Anthony Hopkins, who is rumoured to be a possible contender to play Alfred Lambert, the patriarch of Jonathan Franzen’s landmark novel The Corrections.
I must stress, to all the Franzen fans out there, that this is only a rumour at the moment, but I gather director and screen writer Noah Baumbach has been adapting Franzen’s work as a possible drama series for HBO, which means that if it happens it will appear on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
It’s very early days, though, and I also hear whispers that Donald Sutherland would like the role of Alfred, who lives with his wife Enid in the Midwest.
They have three children - two sons and a daughter - all with complicated lives.
Once upon a time Stephen Daldry was going to direct a film version using a screenplay by David Hare. This was back in 2001 and at the time, Daldry wanted Paul Newman or Gene Hackman.
Hopkins may not end up doing it, but it is good that the project is still being discussed and worked on.
Gary Oldman, who stars as George Smiley in the brilliant big-screen version of John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He told me that he thought this year was “the year of Tom Hardy”.
“Not only is he in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with me but he’s done the new Batman - and I play a Chicago gangster in The Wettest County, and Tom’s in that, too. I can’t get away from him!” he joked.
“It’s fun when you get to work with good young actors who are coming up,” he added. There’s some top talent in Tinker.”
The film screens at the Venice Film Festival next week and opens soon in the UK through new distributor StudioCanal.
* Darren Aronofsky, who directed Natalie Portman to an Oscar for Black Swan. Darren told me he is looking for a star actor, aged around 35, to play Noah in a movie called Noah’s Ark. I had heard about the project but figured it was some science-fiction picture.
“No! It’s the animals, the ark, the floods and Noah with his long beard,” the film-maker explained.
He, meanwhile, was all dressed up in Gucci (pictured) in his role as president of the Venice Film Festival jury.
* Michael Fassbender, who has two movies here in Venice. He plays Carl Jung in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, opposite Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen (as Sigmund Freud).
It’s about sexual abuse and psychiatry and has some potent things to say about both. And then he appears in Steve McQueen’s Shame, alongside Carey Mulligan; I’ll be watching that one on Sunday. - Daily Mail