· While he already has a directing project going at Columbia, Gus Van Sant is aboard as a writer on an adaptation of The Golden Suicides, a Vanity Fair feature about the life and shocking death of the art-world darlings Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. Which would be intriguing enough, except that novelist Bret Easton Ellis will collaborate with Van Sant to achieve the maximum level of decadent ennui allowed by law. The director's chair remains open for now; I've got $10 on Julian Schnabel. [Variety]
Chris Pine is reportedly being groomed for a top spy slot, the Tommy Lee Jones-Matthew McConaughey project you've been desperately awaiting is here, and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· Another $10 says this will never come to pass: Chris Pine is rumored to be in talks to take over the lead role in Paramount's reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise -- as if he doesn't already have a franchise at Paramount or another likely project in development on the lot. Either way, the next Ryan film barely has a script and won't likely shoot for at least a couple years; while we all salute Pine's agents for getting his name attached to everything this week, will they please show some modesty and discretion in the meantime? [Variety]
· Tommy Lee Jones will return to directing for The Lincoln Lawyer, an adaptation of the 2005 bestselling novel about an attorney who, while working out of the back of his Lincoln, gets a job defending a Beverly Hills playboy charged with murder. Matthew McConaughey will play the lawyer, and Jones is inked to star in an as-yet-undisclosed role. The playboy is apparently too young for him; there's always the Lincoln. [THR]
· If you've ever wanted to see a head explode, grab some safety goggles and ask your favorite film snob what s/he thinks of Jackie Chan potentially teaming with austere art-house darling Jia Zhang-ke's for the "comic road movie" Flying Duck. [THR]
· Justin Long enlisted as a Civil War veteran and James McAvoy confidant in Robert Redford's Lincoln-assassination drama The Conspirator. [THR]
· Where are all the ladies today? Oh, hey: Rashida Jones offloaded the screen rights to her and Will McCormack's graphic novel Frenemy of the State, about a rich young heiress who works undercover for the CIA. She'll co-write the script for Universal and Brian Grazer; let the casting speculation begin. [Variety]