Blanchett in the Hood

Thu., Feb. 26, 2009 7:55 AM PST by Josh Grossberg

New Line Cinema, DreamWorks

Cate Blanchett is looking for a few good Merry Men.

Per Variety, the Oscar winner has signed on to play Maid Marian in the tentatively titled Nottingham, director Ridley Scott's big-screen reimagining of the Robin Hood story opposite Russell Crowe.

Blanchett will replace Sienna Miller, who dropped out due to "creative differences."

Crowe will play the lead, which, depending on how the script turns out, could either be Robin Hood or a reinvented Sheriff of Nottingham.

The $130 million romantic adventure starts production in April in London for a 2010 release.

Meanwhile, in other casting news, the new Melrose Place has its first resident, and an Office star is ready for some time traveling...

• Eliza Dushku has snagged the rights to make a feature-length biopic on famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Indie documentary producer Ondi Timoner (DiG!), will make her feature-helming debut on the flick, titled The Perfect Moment.

• Michael Rady (Swingtown) is the first actor to land a role in the pilot for the CW's new version of Melrose Place. He'll play a quirky 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker who pays the bills shooting weddings and bar mitzvahs after moving to L.A. with his fiancée.

• Taking a break from Office work, Ed Helms is set to topline an untitled Warner Bros. comedy flick as a Civil War reenacter who ends up going back in time to the real Civil War. Office boss Steve Carell will produce.

• Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are joining forces for Sony Pictures' The B Team, an action comedy directed by Adam McKay (Talladega Nights, Anchorman) that will see the duo playing cops. No word exactly on the plot.

• According to the Hollywood Reporter, Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) will take his first lead in a television drama series in the NBC pilot Trauma, playing a stoic trauma doctor juggling his high-stress job with family life. Kevin Rankin, Cliff Curtis and Jamey Sheridan are in talks to costar.

• British thesp Christina Cole is set to star in the CBS drama Washington Field, playing a member of an elite FBI squad that responds to crises around the globe.