The trade magazine Variety reports that Warner Bros. has just recently completed a deal to bring The Madman of Alcatraz to the big screen as a feature film. Brad Pitt will reportedly produce the film, and may star in it as well. The story concerns Robert Stroud, one of the more famous prisoners on the island who was known as the 'Birdman' of Alcatraz. While some have seen Stroud as a gentle, reformed criminal who had a fondness for birds, others have branded him a maniac who only used the animals as a ploy to gain sympathy. The film will be written by Vanity Fair scribe Ned Zaman, and will tell the story from the point of view of Stroud's psychiatrist who visited the prisoner for a period of two years and almost sacrificed his own sanity along the way. Zeman has also been involved with two other screenplays based on articles he wrote for Vanity Fair, one of which will star Bruce Willis and the other that has Richard Gere attached to the lead role.

In more Warner Bros. news, actresses Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz have reportedly signed on to star in the psychological thriller Gothika, which Joel Silver will produce through Dark Castle productions. The Academy Award-winning Berry will star as a criminal psychologist who awakens one day in the hopsital where she works, locked up as a patient accused of murder with no memory of how she got there. Penelope Cruz is set to play a fellow patient who Berry's character encounters. The story moves into terrifying territory as the psychologist tries to piece together the events of her own mystery, and in the process comes into contact with a terrible spirit and becomes an unwitting victim to it's own designs. Director Robert Zemeckis (What Lies Beneath (1999)) will also come on board as a producer. There is no director yet attached to the project. Berry will next be seen in the upcoming summer blockbuster X2, the sequel to the well received X-Men (2000).

Jennifer Lopez will once again be taking on the role as a single mother fighting for the welfare of her daughter (much like she did in the tepid film Enough (2002)), only this time she's being forced to move in with her estranged father-in-law. An Unfinished Life will be the next film from director Lasse Hallstrom (The Shipping News (2001), The Cider House Rules (1999)), based on the screenplay by Virginia and Mark Spragg (Everything That Rises (1998)). Miramax will be distributing the film. Revolution Studios, who will be making the film starting in April, has already worked with Lopez before, and she will next be seen in their upcoming drama Gigli (2003), in which she stars alongside Ben Affleck. Lopez is currently finishing up work on Kevin Smith's next film Jersey Girl (2003), in which she also stars with Affleck, and Hallstrom has committed to other directing projects as well, including Bombshell, about the early days of the nuclear program in the United States that may star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Comedian Bernie Mac will be playing a retired baseball player who returns to the game in Touchstone Pictures' new project Mr. 3000. Long retired from his days as a Detroit Tiger, Mac's character will be forced to return to active baseball when three of his base hits that put him into the 3000 club are disallowed, bringing his total hits below the magic number and causing him to step up to the plate once again to prove himself. There is no director yet attached to the film. Mac will be seen this summer in the smash action sequel Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle (2003), replacing the departed Bill Murray as Bosley, a film that will feature all three stars returning to their roles as Angels and the new bad guy played by Demi Moore, a fallen Angel. Mac will also star in the Chris Rock political comedy Head of State (2003), to be released later this year.

Variety reports that Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street Productions has optioned the rights to the novel Memoir From Antproof Case, which follows the tale of a WWII pilot shot down and imprisoned by the Nazis, only to have later claimed to have gotten an education at a Swiss Mental institution and murdered another man. The production company recently finished the film The United States of Leland, and will be producing a film about a group of MIT students who figured out a way to take Las Vegas for millions. No word yet on when Antproof Case will begin filming or if a director has been chosen.

Seven Hills Pictures' new romantic drama Stateside has added actors Val Kilmer and Joe Mantegna to its cast. The film, to be directed by Reverge Anselmo (The Outfitters (1999)), tells the story of a young man who winds up in the Marines and falls in love with a troubled girl along the way from his training towards war. Kilmer has signed to play a drill instructor and Mantegna will play the rich father of the boy. The film will lens on the east coast, including locations in North Carolina and New York. Kilmer recently finished work on the thriller Mindhunters, and is currently in the process of shooting Wonderland, about the Wonderland Avenue murders in Los Angeles during the early 1980's. His next project will be Blind Horizon, which will film hear his home in New Mexico, after which he will begin work on Stateside.

