Screen Talk: Heche tagged

Heche will star alongside Rufus Sewell and Colm Meaney in The Occult, a film detailing strange goings-on within a religious cult, directed by Christian Christiansen. When young girls start to go missing, older followers in the cult fear a long-told prophecy while younger members suspect abusive elders are killing them off. Heche is also appearing in horror movie Nothing to Fear, a story of a family whose journey to better times is interrupted by a man of the cloth.

The page turner

The Australian novelist Tim Winton's short stories collection The Turning is to be turned into an omnibus movie with some top-class fellow Aussies on board. Actors Cate Blanchett, Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham are all set to make their directorial debuts as part of a film based on Winton's overlapping stories, which, while self-contained, explore turning points in seemingly disparate but connected lives. The 17 directors attached to the project include Benedict Andrews, Jonathan auf der Heide, Tony Ayres, Shaun Gladwell, Rhys Graham, Justin Kurzel, Ian Meadows, Yaron Lifschitz, Claire McCarthy, Ashlee Page and Stephen Page. Winton, a western Australian will travel across his own continent to see his works turned into movie gold. It will shoot down under before the screen stars return to Hollywood.

Man alive

Hollywood is again abuzz with Lost writer Brian K Vaughan's comic book creation Y: The Last Man being turned into a film by New Line Cinema. Writing duo Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia are in final negotiations to write the adaptation of the acclaimed Vertigo comic book. Created by Vaughan and Pia Guerra, Y: The Last Man revolves around Yorick, an escape artist who is the last survivor of a mysterious plague that has killed every male mammal in the world barring him and his pet monkey. He sets out to find the cause with his simian friend. The project has languished in development at New Line for a long while and last came close to a green light in an incarnation from a script by Carl Ellsworth, with D J Caruso attached as director. Federman and Scaia will go back to the drawing board, the pair having made their names as writer-producers on US TV shows Charlie's Angels, Human Target, Warehouse 13 and Jericho.

Creature feature

A graphic novel about a young girl who moves to New York and finds out her neighbour is Bolivar, the last living dinosaur, has caught the eye of Warner Bros. The studio has picked up movie rights to Bolivar, a soon-to-be-published book from Archaia Entertainment for heavyweight producers Akiva Goldsman and Kerry Foster to make. Archaia editor-in-chief Stephen Christy will produce. The animated adaptation comes with the Irish film-maker Kealan O'Rourke attached to write and direct. The graphic novel is written and illustrated by Sean Rubin, and is due out in May 2013 in the US.

You gotta pay for your right to MTV

Producer and director Brett Ratner is planning to adapt the book I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution for the big screen. Backed by Sony Pictures, Ratner aims to bring to life the words of authors Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum from a script written by Jody Lambert, whose debut screenplay, Welcome to People, will soon be released under the name People Like Me. A big expense for the film will be for the music, with chronicled moments including Michael Jackson dancing with zombies in "Thriller" and the Beastie Boys spraying beer in "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)".