Elizabeth Banks and Diane Lane are poised to team up for the crime drama Every Secret Thing.  Merced Media Partners, Palmstar, and Hyde Park announced today that they will be financing director Amy Berg’s (Deliver Us From Evil) drama from a script by Nicole Holofcener (Please Give, Friends with Money).  The story centers on Ronnie and Alice, who were convicted for the murder of a baby when they were just 11-years-old and were incarcerated until they turned 18.  While attempting to adjust to live outside juvenile detention, children start to go missing and the police turn their attention once again to Ronnie and Alice.  The mystery surrounding the original murder still looms overhead, and their roles in it take center stage in what sounds like an intriguing character drama.

Filming is set to get underway in February 2013, with Frances McDormand onboard as a producer.  That makes quite the line-up both in front of and behind the camera for this promising crime drama.  Berg most recently directed the Peter Jackson-produced documentary West of Memphis, which documents the wrongful conviction of the West Memphis 3.  Hit the jump to read the full press release for Every Secret Thing.

RoboCop and Nicole Holofcener have nothing in common… until now!

• The Wire breakout star Michael Kenneth Williams is in talks to join Joel Kinnaman, Hugh Laurie, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Jay Baruchel, Abbie Cornish, and Jackie Earle Haley in the Robocop remake.
• Holofcener cast Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, and Eve Hewson in supporting roles in her next movie.  Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and James Gandolfini star.

Hit the jump for details on both projects.

Get out your fishing rod because it’s time for some casting:

• John Leguizamo signed up for Kick-Ass 2 and will star opposite Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz in Ridley Scott‘s The Counselor.
• Demian Bichir will join Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in The Heat, directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids).
• Christopher Smith will star with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in the latest film from writer/director Nicole Holofcener (Please Give).

Hot off a season two order for her new HBO comedy series Veep, Julia Louis-Drefus is poised to team up with fellow HBO alum James Gandolfini in the new Fox Searchlight film from Please Give writer/director Nicole Holofcener.  Deadline reports that Louis-Drefus will play “a masseuse who falls in love with the husband of a new friend,” and Gandolfini is set to play said husband.  Further plot details are unknown, but Holofcener will write and direct the project while Anthony Bregman will produce.

Holofcener’s 2010 drama Please Give drew rave reviews and this new untitled project is definitely one to watch out for.  Holofcener also directed the 2006 pic Friends with Money and helmed two episodes of the stellar NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation.  Gandolfini recently completed shooting the comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone with Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, and will be seen later this year opposite Brad Pitt in the crime thriller Killing Them Softly.

The nominations for the 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards have been announced.  Here’s a quick breakdown of some interesting facts about the nominees.  After winning the top prize at the Gotham Awards last night, Winter’s Bone leads the pack with seven nominations.  And if you need more proof that the Best Actress race this year is crazy, it was the only category with a six nominees.

It’s also a good year for women filmmakers as Lisa Cholodenok (The Kids Are All Right) and Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone) pick up nominations for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Nicole Holofcener also picked up a Best Screenplay nomination along with the Robert Altman Award for Please Give. Hit the jump for a full list of the nominees.  The Film Independent Spirit Awards will be held on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 10pm ET/PT on IFC.

As more name actors make the jump back and forth from the silver screen to the flickering box, the great divide  of “success” between film and television actors has been dwindling.  Even further evidence of this closing gap can be seen in the talent behind the camera.  While film directors often direct the pilot of a new series for a big boost in viewership, more and more directors are being utilized for single episodes of series and HBO seems to have cornered the market.  Deadline reports the cable network’s new comedy series Enlightened has a lined up an impressive group to helm the episodes, including Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs)

Hit the jump for the rest of the directors and a refresher on the series’ story.

Along with steady TV work through the years, Nicole Holofcener has managed to direct four feature films, and for each one she’s made the very wise decision to make Catherine Keener the star.

Their latest collaboration, Please Give stars Keener and Oliver Platt as a New York couple who specialize in vintage furniture. They would love to expand their apartment into the unit they own next door, but its elderly tenant Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), inconveniently enough, has not yet died so they can move in. What develops from there, as you’ll see in the trailer and the four clips, is a family comedy/drama that centers on the three of them and the old lady’s two daughters, played by the always welcome Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet.

Not to raise expectations too high, but from what I’ve seen of this so far, it looks like the kind of NYC movie that Woody Allen used to make before he became a globe trotter. Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

MTV reports that James McAvoy has unfortunately dropped out of Jonathan Levine’s (The Wackness) untitled cancer comedy co-starring Seth Rogen.  But in for McAvoy is the highly talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  McAvoy apparently had to bow out for personal reasons, which is a shame since when he spoke to Steve during the press junket for The Last Station, he seemed really excited about doing the film.  But anyone who’s familiar with Gordon-Levitt’s work can knows he’s up for handling the role and that he’s a strong addition to this cast, which also includes Bryce Dallas Howard and Oscar-nominee Anna Kendrick.

Originally titled I’m With Cancer, the film is based on the real-life experience of screenwriter Will Reiser and his diagnosis and battle with the disease during his 20s.

Hit the jump to read a statement from Rogen (who is also a producer on the film) on the change-up.

One of the many films that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give.  Starring Catherine Keener, Rebecca Hall, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Sarah Steele, and Ann Morgan Guilbert, the film is about a New York City couple trying to expand their two bedroom apartment.  Here’s the synopsis:

Kate (Catherine Keener) and Alex (Oliver Platt) and their teenage daughter Abby (Sarah Steele) purchase the apartment next door in order to expand their two bedroom Manhattan apartment. Their only problem is the cranky old lady, Andra (Ann Morgan Guilbert), living in it, and that they’ve got to wait for her to die.  Andra is cared for by her sweet granddaughter Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) — who has no life — and is blatantly rejected by her other highly cynical granddaughter, Mary (Amanda Peet). Simply waiting for Andra to die becomes complicated when the two families’ lives intersect, resulting in a dramatic comedy about love,death and liberal guilt from writer and director Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money, Lovely & Amazing).

While I didn’t get a chance to see the movie at the Festival, I heard good things from people that saw it.  And even though there is no trailer yet for the film, we’ve been given 4 clips and you can check them out after the jump:

The untitled James McAvoy/Seth Rogen cancer dramedy from Mandate Pictures hit a speed bump back in November when director Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money) dropped out. Today comes news from The Hollywood Reporter that the project is once again moving forward with director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) set to take over the helmer’s position and actress Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, Twilight) signed on to co-star. The upcoming flick, which has a working title of I’m with Cancer, is set to begin principal photography in February and will see McAvoy playing Adam, a young man who is forced to battle cancer in his 20′s. Kendrick will play Katherine, a psychologist who helps Adam through the process. The film is based on its writer Will Reiser’s own experiences with cancer. Rogen, in addition to co-starring, will produce along with partner Evan Goldberg.

James McAvoy has been cast in Nicole Holofcener’s (“Friends with Money”, “Lovely & Amazing”) untitled cancer comedy with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg on board to produce. More details after the jump.