Hollywood Ink: Dune, From the Director of Taken

· Not only Taken, but also John Travolta's forthcoming dip into bazooka-wielding leather-daddy action heroism, From Paris With Love. That's right: Pierre Morel, France's hottest B-thriller helmer, has been chosen to direct Paramount's new big-budget adaptation of the sci-fi classic Dune. The studio was forced to replace Peter Berg, whose next two projects at Universal threw speed bumps on Dune's fast track. Along with a new screenwriter to piggyback off Josh Zetumer's first draft, Morel has promised a faithful adaptation of Frank Herbert's original novel, which one at this point can only take to mean his leading man will be under 50. [Variety]

Kate Hudson gets a new friend for Earthbound, Redbox nears a milestone, and nd more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

· The Kate Hudson romance Earthbound keeps piling on the pals for her character's cancer-stricken, doctor-smitten career woman: A day after Lucy Punch was named as Hudson's office cohort, Rosemarie DeWitt is now cast as her "best friend and confidante." Nicole Kassell (The Woodsman) is set to direct later this month. [Variety]

· Redbox DVD-rental kiosks accounted for nearly $1 billion in new revenue for the U.S. video rental market in 2009, more than compensating for a slight slip by Blockbuster, Netflix and other, more conventional retailers. Universal, Fox and Warner still aren't on board the $1-per-night model for their releases' first month in stores; Redbox is suing all on antitrust grounds. [Variety]

· There's good news and there's bad news about Tony Kaye's lost crime drama Black Water Transit. The good news is that the producers settled a lawsuit out of court with distributor/financier David Bergstein, the man perhaps best known for running ThinkFilm into the ground in 2007-08. The bad news is that while the producers will finally get paid, the "unreleasable" film remains under Bergstein's lock and key for the foreseeable future. Regrets to all the Stephen Dorff completists out there. [THR]

· Gossip Girl co-star Sebastian Stan landed the leading-man slot in The Apparition, a Joel Silver-produced thriller about a couple haunted by the aftermath of a college experiment gone wrong. Threesomes! They'll get you every time. [THR]