Screen Talk: Bosworth fancies Tokyo lead role

Kate Bosworth is eyeing a starring role in 'Lost Girls and Love Hotels,' the next film from 'Young Victoria' director Jean-Marc Vallée. Bosworth is likely to land the role, should she want it, as she is also producing the project with heavyweight Hollywood backers Relativity Media. Nadia Conners wrote the screenplay, an adaptation of Catherine Hanrahan's 2006 novel of the same name in which a woman (Bosworth) tries to forget her past while working in Tokyo as an English specialist at a stewardess training institute by day and losing herself in a sex-and-drug-addled oblivion by night. She finds herself on the road to redemption when she becomes interested in a missing Western girl. The Westerner in Japan theme has long intrigued Hollywood, think of Ridley Scott's 'Black Rain' and Sofia Coppola's 'Lost in Translation'

In the pipeline

Fairy tales have inspired a host of Hollywood movies. And now there are plans to take an updated, if dark, look at the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The fresh script, entitled 'The Piper,' will centre on a much-bullied high school band student who unintentionally channels the spirit of the mysterious Pied Piper, his actions triggering terrifying consequences beyond his control. The project is out to writers at the moment, which means it's only a matter of time before someone is being asked to pay the piper.

Grapple turnover

Patricia Clarkson, Devon Graye, Madeleine Martin, Danny Glover and wrestling champ John Cena are all wrestling with a script named 'Brother's Keeper.' The PG-rated family drama from WWE Films is directed by Mel Damski ('Mischief') with a screenplay by John Posey. It locks on a story about a teenage boy (Graye) who tries to reunite his mother (Clarkson) and estranged older brother (Cena) 10 years after the death of their father, a state college wrestling legend. A brilliant student with no apparent athletic talents, the teenager joins the school wrestling team as a way to pull the family together. The project is shooting in New Orleans.

Living dead just never say die

George A Romero has given life to plenty of zombie outings over the years. What with remakes, old Romero classics and 're-imaginings' of his early work, the director/screenwriter has enjoyed eerie longevity on the big screen. Now plans for an animated 3D CGI re-imagining of 'Night of the Living Dead,' to be directed by newcomer Zebediah de Soto is attracting quite a voice cast. The story follows a group of humans trying to stay alive during a zombie attack. Jesse Corti ('Heroes') voices a news reporter, Danielle Harris plays a woman who loses her family. Bill Moseley ('Carnivale') is a Wall Street-type with an expense- account attitude. Joe Pilato, who appeared in 1978's 'Dawn of the Dead,' voices Harry Cooper, a blue-collar worker who lives for his injured daughter, and Alona Tal ('Supernatural') voices his wife, Helen. The mandatory no-nonsense New York Cop is voiced by Cornell Womack ('Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen').

Video game supremo's touch of frost

Computer games are such big business they have talent directors. And monster computer games, such as 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' have big-name talent directors. Which is why Keith Arem, the TD on the $3bn (£1.9bn) grossing computer fight frenzy, is lined up to make his feature directing debut. Arem is prepping 'Frost Road' from his own script. And he's also developing a companion graphic novel with co-creator Brandon Humphreys and artist Christopher Shy. 'Frost Road' concerns the survivors and victims of an invisible contagion in a small Eastern coastal town. Arem has highlighted the gaming industry incredible talent pool: he'll be expected to deliver. He hopes it'll be good enough to green-light a few more movie mavericks. Arem directed, cast and engineered all the actors for 'Warfare,' including 50 Cent, Barry Pepper, Kevin McKidd, Keith David, Billy Murray and Lance Henriksen.