Conning Congress: After some back and forth last month, it now appears that both director David O. Russell (The Fighter) and actor Christian Bale are attached to a project currently titled American Bullshit. Bradley Cooper is in talks to appear as well. The story, previously described as concerning ‘a con man who works with the FBI on an (unidentified but) far-reaching corruption case,’ has now been confirmed as being based on the late 70s / early 80s Abscam scandal in which six members of Congress were implicated. [Deadline]
Mysterious Package: What do you get when you combine Charlize Theron, star of the hotly-anticipated Prometheus, with Rupert Wyatt, director of surprisingly good Rise of the Planet of the Apes? A sci-action flick titled Agent 13, based on a script by T.S. Nowlin that is being kept under wraps while “most of the major studios” reportedly throw high-dollar offers at the agency that has packaged the deal. We await the synopsis with breathless anticipation. [Variety]
All Out of Love: Lionsgate, the distributor of The Hunger Games, has decided that another movie with a positive portrayal of a teenage girl, LOL, should be sacrified quietly by assigning it a release date opposite The Avengers next month. Intended as a showcase for the maturing Miley Cyrus, LOL lacks an easy marketing hook and Lionsgate ‘lost confidence’ that they could sell the picture; the company apparently has no plans to publicize the May 4 release. [Los Angeles Times]
Ladies’ Night: Male strippers may be (mostly) for ladies, but the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, due out on June 29, goes easy on the stripping, promoting the lead character (Channing Tatum) as a very manly entrepreneur -- and a macho dude who likes a lovely lady (Cody Horn). [Collider]