God Particle

Last week, the news broke that the ever-wonderful Cate Blanchett was close to joining director Mark Romanek's 'Cinderella' in the role of the evil stepmother, firmly establishing it as the Hollywood Revision Of A Classic Fairy Tale to watch out for. It still feels odd that the director of 'One Hour Photo' and 'Never Let Me Go' is making a Cinderella movie, but putting quality actors on the screen is the first step in giving us hope. On the heels of the Blanchett news, Variety reports that the short list for the title role is down to three actresses: Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander and Gabriella Wilde. You'll probably recognize Ronan from 'Atonement,' 'The Lovely Bones' and 'Hanna' and if you were unlucky enough to see 'The Three Musketeers' you may remember Wilde, but Vikander seems to be a newcomer, making this role her potential big break and her own potential Cinderella story. Life imitating art and so forth.

J.J. Abrams is one busy guy in Hollywood. Not only is he hard at work on 'Star Trek 2,' but his production company, Bad Robot, is busy signing on other projects for the director/producer to look at. And they may have a new reason to go back into outer space.