Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh will topline “Valkyrie”, a thriller that is set in the heart of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich at the height of World War II. Cruise and Branagh will play two German SS officers that are leading a plot to assassinate Hitler to try and stop the war before it destroys millions more lives. The movie, which is the second to be produced under Cruise’s newly reformed United Artists company, will filming this summer under the direction of Bryan Singer (“X-Men”, “X-Men 2”). Christopher McQuarrie, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “The Usual Suspects” (another movie that was directed by Singer) and Nathan Alexander wrote the script for “Valkyrie”. The idea for the movie was taken from a real plot hatched by German officers to kill Hitler during WWII.

Cruise is starring in and producing “Lions For Lambs”, Robert Redford’s new movie also from United Artists. “Lions For Lambs” is set for release this November.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are reuniting once again in a new movie announced at the Cannes Film Festival. While the pair of Oscar-winning actors shared two scenes together in Michael Mann’s action thriller “Heat” they were on opposite sides of the law. In “Righteous Kill” the duo will both play lawmen caught up in the pursuit of a serial killer. Jon Avnet (”88 Minutes”) is directing the movie which will start shooting in August. The screenplay is by Russell Gewirtz (”Inside Man”).

The idea was sparked when the two friends started thinking about a new movie that they could work and spend more time on screen together. While they both appeared in “The Godfather Part II” they shared no scenes together and “Heat” only allowed them to have a brief amount of time on the screen. “”This is an event in world history,” said Randall Emmett, one of the film’s producers when announcing the project in France. “They were in two scenes in ‘Heat.’ In this movie, they are in the whole thing together.”

Eddie Murphy is heading for “Fantasy Island”. The star of “Norbit”, “The Nutty Professor” and who voices Donkey in all three “Shrek” pictures is now attached to star in a big screen version of the ABC television series that ran from 1978 to 1984. Just as he did in his two “Nutty Professor” movies, Murphy will play a variety of characters in the “Fantasy Island” film although it’s not known if he will step into the shoes of Mr. Roarke (played by Ricardo Montalban), Tattoo (played by Herve Villechaize) or both caretakers of the island paradise. While the TV series was played out as a drama the movie version will be a family-oriented comedy. Aside from the former SNL cast member no other cast members have been hired and Columbia Pictures has not staked out a release date.

Right now Eddie’s career is on fire. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar earlier this year for his performance in “Dreamgirls” and he is about to be heard by millions of children as the loveable Donkey in “Shrek the Third”. Currently Murphy is making “Starship Dave” for 20^th Century Fox, a sci-fi comedy that will be out next summer about a human-sized spaceship filled with miniature aliens.

Oscar-winning director and leading man Kevin Costner has two new projects to keep him busy in the coming months. Costner has agreed to star in “Swing Vote”, a comedy about a man who becomes an instant celebrity when the press find out that his vote is the tie-breaker in determining who wins the Presidental election. The “Dances With Wolves” director will also serve as a producer on the movie via his Treehouse Films company. Joshua Michael Stern will direct the movie which begins filming in July.

The second new project in the 52-year-old’s life is the arrival of a baby boy named Cayden Wyatt Costner. Costner’s wife of three years, Christine Baumgartner, gave birth to their child on May 6 and both are doing well. This is the fifth time at playing father for Costner after having three children with his first wife in the 1980s and one with his companion in the 1990s.

Costner’s next movie is “Mr. Brooks” set for release on June 1. In it he plays a model family and business man who has a secret personality in which he is a serial killer. William Hurt plays the second personality of Costner’s character and Demi Moore is a detective in pursuit of the killer’s true identity.

The newest “Spider-Man” film is king of the Hollywood hill. After its opening weekend “Spider-Man 3” has earned $148 million dollars from its release in North America and an additional $227 million from ticket sales internationally. The movie’s weekend opening broke the record for the biggest opening weekend debut ever beating last year’s champ, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”, by $13 million dollars. On the movie’s opening day last Friday the new Spider-Man adventure took in $59.3 million dollars and also claimed the record for the biggest single-day ticket sales.

Chances are the new “Spider-Man” will continue to be the titan of the box office for the next two weeks until “Shrek the Third” and the third “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies open later this month. “Spider-Man 3” reportedly cost more than $250 million dollars and is playing on over 4,200 screens, the widest-ever release for the most expensive movie ever. It may have been a huge gamble for Sony Pictures to roll the dice when they began filming the movie but not anymore now that the dollars are being counted. And talk about the inevitable “Spider-Man 4” has already begun with supervillains Carnage and The Lizard topping the list for Spider-Man’s new movie enemies. But will stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst return for a new “Spider-Man” movie now that their three-picture contract obligation is fulfilled? Both have said that the only way to get them back playing Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson is to make sure that director Sam Raimi also returns to work on a fourth picture.

When he wasn’t busy starring in movies like “The Departed” and “Blood Diamond” actor Leonardo DiCaprio had been busy making his own documentary about the dangers of global warming on the environment. DiCaprio produced, co-wrote and narrated “The 11^th Hour”, a documentary about the consequences of human civilization on the world, the effect that global warming is having on the planet and what societies around the world must do to reverse the future consequences before it is too late. Many notable scientists, world leaders and heads of business like physicist Stephen Hawking and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev are featured in the movie discussing their views on the changing climate. A self-proclaimed environmentalist, DiCaprio and the film’s two directors, Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, will travel to the Cannes Film Festival later this month to present their movie to the world’s film critics and celebrities. Regular movie patrons will also have the chance to watch “The 11^th Hour” this coming fall now that Warner Independent Pictures has stepped in and purchased the distribution rights to the film.

“Gladiator” director Ridley Scott and his Oscar-winning star Russell Crowe will reunite once again in the Universal Pictures movie “Nottingham”. The movie is a dramatic reinterpretation of the legendary story of Robin Hood, the lawless hero of the people who was supposed to have stolen from the rich and given it to the poor while fighting the injustice of Nottingham’s Sheriff. The story has been told many times in movies but in this version the Sheriff of Nottingham (who Crowe will play) is in fact the hero and Robin Hood will be the villain. As written by screenwriters Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, Nottingham’s Sheriff works for a corrupt king and is a lawful man that cares for the citizens. He is also vying for the affections of Maid Marian with Robin Hood which will certainly elevate the stakes that the two men are fighting over.

Scott and Crowe have just finished completing a third picture together called “American Gangster” which will be released this fall. “Nottingham” won’t start filming until sometime in 2008 when the director has finished his next assignment, a thriller to star Leonardo DiCaprio.