Billy Bob Thornton (“The Astronaut Farmer”), Kim Basinger (“Cellular”) and Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”) will topline “The Informers”, an ensemble picture following the lives of seven people in 1980s Los Angeles for a week of their lives. Thornton will play a movie studio executive, Basinger will play his wife and Routh will play a vampire. Also joining the trio are Ashley Olsen, Jon Foster, Austin Nichols and Lou Taylor Pucci. The movie is based on a novel by acclaimed writer Bret Easton Ellis (“American Psycho”) and will start filming this October on location in Los Angeles as well as Buenos Ares and Uruguay.

Thornton can next be seen in the comedy “Mr. Woodcock” which opens later this month. Basinger is finishing her work on a thriller titled “While She Was Out” in which she plays a housewife that has to fend off four thugs. Meanwhile, Routh has kept a low profile since the release of “Superman Returns” last year. He has just completed work on two indie films and is scheduled to reprise his role as Clark Kent/Superman in a sequel set for release in 2009.

The stars of “Monster’s Ball” are reuniting on another edgy drama, this time based on a shocking real life event. “Tulia” is the title of the movie and the same name of a small town in Texas which saw controversy in 1999 when police arrested 40 black men on suspicion of drug possession and selling narcotics. Facing heavy prison time if found guilty, several of the men pled guilty and were convicted on a lesser charge while those that claimed innocence were found guilty in court all on the word of one undercover officer that claimed to have purchased the drugs from them even though no evidence was ever presented. The case made headlines and drew charges of racial discrimination and eventually made of the convictions were overturned but only after several years had passed with the wrongly convicted men in prison.

Halle Berry will play the star in the film based on the Tulia story, an ACLU lawyer trying to expose the corruption and prove the innocence of the people accused of being drug dealers. Billy Bob Thornton has also agreed to star in the movie in an unspecified capacity, possibly as the unjust police officer that set in motion the events that took place in Tulia. The film will start shooting at the end of April in New Orleans under the direction of Carl Franklin, the man that also directed Thornton in “One False Move“.