When it comes to show biz comedy, Vince Vaughn is close to the top of the pile of A-list stars. The “Wedding Crashers” and “Dodgeball” headliner has just struck a deal with Universal Pictures where he made “The Break-Up” with Jennifer Aniston last year. The agreement with Universal allows for Vaughn and his production company, Wild West Picture Show Productions, to develop comedy projects for the movie studio for two years. Three different projects are already brewing including one titled “Male Doula” based on an idea of Vaughn’s. The other two would-be movies would be produced by Scott Stuber (who Vaughn worked with on “The Break-Up”). One is being written by former “Swingers” cast member Jon Favreau about couples that attend a retreat to reinvigorate their marriages while the other is called “Realtors” and set in the high-pressure world of commission-based home equity sales.

Vaughn will next be seen playing “Fred Claus”, the older brother of Santa who comes calling for a little help and a place to crash at the North Pole. It arrives in theaters in early November.

Bond is coming back home. The makers of the long-running James Bond movie franchise will shoot their next 007 adventure at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, the site where many earlier Bond films were shot. For the franchise’s last effort, “Casino Royale”, studio filming took place in Prague’s Barrandov Studios. The owners of 007, Eon Productions, gave notice to Barrandov explaining why they would not be coming back and of course it had to do with monetary issues. It turns out that the Czech government’s cash incentives to attract international film productions to film in the country have become less attractive due to competing offers from other neighboring countries.

Filming on the 22^nd James Bond movie (which still does not have a title) will begin this December for a November 2008 release. Daniel Craig will reprise the role of the secret agent for the second time. If recent comments made by the actor are to be taken at face value, the producers want to inject more humor into the picture. Craig cites the Roger Moore films as examples of what kind of slapstick fans should expect to see.

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” broke box office records in America, Italy and France on its opening day. The film took in $44.2 million dollars in the United States on Wednesday including $11 million from midnight showings, the best-ever Wednesday opening for a movie ever. Audiences in Italy spent $3 million dollars to see the fifth “Harry Potter” movie which in turn made it the highest-opening ever for that country on a Wednesday. In France “Phoenix” grossed $5.9 million, not quite beating the dollar figure that “Spider-Man 3” earned on its opening day. Opening day records were also broken in Holland and Belgium.

Industry experts think that the new “Harry Potter” could beat the total earnings of the prior film, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, which earned $892 million worldwide.

Remake plans are afoot for the 1984 teen musical “Footloose”. Kevin Bacon played the rebellious high school student that moved to a small Midwestern town where dancing was outlawed. Playing the part of Ren McCormack in the new film will be Zac Efron, the 19-year-old “High School Musical” actor that is about to make his big screen debut in “Hairspray”. Kenny Ortega, also from “High School Musical”, is in negotiations to direct and choreograph the new “Footloose” while Dylan Sellers (“Agent Cody Banks”) will produce it.

Whereas the first “Footloose” cashed in on the new fad of soundtrack mania in the early 1980s, the new movie would be an all-out musical.

Warner Bros. has released the trailer for “Get Smart”, a new update on the old 1960s television sitcom that starred Don Adams as secret agent Maxwell Smart. For the big screen version it’s Steve Carell (“Evan Almighty”, “The 40 Year Old Virgin”) playing Maxwell but it’s still the same klutz prone spy. Anne Hathaway (“The Devil Wears Prada”) plays the new Agent 99; Dwayne Johnson (“Doom”, “Gridiron Gang”) is Agent 23; and Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) is the Chief on Control, the good guys.

The movie’s storyline sees Control’s list of secret agents exposed by the nefarious schemes of KAOS, led by Siegfried (played by Terence Stamp). With the covers of the Control agents blown the Chief has no choice but to promote over-eager analyst Maxwell Smart to full agent status. Partnered with the lovely and deadly Agent 99 and the suave, charismatic Agent 23, Smart has to find a way to defeat KAOS with just his wits and his spy gadgets.

