Hudson, Latifah join 'Bees' hive

Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah and Sophie Okonedo are signed on to star in Fox Searchlight's

The Secret Lives of Bees,

with Dakota Fanning in talks to join them.

Alicia Keys is also in talks to join the cast of

Bees,

which will be adapted and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (

Love & Basketball

), according to a published report.

Based on the 2002 novel by Sue Monk Kidd, the project is set in South Carolina in 1964 and would feature Fanning as a 14-year-old girl who runs away from home with her caregiver (Hudson). They take refuge with a trio of sassy beekeeping sisters. We're guessing that they teach her about the secret life of bees, but that bees are just a metaphor.

Production on

The Secret Life of Bees

will begin this month in North Carolina, with an eye toward a 2008 release.

An Oscar winner for

Dreamgirls,

Hudson has most recently been working on the

Sex and the City

movie.

Hudson can wave around her Oscar on set to taunt Latifah (

Mad Money

) and Okonedo (

Aeon Flux

), nonvictorious nominees for

Chicago

and

Hotel Rwanda

respectively.

Keys (

Smokin' Aces

) will have to show off her pile of Grammys, while Fanning (

Charlotte's Web

) will just be satisfied with her MTV Movie Award and the ability to move objects using only her mind (or so we hear).

Brad Pitt may be climbing into Terrence Malick's

Tree of Life,

replacing Heath Ledger in the gestating drama.

Pitt is in talks to join the River Road-financed project, which will also feature Sean Penn, a published report said. Ledger had been attached to the lead role as recently as late October, and the trade paper gives no indications as to what happened to the

Brokeback Mountain

star's participation.

Nobody knows much of anything about the Malick-scripted drama except that production will begin this spring. Ledger was circling a leading role originally earmarked for Malick's

The New World

star Colin Farrell.

Penn's role in the project will be a supporting turn (no contracts have been signed), especially since he'll be playing the title character in Gus Van Sant's

Harvey Milk.

The trade paper says that although Pitt was expected to collect a $20 million against gross paycheck for

State of Play,

which he exited last month, he'd receive only a fraction of that for

Tree of Life.

Most recently seen in

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,

Pitt has finished work on

The Curious Incident of Benjamin Button

and

Burn After Reading,

both set for release this year.