Ving Rhames is suing the producer of The Red Canvas, claiming he was short changed $25,000 for his role in the film.

According to TMZ, Rhames alleges in the lawsuit that he was promised $200,000 for six days of work on the movie, but was only paid $175,000. He claims a stop payment was put on the final $25,000 check and that writer/director/producer Kenneth Chamitoff promised he would be paid by January 25 but he still has not.

TMZ says Rhames is suing Chamitoff and Red Canvas Productions for the $25,000 plus $200,000 for fraud and breach of contract.

The Red Canvas is a mixed martial arts movie that bears the tagline “Heroes Fight With Weapons Forged in the Heart.” It stars/features John Savage (best known for 1978’s The Deer Hunter), Ernie Reyes Jr. (1985’s The Last Dragon, 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze), Maria Conchita Alonso (1988’s Colors) and George Takei (best known as Sulu on television’s original Star Trek).

Colin Firth had concerns about kissing Nicholas Hoult in A Single Man because the younger actor is the same age as his son.

In the film, which is designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut, 49-year-old Firth plays a college professor upon whom Hoult’s character, a student, develops a crush. And Contact Music says Firth was worried about a scene in which the pair share a kiss because his son Will, 20, is just a few months younger than Hoult.

He reportedly said, “I did have conversations with Tom about the nature of the relationship. I have a son the same age as Nick so I was very concerned.

“I would have been uneasy had [Hoult] been uneasy but he seemed so calm about everything and displayed no self-consciousness whatsoever.

“But the nature of the scene wasn’t predatory on my part. If anything the young man is the stalker.”

Firth’s character, George Falconer, is a gay man in the 1960s, dealing with grief over the death of his longtime partner. The role won him the Best Actor Award at the 2010 BAFTAs.

It’s a revolving door of potential projects for Taylor Lautner. The Twilight teen wolf is so in demand right now, it seems studios are practically throwing scripts at him, with a lot of money attached to the deals. This is remarkable not only because of Lautner’s young age but, as reporters, bloggers and commenters have repeatedly pointed out, the 18-year-old actor has yet to prove he can carry a film on his own. Still, the offers continue.

Lautner has stepped back from Skydance’s pilot movie, Northern Lights, for which he was expected to be paid $7.5 million . Deadline Hollywood says actor and studio have “respectfully parted ways over casting issues” but that five more movies have been offered to the star. One of these is Abduction.

The spec script sold to Lionsgate for nearly $1 million (a lot of money on the current film market) with Lautner attached to star. Deadline says his Tailor Made production company is also co-producing and that the film is being fasttracked to meet his July availability. If that doesn’t work Tailor Made will still produce but hire another actor for the lead.

Deadline and EmpireOnline say the script is about a teen who has long felt disconnected from his parents. He figures out why when he discovers his baby picture on a missing persons website and realizes everything he knows is wrong. A chain of Bourne-like events and discoveries ensues.

Lautner is also attached to star in Universal’s Stretch Armstrong and Paramount’s Max Steel.

Kristen Stewart and producer Arthur Cohn disagree on which role was more difficult for the actress, her Twilight character Bella Swan, or her The Yellow Handkerchief character Martine.

Bella is the love interest of vampire Edward Cullen in the hugely successful Twilight movies. Martine is a lonely, rebellious teen. The now 19-year-old Stewart landed the latter role when she was recommended by her Panic Room co-star Jodie Foster.

Arthur Cohn, producer of Handkerchief, which hits theatres Friday, told MTV, “Kristen had an enormous sensitivity for an extremely difficult part. With all respect to Twilight, I think this part was infinitely harder to pull off.”

Stewart, however, disagreed. “No, I would say definitely not,” she told MTV. “It’s so hard to compare roles – [playing Bella] was difficult for other reasons.

Stewart says the Handkerchief shoot was “so much smaller, it was so personal.”

However, she points out, Martine’s on-screen life is a snapshot, while Bella’s spans four (maybe five) movies and several years.

“Bella has definitely got more [complexity]. Bella has more to do. [As an audience member], you’re with her for years of her life; you’re with this girl for two weeks — not even, a week.”

