MAMMA MIA
Tom Hanks and producing partner Gary Goetzman are finalizing plans for a big screen version of the Broadway musical Mamma Mia! for holiday 2007 release. Playwrite Catherine Johnson, is writing the screenplay. Show producer Judy Craymer had rebuffed film offers for years but liked what Hanks, Goetzman, and Rita Wilson had done to turn Nia Vardalos' one-woman stage show into My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

ME, ME, ME
New Line is developing Johnny Rosenthal's comedy Me, Me, Me. Shawn Levy (Pink Panther) will direct and produce. The story centers on the world's most obnoxious narcissist, who wishes people could be more like him and then enters a living hell when his dream becomes a reality.

DEATH AT A FUNERAL
MGM has gotten behind the comedy Death at a Funeral. Frank Oz is direct from a screenplay by Dean Craig. Matthew Macfadyen, Peter Dinklage, and Ewen Bremner will star. The story revolves around a dysfunctional Brit family as they gather to mourn the passing of their patriarch, but a sober, heartfelt goodbye turns into calamity.

LARKLIGHT
Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to British author Philip Reeve's fantasy-adventure Larklight for Denise Di Novi to produce. Larklight is the first in a Victorian-era space adventure trilogy in which a brother and sister team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.

TENDERNESS
Russell Crowe has signed to star in director John Polson's indie thriller Tenderness, adapted by Emil Stern from the Robert Cormier's novel. The tale follows a violent teenager whose life intertwines with a 16-year-old runaway who can't resist his charm. Crowe will play a cop who sets out to unravel the teen's complex past.

CASE 39
Renee Zellweger has signed on for Paramount's horror-thriller Case 39. The screenplay by Ray Wright centers around a social worker who saves an abused 10-year-old girl from her parents, only to discover that the parents are not the real problem. Kevin Misher and Steve Golin are producing. The studio is still looing for a director.

NORBIT
Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Eddie Griffin join Eddie Murphy in DreamWorks' Norbit. Brian Robbins (Smallville) is directing. John Davis, Mike Tollin, and Eddie Murphy are producing. The comedy focused on a meek guy (Murphy) pressed into marrying a monstrous woman (also Murphy), only to meet the woman of his dreams (Newton). Gooding plays Newton's boyfriend, with Griffin as a retired pimp.

Source: Variety