Looks like the last FlixChatter’s news post in 2009 will end with some bizarre ones. So let’s get to ’em, shall we?

• Pride & Prejudice meets Zombies
  It doesn’t get more bizarre than this. Based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the movie will focus on heroine Elizabeth Bennet’s quest for love and independence amidst the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious killers (Variety). Her battle with the zombies inevitably gets distracted by the arrival of the pompous Mr. Darcy. Natalie Portman has signed on to play miss Bennet, and now FirstShowing reported that the movie might’ve found an unlikely director/screenwriter combo: David O’Russell. The famously temperamental director (there’s a link to a vid of him screaming profanities at Lily Tomlin on the FirstShowing article) is currently wrapping up The Fighter with Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg. Hmmm, I wonder how the set is like with him and Bale working together? DPs better have their earplugs handy.
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• Sam Worthington in Flash Gordon reboot?
  Now this one isn’t exactly news, as Cinematical downplayed this one as mere rumor at this point. Reportedly, the Avatar star and Ryan Reynolds are the two being considered to play the American football player. Neither is a stranger to action-packed roles, and though both are foreign actors (Aussie and Canadian respectively), both of them are look like the jock-type that’d fit the role. I always thought the original Flash kind of resemble Ashton Kutcher with blond hair, he’d be a good one if they’re making a spoof of that. According to the article, the potential director of the film Breck Eisner’s vision is to throw away the 80s version …“ For me it’s about reinventing ‘Flash’ – we’re still staying true to the adventure origins of it, and the adventurous spirit in that movie, absolutely. It’s this man brought to another planet and uniting the disparate groups on Mongo, but there is a gritty, intense, dynamic, active quality to the movie. Very modern. It’s not camp.”
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• James McAvoy in talks to play Bond creator Ian Fleming
  I’m surprised they haven’t made a movie of this sooner as I’d think his life would make for an interesting biopic. The Scottish actor (Atonement, Wanted) will play the English author based on Andrew Lycett’s book Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond. Per EmpireOnline, here’s what we could expect: Fleming lived largely in the shadow of his politician father and more notable siblings, living the life of a wayward playboy before World War II changed his life and gave him the inspiration for Britain’s best secret agent. No director’s been attached to this yet, but this looks like meaty role for the talented McAvoy.
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• Knightley, Fassbender and Waltz cast in The Talking Cure?
  Two Inglorious Basterds stars are joining Keira Knightley in the David Cronenberg’s film. ComingSoon.net described the plot as such: A beautiful young woman, driven mad by her past. An ambitious doctor on a mission to succeed. An esteemed mentor with a revolutionary cure. Let the mind games begin. The film is an adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s 2002 play of the same name. Knightley would play Sabina Spielrein, a Russian-Jewish psychiatric patient, who is said to have inspired some of Carl Jung (Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud’s (Waltz) most remarkable discoveries. Ralph Fiennes played Jung in the theater production back in 2003.
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• Rene Russo joined the star-studded Thor
  The Kenneth Branagh’s superhero movie got Russo back from being MIA for about 5 years. Her last movie was Yours, Mine and Ours back in 2005. She will play queen of Asgard Frigga, the mother of hammer wielding Norse hero and wife of Norse god Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins. For more info about the movie, read it in my previous post. The movie is set for release May 20, 2011.