Bonham Carter lined up for Blyton story

Helena Bonham Carter is set to play the famed chldren's author Enid Blyton in a new BBC biopic.

The British actress Helena Bonham Carter has signed on to play the famous children's author Enid Blyton in a BBC biopic. Enid will profile the late writer who penned the classic kids' fiction series Noddy, The Famous Five, and The Secret Seven, Variety reports. The NBC Universal division Carnival Films is producing the film, which is one of four biopics on strong women, that the British broadcaster will air as part of its autumn line-up.

The programme includes Mrs Mandela, in which Sophie Okonedo plays Nelson Mandela's former wife Winnie; Margot, about the ballerina Margot Fonteyn (Anne-Marie Duff); and Gracie! which will star Jane Horrocks as the actress Gracie Fields. Charlotte Gainsbourg filming down under Fresh from being awarded Best Actress at this year's Cannes Film Festival for her role in Lars Von Trier's Antichrist, Charlotte Gainsbourg has begun filming in Australia. She is working on a film titled The Tree with the director Julie Bertucelli, Screen International reports.

The film is based on the book, Our Father Who Art in the Tree, by the UK-based Australian author Judy Pascoe. The story revolves around a 10-year-old girl who loses her father and starts talking to a tree, which becomes the pillar of family life. Gainsbourg plays the girl's mother. Budgeted at $10 million (Dh37m), the film is being produced by Australia's Taylor Media in co-production with Les Films du Poisson. Bertucelli's first feature film, Since Otar Left, won the Grand Jury Prize of the Critics' Week at Cannes in 2003.

Singer's Excalibur remake will soon be set in stone Bryan Singer is in talks to remake John Boorman's 1981 movie Excalibur, about King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Warner Bros is negotiating with Boorman to secure rights to the film, says The Hollywood Reporter. Singer would work as a producer on the project and his version is expected to be more of an epic fantasy version of the well-known legend.

Yellow Submarine remake ready to resurface The 1968 animation film Yellow Submarine is to be remade for Disney as a performance-capture 3D movie by Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express), Variety reports. The original film was based on the music of The Beatles, which Disney is negotiating to secure the rights to. The original story followed an old soldier who becomes friends with The Beatles and travels by submarine to a place called Pepperland.

Taiwan government's film-funding crackdown The director Cheng Hsiao-tse's Miao Miao has become the subject of a funding row in Taiwan. The Taiwanese Government Information Office (GMO) has ordered the film's producers to repay around $250,000 (Dh925,000) the movie had received in funding, and banned them from applying for funding for the next three years. The GMO says that the producers violated a contract, which stipulated registration of the film at the festival as a Taiwanese production. The producers had sent in their application from a Hong Kong address, and the film was later withdrawn from the event, alongside six other Chinese films, in protest of a screening of the Australian documentary, The Ten Conditions of Love about the Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

Yet another Jimi Hendrix feature in the works Hollywood's Legendary Pictures is planning a feature film about the musician Jimi Hendrix, Variety reports. The company's Thomas Tull is producing with Bill Gerber. Max Borenstein (What Is Life Worth?) is penning the script. Legendary must first resolve the rights issues to Hendrix's music, which has stalled previous films. Lenny Kravitz and Andre Benjamin from OutKast were in talks to star in two previous Hendrix projects.

Fox trumpeting plans for Magician's Elephant Fox has hired Martin Hynes (The Go-Getter) to adapt Kate DiCamillo's upcoming children's book, The Magicians Elephant, Variety reports. The story follows an orphan who sets out to find his long-lost sister with the help of an elephant. Indian backing comes to DreamWorks' aid DreamWorks 3.0 has relaunched with $325 million (Dh1.2bn) of backing from India's Reliance Big Entertainment, matching $325m provided in senior debt by JP Morgan Securities, The Hollywood Reporter writes. Walt Disney Studios will distribute and market DreamWorks films and extend a loan to the company. "This will allow us to move ahead quickly into production with our first group of films," said Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg in a joint statement.

Michael Jackson concert documentary release set Sony Pictures and Sony Music have confirmed the worldwide release of the Michael Jackson This Is It concert film for October 28, Variety reports. Directed by Kenny Ortega (High School Musical), the film will consist of rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage shot while Jackson prepared for his London concert tour. The film will play a two-week exclusive run.