· Seemingly half the A-list actresses in Hollywood got new projects Monday, with the most amusing casting news potentially pairing Penelope Cruz with Lars von Trier for his disaster-psychology film Melancholia. Not much is known about the lead role itself, and von Trier's apparent acknowledgment comes through translations of European media sources, so who even knows? In any language this would be spectacular, particularly reading and hearing Cruz's subsequent comparisons of the misogynistic Dane with actress's-best-friend Pedro Almodovar. Make history, Penny! [The Playlist]
Kate Winslet, Katherine Heigl, Cate Blanchett and others sign on elsewhere, Terminator is sold (and not to whom you'd think), and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· Steven Soderbergh has grabbed Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon and Jude Law for his "virus thriller" Contagion, which presumably he is developing via text message between takes on Knockout. The filmmaker and his partners are planning to shop the project around to studios as more Bourne-esque action picture, less Towering Inferno-style all-star disaster. Which, frankly, sounds way more fun. [Deadline]
· Katherine Heigl took over Reese Witherspoon's leading role as Stephanie Plum in One For the Money, the bestseller adaptation about a lingerie buyer who turns to bounty-hunting to make ends meet. There are 15 books in author Janet Evanovich's Plum series, which of course means Heigl will drop out around the third or fourth when the writing simply doesn't measure up to her exacting genre standards. [Variety]
· Cate Blanchett will join Saoirse Ronan and Eric Bana in the quickly developing tween-assassin thriller Hanna. [Deadline]
· After Sony and Lionsgate had bid nearly $30 million to acquire the Terminator franchise from the bankrupt Halcyon Company, the hedge fund that pushed the Halcyon gang out in the first place decided to take the asset off the producers' hands. So! For those of you keeping score at home, Pacificor is your new home of The Terminator. Congrats. [Deadline]
· And if a hedge fund can own the rights to one of the great Hollywood franchises of the last 25 years, then there's no reason 51-year-old Tim Robbins can't play 38-year-old Peter Sarsgaard's father in The Green Lantern. Which he will. [THR]