Precious director Lee Daniels is in advanced negotiations to step behind the camera on Selma, a retelling of the historic 1965 march in the Alabama town that marked the political and emotional peak of the civil rights movement. Variety reports that Daniels will be teaming on the project with Slumdog Millionaire producer Christian Colson. Selma would be the first new project for Colson and his Cloud Eight Films since the producer enjoyed eight Oscar wins with Millionaire, earlier this year. Pathe UK will take the lead on financing, with Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner's Plan B co-producing. Paul Webb wrote the script. No cast is as yet attached.

Adam Sandler and Denis Leary have paid tribute to TV personality Ken Ober, who died on Sunday. Ober was found dead at his Santa Monica, California, home, aged 52. His cause of death was unknown as WENN went to press. The actor and former game-show host was best known for his presenting duties on MTV show Remote Control from 1987 to 1990. The game show launched the careers of Sandler and Leary, and they have been quick to pay tribute to their mentor. Sandler says, 'Ken Ober was one of the sharpest, quickest, sweetest guys I ever met. He was always a great friend and I will miss him very much.' And Leary echoed his pal's sentiments, adding, 'Kenny Ober was and always will be the quickest wit in the room. As the star and host of Remote Control, he was a welcoming ringmaster who helped to kickstart the careers of numerous talents, including Adam Sandler, Colin Quinn and myself. 'He will be remembered always by each of his friends not only for his massive talent but for his true, deep and enduring friendship.' Ober is survived by his mother, father, stepmother and a brother.

Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's haunting novel The Lovely Bones has looked like an Oscar-bound project from the get-go (despite that little casting hiccup early on). It boasts an A-list and Oscar-winning director as well as Oscar winners and nominees in the cast, including Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg and Saoirse Ronan, and is based on a beloved best-selling book that would allow a director of Jackson's vision the opportunity to create something potentially breathtaking. The dark story of a young girl who is brutally raped and murdered and her family's struggles to deal with the fallout and find her murderer -- all told from the POV of the dead girl in heaven -- is not a bright and shiny one, to be sure. Reuters is reporting, however, that early audiences wanted the film even darker than Jackson had first cut it. In early screenings, he told the news agency, audiences 'were simply not satisfied' with a scene of one character's death. 'They wanted far more violence,' Jackson said, so he returned to the editing room to 'basically add more violence and suffering.' The scene concerned is one of a man falling to his death, which Jackson originally set with the man disappearing off the edge of a cliff. 'We got a lot of people telling us that they were disappointed with this death scene, as they wanted to see (the character) in agony and suffer a lot more,' Jackson told Reuters said. 'They just weren't satisfied.' Jackson said digital effects were used to incorporate shots where (the character) bounces against the cliff on the way down. 'We had to create a whole suffering-death scene just to give people the satisfaction they needed,' he said.

Disney's Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has been indefinitely halted with director McG no longer at the helm. The film had tentatively been scheduled to begin production in February, but Variety reports that the studio has confirmed it won't proceed with the project for now. No reason for abandoning ship was given. Names like Will Smith were rumored as possible stars, but no cast was ever set. The project had been on a fast track under the Dick Cook regime and Disney now says event films like 20,000 Leagues, John Carter of Mars and Tron are still priority under new chief Rich Ross. McG is working on other projects that include Dead Spy Running, at Warner Bros. and he is also attached to Terminator 5, though that movie is on hold indefinitely as the Terminator franchise works its way through bankruptcy court.

Campaign groups in Britain have taken aim at the Hollywood studio behind recent comedy movie Couples Retreat after two black actors were airbrushed from publicity posters in the U.K. The American poster for the film, which stars Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Kristin Davis, shows all eight of the movie's principal actors, including Faizon Love and Kali Hawk. But Love and Hawk were removed from the promotional campaign ahead of the movie's U.K. release last month. Vivienne Pattison, spokeswoman for Mediawatch-UK, says, 'I think this was an ill-conceived move. We celebrate diversity in Britain and we could have coped with seeing the same poster used in America.' A spokesperson for Universal Pictures apologized for any offense the posters may have caused, and insisted plans to use the airbrushed images in other countries have been abandoned. The rep says, '(The new image was used) to simplify the poster to actors who are most recognizable in international markets.'

