Screen Talk: Reuniting for love and drugs

Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, who played a doomed husband and wife in 'Brokeback Mountain', are in negotiations to reunite for 'Love and Other Drugs' directed by Ed Zwick.

Charles Randolph has adapted Jamie Reidy's nonfiction book 'Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman'. Reidy was a drug rep for Pfizer in the late 1990s who eventually wrote a memoir that shined a light on the practices of the pharmaceutical industry. Gyllenhaal is lined up to play the salesman, who begins a relationship with a woman who has Parkinson's (Hathaway) while on one of his sales calls. 20th Century Fox is in the process of obtaining the rights from Universal Studios.

A broad church

A horror Western based on a TokyoPop comic book sounds like something only someone in Hollywood might attempt. Which is why Cam Gigandet will star opposite Paul Bettany in 'Priest' in an adaptation by Cory Goodman of the TokyoPop comic book 'Priest'. Set in a world ravaged by of war between man and vampires, the story follows a warrior priest (Bettany) who rejects the church to track down a murderous band of vampires. Gigandet plays a young, part-vampire sheriff who partners with Bettany to save the girl he loves.

Charmed, I'm sure

Former 'Charmed' star Alyssa Milano is weaving a spell for big screen plans after signing to star in and produce 'My Girlfriend's Boyfriend'. Billed as a romantic comedy, Milano will play a woman with a relationship dilemma in the project that also includes Beau Bridges, Michael Landes, Christopher Gorham and Carol Kane in the cast. Milano will play an outgoing woman who meets two seemingly ideal men in quick succession – a struggling novelist (Gorham) and successful ad exec (Landes) – and must decide between them. Daryn Tufts will direct from his own script.

Boy's own chat up lines

20th Century Fox is always on the lookout for risky material. But the studio has gone early on 'How to Talk to Girls', a self-help book written by a nine-year old lad named Alex Greven (left). Writers Ben Karlin and Stu Zicherman have been hired to translate the young man's musings on seduction into script form. Karlin and Zicherman, who paired up to write 'A.C.O.D. (Adult Children of Divorce)', will pen a feature screenplay from Greven's extensive experience in the playground. Greven was selling his handwritten pamphlet at his school book fair before HarperCollins published it in November. The youngster apparently was trying to give his peers some tips on communicating with their fairer schoolmates beyond pulling hair and kicking shins.

Jett's for Runaway success

Plans to make a picture based on Joan Jett's seminal 1970s rock band The Runaways is picking up steam. While Kristen Stewart will play Jett and Dakota Fanning is on board to play bandmate Cherie Curry, Michael Shannon is also looking to put another dime in the jukebox, baby. The Oscar nominee is in negotiations to play one of the lead male roles in the script. Although the film centers on the four female members of the band, there are a number of key male roles representing people who were personally and professionally associated with band members. Shannon has seen the scripts roll in since breaking out in 'Revolutionary Road' as John Givings, a mentally unbalanced man who is the only person willing to speak the truth about the repression in the film's 1950s Connecticut community.