Today's Film News: Nicole Just Doesn't Know What To Do With Herself

By Katey Rich

The Hours collaborators Michael Cunningham and Nicole Kidman will reunite for an untitled biopic about Dusty Springfield, reports Variety. Novelist Cunningham will write the screenplay, and Kidman will produce and star as the troubled 60s-era singer. Fox 2000 will produce the project, even though Universal has its own Springfield biopic in the works, with Broadway's Kristin Chenoweth set to star. Given how shaky Kidman's voice was back in Moulin Rouge!, it'll be interesting to see how she manages to play a real-life singer this time.

New Line may be down, but it's not out: The downsized studio has purchased its first spec script since being absorbed by its parent company Warner Bros., and is preparing to produce Chad Kultgen's Dan Mintner: Badass for Hire. The Hollywood Reporter quotes producer Beau Flynn as saying that the script is the kind of movie "classic" New Line would have excelled at producing. Flynn also compares the movie to Wedding Crashers and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, when, I admit, all I can think is Drillbit Taylor 2.

The Tribeca Film Festival juries have announced their winners for the festival, perhaps negating my claim that few of the movies were good since I saw zero of the winners. The Swedish vampire drama Let The Right One In, won the feature prize, and the documentary feature award went to Pray the Devil Back to Hell, about Liberian women who led the country's efforts for peace accords. Variety has a full list.

And finally, Sam Mendes' untitled comedy, scripted by writers Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, continues to be one of my most anticipated upcoming movies. Now the cast has undergone a switcheroo, with Maggie Gyllenhaal stepping into the professorial role that Toni Collette had originally been set to play. Collette dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, reports Variety. No matter: The cast remains ridiculously talented, and seeing Mendes try comedy will be a treat.