Movies in development

Movies in development:

Ex-senator off to the races

Ex-senator Fred Thompson is making his return to feature films, joining A.J. Michalka and Kevin Connolly in Disney's "Secretariat."

Margo Martindale, Eric Lange and Drew Roy also have joined the cast of the Randall Wallace-directed picture.

The film stars Diane Lane as the horse's owner, Penny Tweedy, the housewife who broke though a gender barrier to usher Secretariat to the 1973 Triple Crown. Thompson will play a horse breeder. Michalka will play Lane's daughter; Connolly will play a sportswriter.

Scripters get 'Arrested'

"Arrested Development" creator Mitchell Hurwitz and his co-executive producer James Vallely are working on a screenplay for a feature version of their short-lived Fox series.

Even as they prep a new Fox comedy series with "Arrested" star Will Arnett, the writers are spinning more bizarre encounters for the eccentric, spoiled Bluth clan for possible feature production in the spring.

Hurwitz had said that he wouldn't start writing a film unless all the main actors, including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Arnett, Alia Shawkat, Portia de Rossi and Jeffrey Tambor, were committed.

But now Hurwitz and Vallely are forging ahead. Director Ron Howard, who executive produced the series and provided the voice of the narrator, played himself in the final episode hearing a pitch of the Bluth story and suggesting it for a movie. Hurwitz, however, will direct the feature.

Gabba Gabba Hey

Fox Searchlight is in negotiations to board a project about the life of the Ramones, based on a memoir titled "I Slept With Joey Ramone."

Written by Joey Ramone's brother, Mickey Leigh, and longtime punk writer and Ramones chronicler Legs McNeil, the book centers on the life of Joey Ramone, aka Jeffrey Hyman, the lead singer of the seminal punk act.

The memoir is set to be published by Simon & Schuster imprint Fireside in December.

John Cummings, Hyman, Thomas Erdelyi and Douglas Colvin were the four key members of the Ramones, going by the names Johnny, Joey, Tommy and Dee Dee Ramone. Formed in Queens, New York, in 1974, the four (unrelated) musicians became cult symbols and fathers of the punk movement, attaining little commercial airplay but heavily influencing modern music with songs like "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Rockaway Beach" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend."

Hugh Jackman gets 'Real'

Hugh Jackman is in talks to take on the lead role in "Real Steel," a family adventure that Shawn Levy is directing for DreamWorks Studios.

Jackman would play a father who reunites with his estranged teenage son. The two then attempt to rehabilitate an extraordinary fighter headed into a robot boxing tournament in a world where boxing between humans has been outlawed.

John Gatins ("Dreamer") wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay.

Foxx sets the 'Date'

Jamie Foxx is boarding the cast of "Due Date," Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' latest Todd Phillips comedy.

Foxx joins Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis in the road-trip movie about a high-strung father-to-be (Downey) forced to hitch a ride with a college slacker (Galifianakis) in order to be present for the birth of his child.

Foxx will play Downey's longtime pal who once dated his wife (Michelle Monaghan) and secretly keeps in touch with her.

"Date" begins shooting this fall in Atlanta, New Mexico and Los Angeles.

Reilly to 'Cedar Rapids'

John C. Reilly is joining Ed Helms in "Cedar Rapids," Fox Searchlight's ensemble road-trip comedy that Miguel Arteta is directing.

Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor and Jim Burke are producing via their Ad Hominem Enterprises banner.

The story, by Phil Johnston, centers on a wholesome and naive small-town Wisconsin man (Helms) who, when his role model dies, must represent his company at a regional insurance conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his mind is blown by the big-town experience.

Reilly's character also is attending the conference and is a family man who sees the event as a vacation and time to let loose.

Reilly, whose most recent major feature appearance was in "Step Brothers," next appears in "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant."

- Hollywood Reporter