• Rowan Atkinson is reportedly in negotiations to play the role of the villain Mondavarious in the forthcoming Scooby-Doo film, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The much-anticipated film (see earlier story) will star Sarah Michelle Geller as Daphne, alongside real-life boyfriend Freddie Prinze Jr who will play Fred. The production starts filming in Australia on February 13.
• Full Monty star Mark Addy has signed up to star opposite Guy Pearce in The Time Machine, based on the classic novel by HG Wells about an inventor who creates a machine that allows him to travel 800,000 years into the future. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Wells's great-grandson, Simon Wells, will direct the project from a script by Gladiator scribe John Logan. Filming begins on February 4.
• R&B singer, Aaliyah, who made her acting debut in last year's Romeo Must Die, has been added to the cast of the sequels to The Matrix, reports Variety. Aaliyah will play a character named Zee who is likely to become more prominent in The Matrix 3 which is due to be shot immediately after the second instalment. Original cast members Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving are back on board for the sequels, and Jada Pinkett Smith has been added to the cast as Niobi, the love interest for Fishburne's character.
• The solo film debut of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell has been delayed for more than a year due to an unworkable script. Halliwell is due to earn $1.6m (£1.09m) for the lead role in Therapy, a drama about a girl who has an affair with her shrink. Filming, which was due to start in September last year, now looks unlikely to go ahead until at least 2002. A spokesman for the singer told reporters: '"The script is currently undergoing its sixth or seventh rewrite. There are usually up to 15 rewrites and movies can take up to four years from start to finish. Filming might not even start this year. We can't say for sure when filming will start as the process of script development and pre-production takes so long."
