The Random – Ant-Man, DiCaprio maybe Hoover and Travis McGee, Joss Whedon on The Avengers, Harold & Kumar 3, Soderbergh’s Contagion

It is April 1st so it may be possible one or two of these tales have fooled me.

- Edgar Wright and Pixar may be teaming up to bring Marvel’s miniscule Avenger, Ant-Man, to the big screen according to JoBlo.

- Leonardo DiCaprio may play J Edgar Hoover in Spielberg’s biopic of the FBI chief. The actor is also in talks to play Travis McGee, the detective beach bum, in an adaption of John D MacDonalds book, The Deep Blue GoodBye. Oliver Stone is down to direct.

- Joss Whedon (Buffy, Dollhouse, Firefly) may be on the shortlist to direct The Avengers movie. Shiny! That would be very cool. First Showing have more.

- Kal Penn may be back for the third Harold and Kumar film – A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. Apparently his job at the White House is almost at an end.

- The Playlist have had a look at the script for Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion.- – ”…if you took the breadth and scope of “Traffic” or “Syriana,” tidied up the writing, and found a subject matter that terrified you relentlessly for two hours, you’d have something close to Contagion…clearly done an enormous amount of research, and it’s thoroughly, horrifyingly conceivable throughout, but it’s also as much about the way that information can spread virally in the Web 2.0 age, as it is about the spread of the virus. Burns ties these dual themes together in the final pages, the two dovetailing in a hugely satisfying way.”

Leonardo DiCaprio looks into The Deep Blue Goodbye

According to Variety, Leonardo DiCaprio will be starring in The Deep Blue Goodbye for 20th Century Fox. The film will be an adaptation of the John D. MacDonald mystery novel series. Apparantly Robert Downey Jr was once circling the project but he then got wrapped up in Sherlock Holmes.

Producing the project are Peter Chernin, Appian Way’s DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran. The script was written by Dana Stevens. No director is yet attached.

DiCaprio will play Travis McGee. McGee is a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He’s also a knight errant who’s wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out and his rule is simple: he’ll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half. McGee doesn’t even declare himself a detective, but rather a “salvage expert.”

The Deep Blue Goodbye is the first in the 21-volume bestselling Travis McGee series. It originally came out in 1964. Previously the character has been played by Sam Elliott and Rod Taylor (The Birds, The Time Machine and he was also Winston Churchill in Inglourious Basterds).

The character sounds really good and nothing like a bit of noir set in the sunshine. I’ve not read any of the books but I think I may well pick one up.