BBC - Films - High Noon - 2nd February 2004

		Crowe Crocked Oh, the irony. Scrabbling around for scraps from the Hollywood butcher's, Uncle High Noon reported on Friday that Russell Crowe was preparing well for his boxing drama Cinderella Man. So, naturally, news comes today that the Aussie actor has done himself a mischief. The role of Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock requires intensive training, and Crowe dislocated his shoulder while working out in the ring. The same injury stopped him filming Jodie Foster's Flora Plum back in 2000, but should only delay Ron Howard's Oscar-hopeful for a month, with shooting put back to April. Meanwhile, American Splendor star Paul Giamatti has signed up to co-star with Crowe and Renée Zellweger, although there's no word on what role he's nabbed yet. We bet it's as a comedy sidekick/trainer to the Antipodean bruiser.

		Hollywood Confidential LA Confidential novelist James Ellroy has signed to scribble The Man Who Kept Secrets, a biopic of legendary Hollywood lawyer Sidney Korshak. A pal of leathery lothario and veteran film producer Robert Evans (The Kid Stays In The Picture), Korshak was a major behind-the-scenes player for 50 years, aided by his ability to cosy up to underworld figures. William Friedkin is set to direct.

		Mirren Shadows Phillippe Calendar Girls star Helen Mirren will cosy up to Ryan Phillippe in the bizarre-sounding Shadowboxer. The pair are a mother and stepson contract-killing team, who fancy each other and fear Wes Bentley's villain. Monster's Ball producer Lee Daniels makes his directorial debut on what will undoubtedly be a very odd movie. The synopsis not surreal enough? Then know that placcy-faced fashion designer Vivienne Westwood has been hired as the project's stylist.

		Bay Sci-Fi? Bad Boys II helmer Michael Bay may be entangling his lovely locks in a sci-fi thriller. Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks production house has coughed up a million bucks for The Island, a script from - splutter - Beyond Borders scribe Caspian Tredwell-Owen. Bay is eyeing the Logan's Run-style flick, about a "harvested being" (whatever that is) who must escape from a seemingly utopian environment (which, we're guessing, isn't ultimately all that utopian and may involve death). Apparently, Tom Cruise is interested in the subject matter.

		TV Movie For Gary Producer Michael "son of Norman" Mailer is hoping to cast Gary Oldman as a transvestite gangster in The Night Job - which he is also wooing Alec Baldwin for, to play a reformed (noooooo!) Irish crim... Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein is moving ahead with plans to direct Mila 18, a drama about the Warsaw uprising of World War II. "The script is done," he told Time. "Anthony Minghella and Martin Scorsese are going to produce it and they've said when they see my first three-hour cut, they're gonna gladly cut it down to a ten-minute short!" Hiphop genius Andre 3000, of Outkast, will act alongside John Travolta in Get Shorty sequel Be Cool, which starts shooting today... Diane Keaton is in contention to star opposite Kevin Costner in romantic comedy Taming Ben Taylor, about - according to the Hollywood Reporter - "a powerful and beautiful businesswoman who tries to convince a stubborn and difficult man to sell his land to a country club". Excuse us, we feel a little ill.