Just yesterday, Disney announced that Maleficent, the live-action retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story starring Angelina Jolie as the eponymous villain, would arrive in theaters on March 14, 2014.  Before she moves into the realm of a fantasy origin tale, though, Jolie might just join a very different type of project for a brief spell.  That would be The Counselor, the next film from Ridley Scott that is attracting attention from very famous people and a potential distributor.

About two months ago, The Counselor was a project of which we were wholly unaware.  It wasn't even really a project, really.  Now, though, the Cormac McCarthy-scripted The Counselor is one of the most exciting things going.  The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist's first screenplay immediately got no less a director than Ridley Scott on board, and with Michael Fassbender attached to star, the supporting cast is coming into focus.  Right now, a trio of Oscar-caliber actors are in early talks, as Natalie Portman, Jeremy Renner, and Javier Bardem all look to join the film.

The Counselor, the first screenplay from Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Cormac McCarthy, is on track to become a movie very quickly.  We learned about the script's existence about three weeks ago, after McCarthy surprised his agents, who were expecting a new novel, with his first script in December.  Last week, it came out that no less a director than Ridley Scott was in talks.  Now, Scott has locked down a deal to direct The Counselor, he's planning a summer productions start, and he's looking at a badass leading man to play the title role.

Wow.  Two weeks ago to the day, we learned that Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Cormac McCarthy had taken a break from writing his stripped down novels of violence in order to write his first feature screenplay, The Counselor, which will presumably be a stripped down tale of violence as well.  Producers quickly grabbed up the spec script, and at the time said that they would sort out funding then set to work finding a director.  Seems they may have skipped a step, as one of the biggest directors in the game is in talks to direct: Ridley Scott.

With his stripped down prose almost entirely devoid of punctuation, strangely elegant depictions of violence, and focus on Western imagery and themes, Cormac McCarthy is a distinctly American novelist and a national treasure.  The Pulitzer Prize winning author has seen his work adapted to film three times, most notably in 2007's No Country for Old Men, but now, at 78 years old, McCarthy has surprisingly written his first screenplay, which has already been acquired by producers who have tackled his work before.

Until a few weeks ago, Universal Studios was dauntlessly plowing ahead with The Dark Tower, an adaptation of the fantasy/western novel series by Stephen King that would consist of a film trilogy and two limited-run television series to bridge the gaps between film installments.  With production on the first film set to start in the Fall, Universal blinked and put pre-production on hold.  Director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, along with writer Akiva Goldsman, persuaded the studio to stay with the crazy ambitious, crazy expensive project, but at a reduced budget.  Howard himself has, for the first time, provided a brief update on the first film's status, including the involvement of leading man Javier Bardem.

A week ago, news broke that Universal Studios had halted pre-production on The Dark Tower, director Ron Howard and writer Akiva Goldsman's massively ambitious adaptation of the novel series by Stephen King.  Reportedly daunted by the huge budget required for a huge fantasy western film trilogy and two limited-run television series to connect the films, the studio abandoned the planned autumn production start and was likely to put the project into turnaround, but now it looks like The Dark Tower will remain at Universal, albeit with a reduced budget.

Javier Bardem, the man who made a goofy haircut and denim outfit horrifying in No Country for Old Men, was offered the lead role in Ron Howard's The Dark Tower at the end of January.  He has since been courted by director Sam Mendes to play a role in the upcoming 23rd James Bond installment, but according to Deadline, Bardem is this close to finalizing his deal with Universal to play the Gunslinger in Howard's massively ambitious adaptation of the seven-novel Stephen King series.

Ethan and Joel Coen have given us some of the greatest film’s in recent memory. Their unique mash-up of dark comedy and ruthless violence often leaves an impression long after viewing their pictures. In fact, you could argue that these two brothers are making the best films today.

While that’s a debate that could rage on for far, far too long, one fact remains set in stone, these two possess a genius rarely found in this industry.

In honor of the upcoming True Grit, I’m counting down my five favorite Coen pictures. You may agree or disagree, but there’s no denying the impact these films have had on the industry and fans alike.

Mega-producer Scott Rudin has purchased the upcoming novel Freedom, which was written by Jonathan Franzen, author of the much-beloved tome The Corrections. The announcement is well-timed, as Franzen appears on the cover of Time magazine today, accompanied by the headline "Great American Novelist". Heady praise for a writer whose last book (Corrections) came out almost ten years ago, although that book is considered a modern classic and won the prestigious National Book Award.