• Hong Kong actress Michelle Yeoh (pictured) is in hasty talks to join the cast of the two Matrix sequels due to be shot next year. Soon to be seen in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yeoh looks set to take over a role originally tipped to go to the (male) action star Jet Li. Negotiations with Li are said to have broken down because of a wrangle over money. Variety reports that Li had asked for $13m (£8.8m) for his work in two films, but the makers were prepared to offer him only $3m (£2m). The result: exit Jet, enter Michelle.
• Perhaps Li could learn a lesson from Jack Nicholson, who is rumoured to be about to slash his traditional asking price, generally thought to hover around the $15m (£10.2m) mark, in order to star in the mid-budget drama About Schmidt. Based on the 1996 novel Election by Louis Begley, the film will star Nicholson, in Willy Loman mode, as an anguished, divorced insurance salesman whose dreams have turned to ashes.
• The news that Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be starring in the Disney action adventure Reign of Fire has caught a lot of people by surprise, including - presumably - Arnie himself. Only last week the granite-jawed actor appeared to confirm that he would be acting in the movie, admitting to the Irish website What's On Where that: "We've been involved in that for quite some time. Nothing is set yet, as far as I remember, as to where it's going to be shot. It could easily be in Ireland." In fact Reign of Fire is to be shot in Ireland: the $50m (£34m) spectacular, starring Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale shoots in March in locations around Belfast and Dublin and at the Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow. But the producers have insisted that Schwarzenegger has no involvement in the project. Yesterday a spokesman went still further. "We don't know where the Schwarzenegger rumours started but they are definitely not true. Christian and Matthew are the main stars." But has anyone told Arnie?
• Anthony Hopkins is in talks to star opposite comic Chris Rock in Black Sheep, a high-concept (read trashy) comedy thriller for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The newly Americanised Hopkins will play a suave CIA agent who serves as a mentor to Chris Rock's outrageous young pup. Rock, in fact, will play two roles: a streetwise street dude and his murdered CIA twin brother. The script comes courtesy of Jason Richman and the film (as yet without a director) rolls before the cameras on February 9.