Independent film company Bar Code Productions will be bringing actor Alan Cumming's new book Tommy's Tale to the big screen and have asked the actor/director to adapt his own work to screenplay format. The novel was published this past fall, and tells the story of a man living in London who re-evaluates his life as he approaches 30. Cumming previously co-directed and co-wrote the independent film The Anniversary Party (2001) with Jennifer Jason Leigh, in which he also shared main screen duties. No word yet on whether Cumming will star in the film version of his book. He can next be seen this summer as the blue-skinned mutant Nightcrawler in the sequel to the smash comic book adventure X-Men (2000).

Stylish Irish director Neil Jordan (Michael Collins (1996), The Crying Game (1992)) has left his current project Borgia during attempts to try and get it off the ground in favor of the Greek mythic epic The Return. The film will follow the hero Odysseus as he returns home from his 20 year voyage only to find his devoted wife the subject of numerous suitors at his home. Destroyed mentally and physically from the hardships of his life at sea, Odysseus goes into hiding initially before revealing himself as alive and slaughtering the suitors with the help of his son Telemachus. Shooting on the picture is expected to commence this May. It is hoped that Borgia will be taken up again after The Return is completed for a production time in 2004. Jordan's next film The Good Thief (2003), which stars Nick Nolte, hits theaters this spring.

Asian action star Chow Yun-Fat, having established himself as a bona fide box office star in America since 1998's The Replacement Killers, is set to star for Paramount Pictures in a remake of Walk like a Dragon. The plot follows an Asian government official who is threatened by gang lords, who try to turn his daughter into a drug addict. This new remake was initially in development as a possible starring picture for wrestler-turned-action star The Rock, who recently signed on for Walking Tall. The original version of Walk like a Dragon was released in 1960, and starred Jack Lord and James Shigeta. The new script was written by Tom Epperson (The Gift (2001), One False Move (1992)). No other lead parts have been signed, and producers are still looking for a potential director.

Production on the Jonathan Frakes' directed Thunderbirds film continues, as actor Bill Paxton has signed on for a lead role as the head of the secret international rescue organization. Paxton will play Jeff Tracy, who along with his five sons runs a global organization dedicated to fighting for peace with the help of their special fleet of rocketships. Thunderbirds was originally a cult classic British television show, done with puppets that ran from 1964 until 1966 and spawned the feature film Thunderbirds are Go! (1966). Four of Tracy's sons have also been cast, and producers are going with relative unknowns to fill the parts. Shooting on the adventure pic is set to begin at Shepperton Studios in London this March.

Director Darren Aronofsky (Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000)) has signed a three year deal with Regency Enterprises. This first project set to be tackled by the visionary filmmaker is an adaptation of the novel Flicker, a unique sci-fi thriller that revolves around the history of film. The plot follows an L.A. film student who becomes obsessed with a hack filmmaker and in the process begins to believe that B-movies were created as a plot to destroy life on Earth. The book was written by Theodore Roszak, a history professor at Cal State. Since Aronofsky's last film, he's been the victim of several hurdles towards getting his next project launched. The first was the highly anticipated science fiction film The Fountain, which was set to go last summer with Warner Brothers. Aronofsky had Brad Pitt attached to star in the film, but the project collapsed after Aronofsky and Pitt parted ways over creative differences. Aronofsky has also been attached to the rumored Batman: Year One film, which was to take a completely new and darker approach to the comic book franchise, but that project is still sitting in Limbo.

Director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind (2001), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)), is set to begin production on his western The Missing, taking on the project after his initial plans to direct Disney's epic film The Alamo fell through. The Missing, originally called The Ride, takes place in the old West and brings together an estranged father and daughter when the daughter's child is kidnapped by bandits. Imagine Entertainment and Brian Grazer are producing the film, which is set to go before cameras in New Mexico this March. The screenplay for The Missing was written by Ken Kaufman (Space Cowboys (2000)). Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, and Evan Rachel Wood have all signed on for the lead roles, and Howard expects the film to be completed in time for a release date of sometime during 2004.