Channing Tatum Named 'Sexiest Man Alive'; Jack Nicholson Courted For Robert Downey Jr. Drama: Biz Break

Wednesday morning's round of five stories you should know also include a new thriller role for Maria Bello. Skyfall momentum continues in the U.S. box office, passing a threshold. And on the heels of Hollywood recognition, a director's foreign-language pic is heading to the U.S.

1. Channing Tatum Named Sexiest Man Alive for 2012
How could Tatum not win the 2012 Sexiest Crown after starring in and being the creative force behind box office stripper success Magic Mike? People magazine gave Tatum the 2012 title. "My first thought was, 'Y'all are messing with me"I told [my wife] Jenna after we'd been in the bathtub washing our dogs because they'd gotten skunked." People reports.

2. Jack Nicholson Tapped for Robert Downey Jr.'s The Judge
Warner Bros is hoping to court the very picky actor to play Downey's father. The project will star Downey as a successful attorney who returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral only to discover that his estranged and Alzheimer's-stricken father, the town's judge, is the murder suspect. The man sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before. Nicholson is not a shoe-in. He has made only three movies since 2003, THR reports.

3. Maria Bello Set for James Wan Thriller
The story revolves around the aftermath of a horrific massacre: five college students, brutally murdered inside a decrepit, abandoned home. Fresh on the scene, detective Mark Lewis and the police department’s psychologist, Dr. Elizabeth Klein (Bello), question one of the few survivors who explains they were amateur ghost-hunters, seeking out paranormal phenomenon at the abandoned house, believed to be haunted. Will Canon (Brotherhood) will direct the pic from producer James Wan's concept. Wan co-created the successful Saw and Insidious franchises.

4. Skyfall Crosses $100M in the U.S.
The latest James Bond has been a box office hit overseas and it's seen its fortunes continue Stateside. It took in $11.3 million on Veterans Day combined with $90 million over the Friday - Sunday weekend, giving it a $101.9 million total. The global come as of Sunday was $518.6 million, Deadline reports.

5. The Deep Heads to U.S. Theaters
U.S. rights to Baltasar Kormakur's The Deep will head to Focus Features. His film Reykjavik-Rotterdam is being re-made into Contraband starring Mark Wahlberg and he is currently directing 2 Guns starring Wahlberg and Denzel Washington. The Deep is Iceland's foreign-language Oscar submission, Deadline reports.