As the last movie he directed is one of my personal favorites (mostly because I’m in love with Diane Lane), I welcome the possibility of Adrian Lyne returning to the director’s chair.  His last go round was in 2002′s Unfaithful, for which Lane received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination.  Lyne is reportedly now in negotiations to direct the adaptation of John Grisham’s The Associate for Paramount.  The twisting and turning plot follows a young lawyer who is blackmailed by a number of organizations who each have their own nefarious interests in mind.  The picture previously had Tony Scott attached to direct with Shia LaBeouf starring and Lorenzo di Bonaventura producing.  Only di Bonaventura remains attached. Hit the jump for more.

Almost a year ago, I ran an extended interview with William Monahan for his directorial debut London Boulevard.  Starring Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Anna Friel, Jamie Bower, David Thewlis, Ray Winstone, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan, and Ben Chaplin, the film is about a man just released from prison (Farrell) who falls in love with a reclusive young movie star (Knightley) and finds himself in a duel with a vicious gangster (Winstone).  At the time, the movie was about to hit theaters in the United Kingdom, and our wide-ranging conversation covered the making of the film and all the other projects he was involved with.  When I posted the interview, I said it was one of the best conversations I’ve ever had with any filmmaker.

However, with London Boulevard now available on VOD in the United States and hitting theaters November 11, I recently sat down with Monahan again and we have bested our last conversation.  During our 45 minutes conversation we covered everything from his thoughts on VOD and what changes were made to the film, the digital revolution, the crime genre, writing dialogue, and working with actors.  In addition, he gave me updates on The Departed sequel/prequel, Sin City 2, The Gambler, Tripoli, Becket, Mojave (which might be his next film), and revealed there is another version of Kingdom of Heaven that no one has seen.  Hit the jump for more.

At least in terms of commercial viability, you can never go wrong with a John Grisham novel.  That just might be enough to hook Tony Scott, as 24 Frames reports the Englishman is “just a step away” from signing on to direct the Grisham adaptation The Associate.  When we checked in with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura early last month, he said LaBeouf is “attached,” though the report states more definitively that the young actor “is starring.”

Following Kingdom of Heaven and Body of Lies, The Associate represents the third script that William Monahan has written for the Scott family — brother Ridley Scott directed the first two.  The plot centers on newly minted lawyer Kyle McAvoy (LaBeouf), the owner of a dark secret which falls into the wrong hands.  Hit the jump for a full synopsis.

Yesterday I caught up with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to talk about his upcoming action thriller Salt that stars Angelina Jolie. While I’ll be posting the full transcript very soon, since I got some brief updates on Transformers 3, Red, the next Jack Ryan movie Moscow and The Associate (which Shia Labeouf’s attached to), I wanted to get those quotes online tonight.

Regarding Transformers 3, he talked about how to keep the franchise fresh on a 3rd movie and he also talked about Michael Bay shooting in 3D.  On Red, he talked about where they are right now in the editing room and he says, “the movie has more tones and colors that almost any movie I’ve ever worked on.” Finally, I asked him what projects are bubbling up to the surface and he said the next Jack Ryan movie, Moscow, that Chris Pine is attached to and The Associate – which is a John Grisham book that Shia Labeouf’s attached to. When I asked how the script was for the Jack Ryan movie, he said they had a great one and he is hoping to start shooting late winter/early spring.

Hit the jump to read everything he had to say on these projects and look for more with di Bonaventura very soon.