Columbia has hired Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen to pen a new installment in the Men In Black franchise. Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed the first two films, is said to be attached while Will Smith, who has not committed, is said to be interested in returning to the series, the Risky Business blog reported. BIZ points out that Smith does not currently have a go movie lined up while Tommy Lee Jones' involvement remains uncertain. Variety surmises that it's unlikely the studio would greenlight the project without the duo's involvement. MIB is one of the most successful comedy franchises of all time. The first two films, which were released in 1997 and 2002, combined to earn nearly $1.1 billion worldwide. The studio is eyeing a 2010 start date and could go as soon as the spring.

The rumors are true: Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy will star in George Miller's long-awaited continuation of the Mad Max franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road. Miller is set to start filming next August in Australia. Hardy has previously been seen in films like Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. He also has a role in Christopher Nolan's upcoming Inception. His name had been bandied about recently for the newest Mad Max, although Australian paper The Daily Telegraph was putting Sam Worthington in the role earlier this week. Theron next appears in The Road. The logline on the script is being kept under wraps, but the Heat Vision blog says the movie takes place a short while after the story detailed in the last Max movie, Thunderdome. Doug Mitchell is producing with Miller. Warner Bros. is set to distribute. Miller had announced last weekend that preproduction work was starting in New South Wales, but he didn't give any indication as to whether Mel Gibson might return or who would play the male lead. 'It could be Mel, it could be anyone,' he told reporters. Miller and the 21-year-old Gibson launched their careers with Mad Max in 1979. Sequels came in 1981 with The Road Warrior and in 1985 with Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

The Get Carter star plays a widower who avenges the death of a pal killed by young thugs in new movie Harry Brown, which was shot in some of London's most troubled neighbourhoods. Caine spent time with youngsters on a local housing estate - and being around them has left the actor convinced that crime committed by teenagers is down to a lack of education and poor guidance from their parents. He says, 'I'm hoping they (the audiences) will ask themselves, 'Why are boys behaving like this?' It's purely the fault of the parents and the education system. 'I come from that background and I've just been back, shooting on an estate in the Elephant and Castle. It's not the fault of the kids... They all want to do something and be somebody.'

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Keira Knightley will step into the role of Eliza Doolittle for a Joe Wright-directed adaptation of My Fair Lady. Knightley last year confirmed that she had auditioned and begun singing lessons. 'Joe and Keira are looking forward to working together again immensely,' a friend of the director told the Telegraph. 'I have two actresses as potential Elizas -- one British, the other American,' Cameron Mackintosh, who is producing the film with Duncan Kenworthy, told the paper over the summer. The other actress is said to have been Scarlett Johansson. Last week, Kenworthy said: 'I think Keira would be absolutely fabulous in it.' Emma Thompson is writing the script for the film, for which Daniel Craig has been pegged as a possible Professor Henry Higgins. Wright had been due to direct Indian Summer, a film about the relationship between Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Jawaharlal Nehru. Variety reported last week that Universal had put that film on hold.

The Oscar-winner was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland in September (09) on a 1977 child sex charge after landing in the city for a film festival, where he was to be honoured. Polanski pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl but fled to France in 1978 before he was sentenced. He has been behind bars in Switzerland ever since his arrest, while prosecutors in Los Angeles debated whether to have him extradited to the U.S. to face justice. The 76-year-old director has had two requests for bail turned down, and is taking his fight for freedom to the country's Federal Supreme Court. Swiss officials will now hold a hearing on whether to grant the extradition request. If it is approved, Polanski will be able to challenge the decision in court, which could delay the process for several years. Officials at the Swiss justice ministry confirmed the news in a statement: 'The U.S. Embassy in Bern submitted the formal extradition request... within the deadline of 40 days stipulated under the bilateral extradition treaty. The Federal Office of Justice will make its decision regarding extradition based on the results of the hearing and the information provided by Polanski's lawyer. In case extradition is considered to be admissible, Polanski will have the option of appealing against the decision before the Federal Criminal Court and the Federal Supreme Court as the court of last instance.'