Today's Film News: Subway Screenwriter Success Story!

By Katey Rich

Next time you New Yorkers are frustrated because of construction delays in the subway, keep those curse words to yourself-- that's a Hollywood screenwriter slowing down your commute! Yet another Cinderella story has emerged in the trades today, with Staten Island-based transit worker Michael Martin's screenplay, Brooklyn's Finest, getting ready for production in May. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Martin began the screenplay after he totaled his car, with money in mind rather than a Hollywood future. Don Cheadle, Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke are preparing to star in the ensemble crime drama, with Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directing.

Ice Cube, the media mogul who defies categorization, will be steering away from his family-friendly Are We There Yet? series and making a movie for grown-ups again. He's teaming up with Dimension Films to make Janky Promoters, one of those movies where the title says it all. Cube and another actor will play music promoters totally unprepared when they book a major hip-hop act. Dimension head Harvey Weinstein told Variety, "He's a brand, like Tyler Perry, and that's the direction he's headed in." So, basically, it's Ice Cube's world, and we're just watching his movies in it.

While the rest of America figures out exactly who they want their politicians to be, Oliver Stone is busy building his own political dynasty. Yesterday he announced that Elizabeth Banks had been cast as Laura Bush in the George W. Bush biopic W, and now James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn have signed on as Poppa and Mama Bush. You'll remember that James Cromwell also played Prince Philip in 2006's The Queen, which means he's slowly taking over as every fictional version of a head of state. Until he plays Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I won't be too concerned.

Nate Parker shone big in his role in December's The Great Debaters, and now he may have a chance to step out from under Denzel Washington's shadow. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Parker will star in Blood Done Sign My Name, an adaptation of a true story about the murder of a black Vietnam veteran by a white businessman in a small North Carolina town. Jeb Stuart, who wrote The Fugitive and Die Hard among others, will direct and write. Parker will play a local teacher who stepped in during the civil unrest that followed the murder.