She goes on to tell MTV, “When I play a character, I have to know her very well. Maybe [Martine] is mysterious to the audience [because she is less explored than Bella], but I know her very well. I know her for a brief period of her life. But then, I have to explore what it would be like to live [Bella's] life from the age of 17 to 21 or 22.”

Renee Zellweger is not holding up negotiations for Bridget Jones 3, according to a representative.

The National Enquirer recently reported that the actress was “driving producers CRAZY”
by refusing to gain weight for the role. According to the tabloid, Zellweger is afraid of driving away her real-life boyfriend Bradley Cooper if she piles on the 30 pounds required to play the bumbling but supposedly (and inexplicably) irresistible diary keeper, Bridget Jones. Zellweger gained the weight to portray the character twice in the past — for 2001’s Bridget Jones’ Diary and 2004’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

The Enquirer said, according to GossipCop.com, that Zellweger was “insisting that this time, instead of being a zaftig Everywoman, Bridget should be a diet-conscious skinny-minnie.” And a “friend” supposedly said, “She’d love to do Bridget, but she’s drawn a line in the sand about porking out again!”

But a rep says the reports are false, telling GossipCop, the story is “so not true. Renee more than anyone would be true to the character.”

The third movie will not be based on a novel by author Helen Fielding, as there is no third Bridget Jones book, but last summer, Variety reported that the film would be about Bridget’s struggle to have a baby before her biological clock runs out. The last film ended with Colin Firth’s character, Darcy, proposing to Bridget.

Ewan McGregor is not gay but he likes kissing men on screen.

The actor stars in the upcoming comedy drama I Love You Phillip Morris, based on the real life story of con artist Steven Jay Russell. While in prison, Russell, who is played by Jim Carrey, fell in love with his cellmate Phillip Morris, played by McGregor and, after Morris was released, a lovesick Russell broke out of prison four times to be with him.

According to Starpulse, McGregor said of the experience, “I like kissing boys on screen. As a straight guy, it’s quite an interesting proposition. Anything on a film set that takes you by surprise like that, that gets your blood up, is good.”

Not everyone is so comfortable with the content of the film, however. Last year it was reported in the Times Online that the I Love You Phillip Morris was having difficulty finding a U.S. distributor — most likely due to very “graphic” homosexual activity — and was likely to go straight to DVD. But the film was later re-edited and Variety reported that Consolidated Pictures Group had picked it up for distribution.

The release date was later pushed back from February to March 2010, a move for which McGregor blames Disney. We found through NBC’s PopcornBiz blog that he told Out Magazine, “There was talk that Disney fended off the release until after A Christmas Carol came out. They didn’t want kids thinking [Carrey's character] Ebenezer Scrooge was [gay].”

The original released date for Morris was Valentine’s Day, however, and A Christmas Carol obviously came out before Christmas. So, McGregor’s accusations don’t make a lot of sense.

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Warner Bros. wants Amanda Seyfried to put on a red hood, and hopes the Twilight fanbase will follow her into the woods.

The Los Angeles Times says the actress is being sought for a new screen-take on Little Red Riding Hood (also known as Little Red Cap), the tale made famous by Charles Perrault and later by the Brothers Grimm.

The movie is called The Girl With the Red Riding Hood and is from Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way. It is most likely to be directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who helmed the first Twilight movie. Orphan writer David Johnson is working on the script. The Times observes that WB is clearly trying to cash in on the Twilight-y appeal of werewolves and damsels in distress.

The story will reportedly pander to fans of the vampire series with dark/dangerous/romantic elements but has also been described as “elevated genre material.”

Seyfried stars in the weepy romance, Dear John, currently in theatres. The film has done fairly well at the box office but received largely negative reviews. She also co-starred alongside Megan Fox in the box office flop Jennifer’s Body (written by Diablo Cody). One might be hard-pressed, however, to pin these disappointments on the likeable Seyfried, who has proven she can hold her own, such as on HBO’s Big Love, in which portrayed Sarah Henrickson, daughter in a polygamous family, for four seasons. She also starred as Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia! and, in 2010, will appear in Chloe and Letters to Juliette.

