Eric Bana Rumored for Potential New Spy Franchise

Espionage is still big business. Just look at the recent headlines about those Russian spies in Connecticut. I wonder why, with as many real-life stories about spies and double agents - like the Cambridge Five, for example - why we don't see more of those from time to time. But until we do, more fictional superspies are headed to theaters, including Andy McNab's Nick Stone.

Filmofilia says Hyde Park Entertainment likes Eric Bana for the role of the former British Special Air Force soldier who becomes an intelligence worker in McNab's 12-novel series. One of those books, called Firewall, is the basis for Echelon, presumably the first film in the Nick Stone series.

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Colin Farell Grabs Another Good Leading Role

This is the second love affair studios have had with Colin Farrell. The first, of course, stemmed from a great performance in Tigerland and a hunger for a new leading man. And so, we got stuff like S.W.A.T. and The Recruit. He was good in Phone Booth, better than the movie deserved. But it got out of hand and so did he. Go away now.

And he did. Farrell straightened himself out, put the work ahead of everything else, and whaddya know? The talent was apparent with none of the other stuff thrown in. Good for him; I think when he's focused he can be very, very good. Right now, Hollywood believes the same thing, so his positive bounce from the marvelous In Bruges has helped him nab roles in Fright Night, William Monahan's upcoming London Boulevard, the murder comedy Horrible Bosses, Peter Weir's The Way Back, and now By Virtue Fall.

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First Look at Assassin Saoirse Ronan in 'Hanna'

USA Today has he first look at Saoirse Ronan in Hanna. "She'll play raised from childhood to be the perfect assassin by her ex-CIA man father (Eric Bana) in rural Finland. Cate Blanchett is the icy intelligence operative overseeing her mission."

The film reunites Ronan with Joe Wright, who cast her for an Oscar-nominated role in Atonement. Focus has already set this film up for a 2011 release.

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Noah Baumbach Tackles 'Emperor's Children'

Noah Baumbach's new film, Greenberg, is better than his last, Margot at the Wedding, but it still doesn't quite hit the high notes of The Squid and the Whale. He's now taking a stab at someone else's material, so we'll see what he can do with that.

The Wrap reports that Baumbach will direct the adaptation of The Emperor's Children, a 2006 novel by Claire Messud. And he walks into a pretty good situation with a cast already in place: Richard Gere, Eric Bana, and Keira Knightley.

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Blanchett, Bana, Ronan in Joe Wright's 'Hanna'

Atonement director Joe Wright hopes to rebound from the misfire of The Soloist (which I had taken to call The So-Soloist) with Hanna, which Focus Features describes an an adventure thriller. It will also be the "biggest production yet" for the Universal arthouse label, according its top guy James Schamus, and it certainly has a cast to match.

Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana will lead the ensemble, and Niels Arestrup, who plays a pivotal role in the foreign language epic Un Prophète, has just inked a deal to co-star. Here's our Prophète review, by the way. Arestrup won the Best Supporting Actor César award for his work in that film. The only drawback I see is that, in the Focus press release, there's a chronology of how many drafts the script has been through. At least five attempts have been made to punch up Seth Lochhead's original screenplay. That can work, but very often a screenplay that goes through four separate writers has a few potholes. We'll hope that's not the case.

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