LaBute to remake The Wicker Man

In the most alarming remake news since Wolfgang Petersen signed on to direct a new version of Bullitt, Neil LaBute is planning a US remake of Robin Hardy's cultish, eerily atmospheric 1973 horror-thriller, The Wicker Man, relocating it from a Scottish island to an island off the coast of Maine.

Nicolas Cage will take on the Edward Woodward role, as a sheriff investigating the mysterious death of a young girl and discovering evidence of pagan rituals. Before the film starts shooting in July, busy LaBute has a new play, This is How It Goes, opening in New York this month, with Ben Stiller, Jeffrey Wright and Amanda Peet in an inter-racial love triangle. In the autumn, another new LaBute play, Wrecks, will have its world premiere at the Everyman Palace in Cork, as part of the city's European Capital of Culture celebrations.

Eucalyptus suspended:
Mystery surrounds the abrupt cancellation of Eucalyptus, the $18 million production featuring Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman in what was hyped as a labour of love to help revive the Australian film industry. It was due to start shooting last week, but Fox Searchlight announced that it was suspending the production indefinitely. The company refuted reports that Crowe was the reason for the project's suspension, saying that it was "a collective decision" made by the studio, the two stars, producer Uberto Pasolini and writer-director Jocelyn Moorhouse, who gave Crowe an early leading role in her 1991 movie, Proof. In exchange for taking a fraction of his usual large salary, Crowe "got significant leverage as an executive producer", according to the New York Times, which added: "Precisely what happened last week as the newly empowered Mr Crowe came to terms with the diminutive Ms Moorhouse remains unclear". Kidman's agent commented that the project had turned into "a very volatile situation".

A donkey's tale:
Lars Von Trier has bowed to pressure from animal rights organisations and dropped the dead donkey from his new movie, Manderlay, which has its world premiere at Cannes in May. As noted here last year, one cast member, John C Reilly, was so outraged by the butchering of the donkey for the movie that he quit the picture. In a statement Von Trier claims: "To have the dead donkey in my film would have been an important artistic contribution but the content - politically and socially - is in this case so vital it would be a shame to be overlooked by press writings about a donkey". It is not clear if this "important artistic contribution" will be included among the extras on the DVD of Manderlay.

Stars of Babel:
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal head the attractive cast Alejandro González Iñárritu is lining up for his third feature, Babel, which reunites him with his screenwriter on Amores Perros and 21 Grams, Guillermo Arriaga. Babel is composed of four interweaving stories set in Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico and Japan, and the drama is triggered by a tragedy that strikes a married couple on a holiday together.

Haggis directs army drama:
Paul Haggis, the Canadian screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby, will direct Death and Dishonor, a factually based drama of a US army veteran, Lanny Davis, and his dogged quest to learn the truth about the murder of his son, who was reported AWOL after he returned from serving on the frontline in Baghdad and was killed by members of his own platoon after a rowdy night in Georgia.

Haggis based his screenplay on an article published in Playboy last year, and he has offered the role of Lanny Davis to Clint Eastwood, who is also committed to directing the Haggis-scripted war movie, Faith of Our Fathers, in the summer. Haggis turned director with the arresting, multi-charactered LA drama, Crash, shown at the Toronto festival last year and tipped for Cannes in May, and featuring a fine cast including Don Cheadle, Ryan Phillippe, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Thandie Newton and Brendan Fraser.