Dustin Hoffman has joined the cast of “Barney’s Version,” a big-screen adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel by Mordecai Richler.

The two-time Academy Award winner will star alongside Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”), who will portray the cantankerous title character, Barney Panofsky. Hoffman will play Izzy, Barney’s foul-mouthed, retired cop father.

In a statement, the film’s director expressed his excitement for the addition of Hoffman to the Canada-Italy co-production.

“Many of the films that Dustin Hoffman starred in (The Graduate, Straw Dogs, Little Big Man) led me to become a filmmaker in the first place,” said Richard J. Lewis, whose credits include episodes of “CSI” and “North of 60.” “Now I have the opportunity to work with a legend.”

Principal photography is slated to begin Aug. 17 in Rome. Filming also expected to take place in Montreal, the Laurentians and New York.

Montreal author Richler won the Giller Prize for his novel, which was published in 1997.

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Keanu Reeves will get in touch with his inner beast for his latest project.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor is attached to star in Universal’s modern retelling of the classic novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Tentatively titled “Jekyll,” the movie is being penned by “Revolutionary Road” scribe Justin Haythe, while Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn is in negotiations to direct.

While specific plot details are being kept under wraps, Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of a doctor with a split personality has been retold dozens of times on screen and stage. Most recently, a 2007 BBC miniseries starring James Nesbitt updated the story to modern-day London.

And there’s more “Jekyll” in store – THR reports that Universal is developing another version of the story with Guillermo del Toro, one that will adhere more closely to the original Stevenson tale. However, that version is not expected to be out for at least five years as the “Pan’s Labyrinth” filmmaker has several other projects in the works, including “The Hobbit.”

Reeves most recently appeared in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” remake and is slated to star in a live-action version of the “Cowboy Bebop” sci-fi cartoon.

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“Wolverine” star Hugh Jackman is set to star in another comic-book movie, this time a big-screen adaptation of the upcoming graphic novel “Ghostopolis.”

According to The Hollywood Producer, Jackman will both star in and co-produce the film through his company, Seed Productions.

Written and illustrated by Doug TenNapel, “Ghostopolis” revolves around a man who works for the Supernatural Immigration Task Force, a fictional government agency that specializes in sending ghosts who have escaped into our world back to Ghostopolis.

When a living boy is accidentally sent to The Other Side, the agent must team up with a female ghost – also his former girlfriend – to retrieve the child.

The movie, which is being set up at Disney, does not have a director or writer attached yet.

A release date also has yet to be announced for the “Ghostopolis” graphic novel, which will be published through Scholastic. TenNapel’s work is in high demand in Hollywood, with three of his other graphic novels – “Tommysaurus Rex,” “Creature Tech” and “Monster Zoo” – already set up at various studios as movie projects.

Fans of Jackman can currently see him on the big screen in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which debuted atop the North American box office last weekend with an estimated $87 million.

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Marlon Wayans is getting ready to know the Bible inside and out for Paramount’s “The Year of Living Biblically.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Scary Movie” star will star in and produce the big-screen adaptation of A.J. Jacobs’ best-selling nonfiction book, which was published in 2007.

The book, subtitled “One Man’s Humble Quest to Obey the Bible as Literally as Possible,” chronicles Jacobs’ attempts to live by every single rule of the Old and New Testaments for a year. The author finds both comedy and enlightenment as he takes on the Ten Commandments, “Love thy neighbour” and hundreds of lesser-known rules such as “Do not wear clothes of mixed fibers” and “Do not shave your beard.”

Julian Farino, whose credits include HBO’s “Entourage,” is attached to direct.

Wayans will appear in two movies in the coming months, “Dance Flick” – which he also co-wrote and produced – and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” Other than the “Scary Movie” franchise, his film credits include “Requiem for a Dream,” “White Chicks” and “Little Man.”

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Al Pacino has taken on a variety of real-life roles during his four-decade acting career: American bank robber John Wojtowicz (a.k.a. Sonny Wortzik in “Dog Day Afternoon”), NYPD officer Frank Serpico (“Serpico”), McCarthyist lawyer Roy Cohn (the TV miniseries “Angels in America”). Now, he can add Napoleon Bonaparte to that list.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pacino has signed on to play the famous French ruler in a big-screen adaptation of the children’s book “Betsy and the Emperor.”

Written by Staton Rabin, the book is based on the true story of Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe – known as Betsy to family and friends – who, as a teenager, befriended Napoleon during his exile on St. Helena and later penned a memoir about the experience.

The independent film will be directed by John Curran (“The Painted Veil”) and is expected to begin filming in late autumn.

This isn’t the only Napoleon and Betsy film in the works – as previously reported, “Harry Potter” actress Emma Watson had signed on to play the lead in “Napoleon and Betsy” back in April. The film remains in pre-production, and its fate is unclear at the moment.

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The killer clown is back.

Warner Bros. is bringing Stephen King’s “It” to the big screen, almost two decades after the top-selling horror novel was turned into an TV miniseries starring Tim Curry as the sadistic clown Pennywise.

Dave Kajganich (“The Invasion”) has been hired to pen the screenplay, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Published in 1986, King’s novel follows a group of kids in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, as they encounter an evil entity called “It”. The creature, which lurks in the town’s sewers, preys on children by shape-shifting into their biggest fears, its favourite form being that of a balloon-wielding clown.

The story revolves around the main characters’ battles with It, first as children and then decades later as adults.

Besides Curry, the 1990 ABC miniseries starred John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Tim Reid, Annette O’Toole and Richard Thomas.

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