Tom Hanks will star in Universal's Charlie Wilson's War as a rogue Texas congressman who oversaw a successful CIA covert operation in Afghanistan that heped bring down the Iron Curtain. Hanks' Playtone Productions will also be teaming with Warner Bros. for the CGI animation flick The Ant Bully, which will hit theaters on August 4, 2006.

     Batman Begins' Christian Bale and Sahara's Steve Zahn are teaming up for Werner Herzog's independent action-drama Rescue Dawn, which is based on the German filmmaker's 1977 acclaimed documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Dawn tells the real-life story of U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler (Bale), a German-American shot down and captured in Laos during the Vietnam War. Disney confirmed July 17 at the San Diego Comic-Con that Bale's Batman co-star Liam Neeson will provide the voice for Aslan the Lion for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which hits theaters December 9.

     Christina Ricci will star in Type-A Films and Stone Village Pictures' modern-day fable Penelope. Ricci plays the titular character, a woman under a curse who tries to end a lifelong string of bad luck. Reese Witherspoon, who started Type-A, will also have a supporting role.

     Box office numbers were up for the second weekend in a row, July 15 to 17, thanks to the draw of new releases Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers. Additional support from the previous week's slump-stopper, Fantastic Four, also helped. Matt Dillon is joining Kate Hudson and Crashers star Owen Wilson for Universal's comedy You, Me and Dupree. The movie tells the story of a newlywed couple (Dillon & Hudson) whose relationship problems boil over when the groom's unemployed best man, Dupree (Wilson), moves in and seems to have no intention of leaving.

     Mel Gibson is teaming with Disney to distribute his next film, Apocalypto, which he wrote and will direct. The film is set in an ancient civilization 3,000 years ago, and the film's title is a Greek term which means "an unveiling" or "new beginning."

     The Weinstein Co. is teaming with Warner Bros. to distribute the first all-CGI-animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, which will be released in 2007. Awesome!

     Universal and Imagine Entertainment are teaming up for an untitled heist comedy to be directed by Rush Hour's Brett Ratner and starring Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. The movie is about a couple of blue-collar guys who aspire to pull off the perfect heist. Murphy came up with the idea and has expressed a desire to work with Rock.

     The life of Notorious B.I.G. is being made into a feature film with a script written by journalist Cheo Hodari Coker, the last person to interview the rapper before his untimely death. The biopic, produced by Fox Searchlight, will be directed by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua.

     Sin City's Rosario Dawson will star in and produce the psychological thriller Descent. Dawson plays Maya, a college student who turns into a vengeful seductress after a shocking act of violence.

     Memento's Guy Pearce and Constantine's Rachel Weisz will star in the Houdini drama Death Defying Acts. Based on true events during escape artist Harry Houdini's 1926 tour of Britain, the film follows his relationship with a woman he encounters in Scotland.

     An Officer and a Gentleman's Louis Gosset Jr. will star as a Miami police detective battling drug traffickers in the film Caribbean Manhunt.

     Melissa Gilbert has made the decision to not run for a third term as President of the Screen Actors Guild because she wants to spend more time with her family.

     Selena producer Moctesuma Esparza is building a chain of movie theaters called Maya Cinemas that aims to serve the 41 million Latinos living in the United States. The first theater opens July 29 in Salinas, California.

     Jude Law has issued a public apology to fiancee and Alfie co-star Sienna Miller, admitting that he has been having an affair with Daisy Wright, the nanny of one of his kids. "I want to publicly apologize to Sienna and our respective families for the pain that I have caused," Law said in a statement released to the British Press Association.

     Tom Cruise's couch-hopping antics on Oprah has topped TV Guide's poll to determine the Wildest Celebrity Meltdown. Runners-up include Michael Jackson, Courtney Love, Farrah Fawcett and Mariah Carey.

     Salma Hayek appeared at a Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Violence Against Women Act July 19 in Washington D.C. to speak about the importance of lending support to battered women.

     Filmmaker David Lynch has announced that he'd like to raise $7 million to launch the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, a massive transcendental meditation program. The program would begin in the United States and later spread worldwide, teaching school kids stress-reducing techniques which he believes will go a long way toward achieving world peace.

     Roman Polanski has won his libel suit against Vanity Fair, which published a 2002 article claiming he attempted to seduce a woman en route to wife Sharon Tate's funeral. The Pianist director was awarded about $87,000 in damages. Polanski viewed the proceedings via video link from his Paris hotel room in order to avoid extradition to the United States.

     A Los Angeles judge issued a restraining order July 19 against a woman who is allegedly trying to distribute a sex tape involving Colin Farrell. The actor filed suit July 18 seeking to block the sale of a 15-minute sex tape featuring the actor and the woman, former Playboy playmate Nicole Narain. A hearing has been scheduled for August 10.

     A hearing has been scheduled for Freddie Prinze Jr.'s lawsuit against his former manager, Ric Beddingfield, whom he alleges gave bad business advice, costing more than $700,000.

     Tom Sizemore admitted to using a prosthetic device in an attempt to fake a May 25 drug test in an L.A. court July 22. A judge ordered the actor to be confined at a Pasadena rehab facility pending a September 15 court hearing.

     James Doohan, who played Scotty the engineer in the Star Trek TV series and movies, died July 20. He was 85. His final request was that his ashes are scattered in space. "Beam me up, Scotty."

Quote of the Week: "American popular culture is my culture, and I don't just live in it; I love it madly, and writing about it seems as natural - and as necessary - as breathing." -Stephen King, in his column "The Pop of King" in the July 29 issue of Entertainment Weekly

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