Today's Film News: Richard Gere Flying High

By Katey Rich

Richard Gere may still make a decent claim to being a sex symbol, but is he really up to romancing women decades younger than he is? That's a gamble he's willing to take in Amelia, in which he'll play famous aviator Earhart's husband, publisher George Putnam. Hilary Swank, who is 25 years younger than Gere, will play Amelia. Putnam and Earhart were only 10 years apart in age, but Gere can probably bridge that gap with his remaining rugged good looks. Variety reports that he's also signed on as part of Brooklyn's Finest, the cop drama that was written by an MTA employee. Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke will also star.

The Surrogate, a novel recently picked up by Fox Atomic for development, has a plot that sounds a whole lot like Baby Mama's. A pair of normal people (or, in Mama's case, one person) are unable to have a child, so they pick a surrogate to carry a child for them. Then the surrogate turns out to be a little more than they bargained for-- in Baby Mama, she's a lying pain in the neck, and in The Surrogates, she's insane! It'll be the movie for everyone who goes to see Baby Mama next weekend and thinks how much better it would be with more terror.

Peter Steinfeld either has some very specific interests, or he's doing enough research to walk out of Hollywood a millionaire. He already adapted the book that became the hit movie 21, and now he's working on another adaptation, from a book called Money for Nothing: One Man's Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions. The Hollywood Reporter writes that the book recounts Edward Ugel's experience convincing lottery winners to cash in their winnings for lump sums-- and taking his own cut in the process. I'm not saying Steinfeld is a cheat, but when he starts driving around town in a Bentley, don't say I didn't warn you.

And finally, Jessica Chastain doesn't need to cheat to win the lottery, since she's pretty much done so already. The young actress with very few film credits to her name has been cast alongside Brad Pitt in Tree of Life, the next film from epic auteur Terrence Malick. Granted, a role in a Malick film hasn't been a ticket to fame since Richard Gere pulled it off (he's everywhere today!), but it's attention-grabbing nonetheless. Variety writes that Chastain and Pitt play a couple living in Texas who are the parents of a young boy.