“Get Smart” is being directed by Peter Segal (“The Longest Yard”, “Anger Management”) and will be released on June 20, 2008.

Jim Carrey has agreed to star in a new version of “A Christmas Carol” for director Robert Zemeckis (“Forrest Gump”), one that will be filmed using performance capture technology and then the actors movements will be transferred to 3D animation. Zemeckis has been a pioneer using this kind of animation in “The Polar Express”, “Monster House” and the upcoming film “Beowulf”.

Carrey will follow in fellow comedian Eddie Murphy’s footsteps and that four separate roles in the movie including the grumpy miser Ebenezer Scrooge as well as the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Future. After Zemeckis wrote the screenplay with Carrey in mind the “Liar Liar” star immediately agreed to the idea. A part for Bob Hoskins as Mr. Fezziwig may also be in there.

The movie will be made and released by Walt Disney Pictures and likely be out for the holiday 2009 season.

After years of speculation plans are officially underway for a big screen “Sex and the City” movie. The film would reunite all four main actresses from the HBO television series, Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie), Kim Cattrall (Samantha), Kristin Davis (Charlotte) and Cynthia Nixon (Miranda). Michael Patrick King, one of the executive producers on the TV series, will direct the movie. New Line Cinema will release the film and filming is slated to begin sometime this fall for a 2008 release.

At this time no one knows what the movie storyline is about or whether it will pick up things from the last time we saw our four ladies living in New York City. At the conclusion of the series Carrie had made the choice to live her life with Mr. Big, Miranda had become a mother, Charlotte was going to adopt a baby and Samantha had just recovered from a life-threatening illness. Would a “Sex in the City” movie push the envelope into even racier territory than the show’s creators did when it was on the tube?

One of the unconfirmed rumors heard about why it has taken so long for a movie to be made concerns the demands of Kim Cattrall. Supposedly the actress asked for salary comparable to what Sarah Jessica Parker was getting as well as creative control over the storyline for her sex-obsessed character. The story being told off-the-record is that Cattrall got everything that she held out for including a deal that would guarantee her own cable TV series in the future.

The animal rights group PETA, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have sent a letter to “Speed Racer” producer Joel Silver over reports that the chimpanzee being used for the movie is in trouble. According to a rumor, the chimp bit an unnamed actor working on “Speed Racer” and was punished by being beaten. Citing “several troubling complains”, the PETA letter further states “No humane representative is closely monitoring those animals while off-set or during pre-production training, the very places where abuse is most likely to occur.”

A representative from the movie company making the picture, Warner Bros., downplayed the seriousness of the incident but did confirm that one of the actors was indeed bit by the simian. The movie studio said that the chimpanzee was not beaten but that it was given a “rest”, and that the American Humane Society had assured PETA that no animals were being harmed on the movie’s set. PETA refused to back down adding “the assurances you [Warner Bros.] offer are meaningless.”

“Speed Racer” is filming in Germany right now. It stars Emile Hirshe, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox and is being directed by the Wachowkis brothers (“The Matrix” trilogy.) The chimpanzee is playing the part of Chim-Chim, the mascot of the Mach 5 racing team.

Liam Neeson will star alongside “Chocolat” actress Juliette Binoche in “The Other Man”, a romantic thriller that will go in front of cameras later this year. The star of “Kinsey” and “Kingdom of Heaven“ will play a husband that discovers his late wife had a secret lover for many years. Consumed with discovering who the man is and what this stranger brought to his wife that he could not, the widower sets out to learn who the other man and along the way uncovers a hidden truth about their relationship.

The new movie will be directed by Richard Eyre (“Notes on a Scandal”) and it is based on a short story by Bernard Schlink. Filming will take place in Germany, England and Italy.

Neeson has just finished working on a thriller titled “Taken” for director Luc Besson (“The Professional”, “The Fifth Element”). In it he plays an ex-spy who is forced out of his retirement to rescue his kidnapped daughter (played by former “Lost” cast member Maggie Grace) who has been sold into slavery. “Taken” will be released in theaters early next year.