Francis Ford Coppola will direct and wrote the screenplay for his company American Zoetrope's adaptation of Mircea Eliade's novella Youth Without Youth. Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara and Marcel Iures will star in Youth, which centers on a professor whose life changes as he becomes a fugitive, chased through Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India. This is Coppola's first directing job in eight years.

     Jim Carrey is in talks to star in director Joel Schumacher's The Number 23 as a man who obsesses over a book featuring the number 23 that he believes is based on his life and ends in murder. Carrey previously worked with Schumacher on 1995's Batman Forever.

     Harrison Ford will star in the Civil War film Manhunt as war hero Colonel Everton Conger, leader of the search for Abraham Lincoln's assassin. What about Indy 4?!

     Catherine Zeta-Jones has signed on for Castle Rock's romantic dramedy Mostly Martha. Zeta-Jones plays a high-powered chef whose life changes when she becomes the guardian of her young niece. The film is an adaptation of the 2001 German film Bella Martha.

     Radha Mitchell (Finding Neverland) is joining Richard Gere and Claire Danes for director Andrew Lau's thriller The Flock. The film follows a federal agent (Gere) who is tracking down a missing girl while training his replacement (Danes).

     Rosario Dawson (Sin City, 25th Hour) has signed on for the Weinstein Co.'s Killshot and Passion of the Clerks. Dawson joins Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Thomas Jane, Johnny Knoxville and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Shakespeare in Love director John Madden's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's bestselling novel Killshot. Passion is filmmaker Kevin Smith's highly-anticipated sequel to the 1994 cult indie hit Clerks.

     Bow Wow (Roll Bounce) and Lucas Black (Friday Night Lights) will star in Universal Pictures' Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo. The third installment in this overdone franchise is set in the underground world of Japanese drift racing where high-tech rides are combined with dangerous courses. I am so mad that the concept was even thought of to do this movie, and I'm even more furious that they're actually making it. Argh!

     20th Century Fox is planning a remake of 1983's The Star Chamber, which starred Michael Douglas as a judge who joins a secret society of judges looking to seek justice on their own terms.

     Serenity filmmaker Joss Whedon will direct and has written the script for Univeral Pictures' fantasy thriller Goner. The film follows a young woman whose life is filled with "horror and some heroics," according to Whedon in an interview with Variety.

     France passed over March of the Penguins and selected the unreleased film Joyeux Noel to represent the country at the 2006 Oscars.

     Actors Ben Gazzara (Dogville, Husbands) and Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, The Last Temptation of the Christ) each received the Donostia Prize for lifetime achievement at the San Sebastian Film Festival September 22.

     Orion Pictures co-founder and producer Mike Medavoy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame September 19.

     Actor Alan Rosenberg has been elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, the nation's largest performers union. Rosenberg replaces Melissa Gilbert, who decided not to run for a third term to spend more time with her family.

     The cast and filmmakers of Roll Bounce announced September 20 that 10 percent of Fox Searchlight's opening weekend box office proceeds will be donated to Operation USA for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. Roll Bounce hits theaters September 23.

     The 2005 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans has been released, with filmmakers George Lucas (61st, $3.5 billion) and Steven Spielberg (83rd, $2.7 billion) making the list.

     Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, which was released in five venues in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles September 16, made $385,078 in its first three days, making it the year's highest-per-screen average, with $77,016. Bride hits theaters everywhere September 23.

     Christian Slater will avoid jail time by taking a plea deal after being charged with grabbing a woman's butt in May. If the actor stays out of trouble for six months, the charges will be dropped.

     Actors Jerry O'Connell (Jerry Maguire, Scream 2) and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men) are engaged.

     Oscar-winning songwriter Joel Hirschhorn, who helped write the theme songs for The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, died September 18 of a heart attack. He was 67.