Catherine Hardwicke’s filmography includes Lords of Dogtown and the multiple award winning, Thirteen.

Yesterday it was widely reported that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are negotiating a first look deal with Warner Bros. Today comes news of what the first project to come out of that arrangement might be. And it is very compelling.

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Affleck has been tipped to direct and star in The Trade, a film that tells the true tale of two New York Yankees pitchers who publicly traded families in the 70s.

Teammates and friends, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, made scandalous headlines in 1973 when they announced they had fallen in love with each other’s wives and were trading – they then moved into each other’s homes, swapping wives, children and dogs. Peterson and Susanne Kekich later married and have stayed together to this day, while Kekich and Marilyn Peterson split just months later.

Deadline says Affleck, Damon and their former Live Planet partner, Sean Bailey, have long been intrigued with the project, with Affleck eyeing the role of Peterson and Damon that of Kekich.

Dave Mandel, of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, wrote the script, so it’s likely to be funny. It wasn’t all a barrel of the laughs at the time, though.

The move caused backlash in the 70s and Peterson, who was booed at nearly every American league ballpark afterwards, said in an interview last year that he was bothered by the way the media handled the story. Speaking with AOL News to promote his memoir Mickey Mantle is Going to Heaven, Peterson said, “Some sports writers made it out like the four of us were engaged in some bizarre sex party. It was more like Mike and I were friends, and both our marriages fell apart at the same time. There was nothing dirty about it.”

Deadline says Mandel agreed to write the project years ago but it was stalled over “life rights and other issues” and so, is just getting off the ground now.

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Owen Wilson is set to star in the new Woody Allen movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Business blog. The film will shoot this summer.

Not much more information is available about the project from a directorknown for playing his cards close to his chest. But THR reminds us that, not too long ago, in November, it was reported that the first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was also tipped to appear. Last spring, she was quoted in many news outlets, including The Guardian, as saying, “Woody Allen kindly asked me not to do a film with anyone else before him,” and that she had agreed, adding, “If anything concrete ever comes of it, it would be a great experience for me.” People immediately took this to mean Bruni was definitely going to appear in an Allen movie – though his people have reportedly not confirmed.

Owen Wilson has been doing some voice work lately. He most recently spoke for Coach Skip in Wes Anderson’s animated Fantastic Mr. Fox and voiced the big dog in the screen adaptation of the comic strip Marmaduke, hitting theatres in June. He is also reprising his voice role as Lightning McQueen in the animated Cars 2.

Wilson will appear in the flesh as well  in Little Fockers, the third movie in the Meet the Parents series, set for release at the end of 2010.

Allen’s next film, coming out later this year, is You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. It stars Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto and Lucy Punch.

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Hollywood is jumping on the 3D bandwagon– thanks to Avatar’s immense success and nine Oscar nominations – with plans for a new 3D feature announced every day. Some are being shot in three dimensions, while others, such as Clash of the Titans and Alice in Wonderland, are getting the post production conversion. But it’s all 3D, all the time.

“Blame me for that,” James Cameron told MTV’s Josh Horowitz in an interview, before expressing his opinion that Hollywood is getting it all wrong.

After saying that the Grammy telecast, which had a 3D Michael Jackson tribute “did it wrong” because they used the old red and blue model, Cameron went on to explain, “There’s an evolution, and people are starting to not accept inferior forms, which is good.  But it’s typical of Hollywood, getting it wrong. We do a film that’s natively authored in 3D – it’s shot in 3D.  So they assume from the success of that, that they can just turn movies into 3D, in 8 weeks, throw a switch on 3D and that’s gonna work somehow.”

When it comes to Clash of the Titans, the release date for which was pushed back to allow time for the conversion process, Cameron says, “[Avatar star Sam Worthington is] starring in the film, so I wish them all the success in the world but that’s just not the way to do it. If you wanna make a movie in 3D, make the movie in 3D. It should be a filmmaker-driven process and not a studio-driven process.”

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