Angelina Jolie Begins Film on Relief Workers

A romantic adventure movie starring the Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie about relief workers will begin filming in northern Thailand on Thursday. The film, entitled "Beyond Borders," is a drama in which Jolie falls in love with a doctor who travels to Cambodia, Chechnya and Ethiopia to help war victims.

Lloyd Phillips, the movie's co-producer, said Wednesday 4 to 5 weeks of shooting in Thailand will wrap up the main filming for the movie, which began production in December. Previous filming was done in Namibia, standing in for Ethiopia, and Montreal, standing in for London and Chechnya.

The film's Thai locations will represent Cambodia, where an extended humanitarian crisis took place throughout the 1980s as the country struggled to recover from the devastating rule of the communist Khmer Rouge.

Phillips told The Associated Press that a Cambodian relief camp has been recreated north of Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city. He also said he expects the film to be released around Christmas this year.

Martin Campbell, who made "Vertical Limit" and "The Mask of Zorro," is the film's director, and Jolie's love interest is being played by Clive Owen, most recently seen in "Gosford Park."

In real life, Jolie serves as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and has visited relief camps in Cambodia, Pakistan and Africa. She and her husband, actor Billy Bob Thornton, recently adopted a Cambodian infant.

David Fincher may choose To Direct Mission: Impossible III

"Panic Room" director David Fincher's mission, should he choose to accept it, is to take the reins of "Mission: Impossible III."

Fincher, whose other credits include "Fight Club," "Se7en" and "Alien 3," is understood to have become close to "Mission: Impossible" star/producer Tom Cruise in recent months due to overlapping interests.

The director had been mulling the WWII Pacific actioner "They Fought Alone" (also known as "Fertig") for Columbia, which Cruise had been circling to star as Col. Wendell Fertig. The actor ultimately went with the Warner Bros. war drama "The Last Samurai," but the two remained eager to find a project on which to work together. Cruise next appears in Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," due out from Fox this June.

"Panic Room" has crossed the $79 million mark in worldwide grosses, having just opened overseas last weekend with $5.6 million worth of foreign coin.

The two other "Mission" pictures, previously helmed by Brian DePalma (1996) and John Woo (2000) have grossed and $454 million and $546 million worldwide, respectively.

Fincher is also thought to have expressed interest in directing pictures like "Hardboiled" at WB and "Seared" at New Line, but seems to have made up his mind on his next picture. No word on what will come after the latest in the "Mission" franchise.

Fincher, repped by CAA, directed "Fight Club" and "Seven." "Panic Room" has grossed $73 million after its first three weekends. Earlier this year, Fincher signed to develop, with an eye to direct, the supernatural thriller "Stay" for Regency Enterprises.

George Armitage For The Big Bounce

George Armitage is in final negotiations to direct the thriller "The Big Bounce," based on Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name that Steve Bing's Shangri-la Entertainment is financing.

An August start date is being planned, with Warner Bros. distributing the film and Jorge Saralegui's studio-based Material producing.

Warner Bros., which own the rights to the book, brought the project to the big screen in the 1969 feature of the same name starring Ryan O'Neal. The new version is not a remake but an adaptation by writer-director Sebastian Gutierrez ("Judas Kiss") of the original book.

"Bounce" is about young grifter who meets the glamorous mistress of the wealthiest, most powerful man in town. The duo team to try and steal a fortune out from under her lover's nose.

It is interesting to note that the grifter's name in the book is Jack Ryan, a name later made famous by author Tom Clancy, who is said to have loved the name so much, he personally asked and received permission from Leonard to use it as the name of his CIA analyst character brought to life in the books and films "The Hunt for Red October," "Patriot Games," "Clear and Present Danger" and "The Sum of All Fears."

The Ryan character in "Bounce" will undergo a name change in the new adaptation to avoid confusion, sources confirmed.

"Bounce," first published in 1969, is the first of Leonard's books to feature a character with the last name Majestyk. That name went on to be immortalized in the 1974 UA feature from a Leonard screenplay, "Mr. Majestyk," starring Charles Bronson in the title role. Armitage, repped by WMA, most recently directed "Grosse Pointe Blank."

Beyonce Knowles Ready For The Fighting Temptations

Although she won't be making her big-screen debut until New Line Cinema's "Austin Powers in Goldmember" opens in late July, Beyonce Knowles -- one-third of pop/R&B sensation Destiny's Child -- is quickly moving on to her follow-up project.

Knowles is in final negotiations to star as the female lead opposite Cuba Gooding Jr. in Paramount Pictures/MTV Films' "The Fighting Temptations" for director Jonathan Lynn. The project aims to go into production in the summer.

"Temptations" reunites Knowles with MTV, where the singer-actress worked on the telefilm "Carmen: A Hip Hopera," which marked her first outing as an actress before she moved on to the big screen in "Goldmember".

Described as "Soul Food" meets "The Full Monty," "Temptations" is the story of a Los Angeles hip-hop producer (Gooding) who travels to a small Southern town to collect an inheritance. As stipulated in the will, he must create a gospel choir and lead it to success before he can cash in. Knowles plays a choir girl who becomes Gooding's love interest.

Handprint Entertainment also is producing the project. David Raynr wrote the most recent draft of the script. Knowles is repped by CAA.

Liaisons Dangereuses For Catherine Deneuve

French screen siren Catherine Deneuve is making her television debut in an updated version of the period classic "Liaisons Dangereuses."

"I never made a distinction between film and television," the actress told the standing-room-only crowd who turned out Tuesday to see five minutes of rushes from the film during the Mip TV bazaar here. "I watch a lot of TV and love seeing movies on TV, but I just never found a project I wanted to do before this one."

The $18 million film, which is set in 1963 on the French Riviera, is shooting in Cap d'Antibes. Rupert Everett, Nastassja Kinski and Leelee Sobieski also star.

Jean-Paul Gautier, who turned up on the Croisette wearing black leather despite the heat, is designing Deneuve's costumes for the venture. Though a child in the '60s, Gautier called that era's fashions his first inspiration.

Deneuve, 58, will follow "Liaisons" with another miniseries, "Madame Bonaparte," based on the life of Marie Bonaparte, the French emperor's grandniece, who befriended and was analyzed by Freud.

Kelsey Grammar: From Frasier to Gary the rat

Kelsey Grammer is taking a second job in television — as an animated rat.

The Frasier star's production company is making a new cartoon, Gary the Rat, that will debut on the TNN cable network next year. Grammer will provide the voice of the lead character.

Gary is described as a New York attorney so evil that one day he wakes up and he's no longer human.

"He becomes the most sought-after lawyer once it is discovered he is actually a rat," Grammer said on Tuesday.

TNN is hoping to launch a prime-time night of cartoons next year. It has acquired the rights to The Ren & Stimpy Show and hopes to persuade its creator to make more episodes. Also in production is Stripperella, a cartoon from Spider-Man creator Stan Lee that features Pamela Anderson as a stripper who moonlights as a superhero.

TNN is the former Nashville Network that, since its purchase by Viacom, has repositioned itself as a network for young men. It is debuting two other new series in the fall: Oblivious, a game show where contestants don't even know they're playing, and Slam Ball, a basketball game played on trampolines.