Screen Talk: Ed Helms hails taxi thriller

Tinseltown Insider

The Hangover star Ed Helms is in talks to co-star in Stretch (Getty Images)

The Hangover star Ed Helms (pictured) is in talks to co-star opposite Patrick Wilson in Stretch, a thriller directed by Joe Carnahan. Wilson plays a down-on-his -luck limo driver trying to get clean and pay back a debt owed to a bookie when he gets the passenger from hell (Chris Pine). Helms may play a fellow chauffeur.

Jennifer studies production rules

An adaptation of Claire Bidwell Smith's memoir The Rules of Inheritance has Jennifer Lawrence attached to star in and produce. Susanne Bier will direct from a script being written by Abi Morgan. Smith was an only child, who, over a seven-year period as a young adult, lost both her parents to cancer.

Big names for a little prince

James Franco, Rachel McAdams, Jeff Bridges, Marion Cotillard, Benicio Del Toro and Paul Giamatti will lend voices to a big-screen animated version of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's novella The Little Prince, about a pilot who crashes in the desert and meets a boy who says he is a prince from an asteroid.

Ken's Cinders will go to the ball

Kenneth Branagh's live-action version of Cinderella for Disney is eyeing Downton Abbey's Sophie McShera as a wicked stepsister to fellow Downton star Lily James as Cinders. Cate Blanchett is the wicked stepmother and Game of Thrones' Richard Madden the prince. An autumn shoot is planned.

McCallum will revisit 'R'Ha'

A sci-fi feature project based on hot Hollywood short R'Ha has attracted Rick McCallum, former head of Lucasfilm and producer of the recent Star Wars trilogy, as producer. Matthew Graham, who worked on the aborted Star Wars TV show, will write the screenplay with short creator Kaleb Lechowski.

Fabled fairytales of New York

DC/Vertigo's comic book series Fables is being made into a film. Nikolaj Arcel (above), who made A Royal Affair, is attached to direct the adaptation, which will be written by Jeremy Slater. Fables, created by Bill Willing-ham, sees characters such as Snow White, Cinderella and Little Boy Blue living in New York.