· Last time someone messed with the wife of a Russell Crowe character, a Caesar died and Oscar smiled. Who knows how he'll one-up that for The Next Three Days, director Paul Haggis's foreign-film adaptation about a man who attempts to free his wife from jail time for a crime she says she didn't commit. Haggis told Variety that he "needed an actor who can thrive as an Everyman who rises when faced with an extraordinary circumstance." Great. Bolt down the phones. [Variety]
More stars board the formidable romcom Valentine's Day, Jennifer Aniston is almost a cougar, and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· If the fire marshal could bust up a film for being overcapacity, he'd do well to visit New Line and issue a citation for the wildly crowded romcom-to-end-all-romcoms Valentine's Day. Jamie Foxx and Queen Latifah are the latest stars to sign on, joining previous attachees Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Shirley MacLaine, Patrick Dempsey and about 100 others. Roland Emmerich Garry Marshall has already begun shooting in Los Angeles. [THR]
· Not quite a kitten, but not yet a cougar, Jennifer Aniston will instead fulfill one of the title roles in CBS Films' Pumas, about two 30-something women who prowl for younger men and have their romantic expectations upended on a vacation in France. Doesn't it always happen just like that? Aniston's co-star has yet to be determined; surely Katherine Heigl just sat bolt upright in bed shouting, "Did somebody say France?" [Variety]
· Thank God: HBO has rescued Diane Keaton from the shrill-Mom typecast pool, awarding her the lead in an untitled half-hour comedy about a woman who attempts to reboot feminism by launching a sexually explicit magazine for women. Title suggestions welcome below; sorry, Pumas seems to be taken. [THR]
· Speaking of hopeful retitlings, Ron Howard is planning to direct The Parsifal Mosaic, an adaptation of Robert Ludlum's bestseller, for Universal. [Variety]
· Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynihan and Michael Pena will help previously cast Aaron Eckhart fight off an alien invasion in the sci-fi thriller Battle: Los Angeles. [THR]
· Matthew McConaughey and Eva Mendes are negotiating to star in Southbound, about a border patrol officer whose acceptance of a bribe from a beautiful Mexican woman pins him and his family in the middle of a battle between Mexican crime lords and U.S. immigration police. Should be hilar-- wait, what's that? It's a drama? Oh. Well, then it should be super hilarious. [Variety]