.  Trevor De Silva penned the script.

I’ve become a fan of Fanning now that she’s grown out of her precocious-child phase and into a mature actor.  Last October, Fanning was in talks to star in the drama If I Stay.  It’s also assumed that she’ll reprise her role as the evil vampire Jane in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

Cameron Diaz will co-star in Coen Brothers-scripted remake of the 1966 caper comedy Gambit.  According to THR, Colin Firth will play a “London art curator who plots an elaborate scheme to con a wealthy collector into buying a fake Monet painting. As part of the ruse, he recruits a Texas steer roper (Diaz) to play the part of a woman whose grandfather liberated the painting at the end of WWII.”  The roles in the original film were played by Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.

Diaz recently costarred in The Green Hornet and will next be seen in the comedy Bad Teacher with Justin Timberlake.  Shooting on Gambit is expected to begin this May in London with The Last Station director Michael Hoffman at the helm.

Last month, we reported that director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) had come on board to helm the Coen Brothers-scripted remake of the 1966 Michael Caine caper comedy Gambit.  Deadline now reports that Oscar nominee Colin Firth is in talks to play the Caine role of a cat burglar who attempts to steal a priceless statue from a billionaire by enlisting the help of a waitress (played in the original by Shirley MacLaine) who looks like the billionaire’s deceased wife.

Firth, who is likely to receive an Oscar nomination for his wonderful performance in The King’s Speech, is currently developing a film based on the Amanda Knox murder case with director Michael Winterbottom (The Killer Inside Me), and is co-starring in Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) has signed on to helm the Coen Brothers-penned remake of the 1966 British caper comedy Gambit.  According to Deadline, the project has finally found funding from upstart company Crime Scene Pictures, and is planning to begin shooting in London in May.  Casting is expected to begin shortly.

The original film starred Michael Caine as cat burglar who tries to rob a billionaire of his priceless statue and enlists the help of a waitress (Shirley MacLaine) who is a dead ringer for the victim’s late wife. While the burglar has carefully planned the job in his head, the execution is complicated by his relationship with his pretty accomplice.

Opening tomorrow, in limited release, is writer/director Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station. As you might imagine from a cast featuring Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti and Kerry Condon…it’s filled with great performances.

The Last Station is a historical drama based on Jay Parini’s novel about Leo Tolstoy’s final years.  It’s focuses on Tolstoy’s struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.  While he’s trying to balance everything and continue his work, the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren), his wife and muse, uses every trick of seduction on her husband’s loyal disciple, whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people.

To help promote the film, I recently got to sit down with James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti and Kerry Condon, and Michael Hoffman.  They’re all great interviews so take a look: