In some “oh, wow, I totally forgot they were casting that” news, Variety reports that Nicole Kidman has “beaten out some stiff competition” to grab the role of Grace Kelly in Grace of Monaco. That actress is currently in negotiations for the role in Olivier Dahan‘s film, which comes complete with a Black List script from Arash Amel. We’ve know about the project since October, when The Hollywood Reporter said that the film “sets Kelly’s personal story amid the politics of the time, in the vein of The King’s Speech.” The film will focus on Kelly’s life six years into her marriage to Prince Rainier III (and thus, six years into her princess-hood) and is set between December 1961 and November 1962. That is certainly a compelling time frame in Kelly’s life, marking her adjustment period to royalty and including the very young childhoods of two of her three kids.

The news that Warner Bros. has just made deals with Akiva Goldsman and Overbrook Entertainment to bring us an I Am Legend sequel is not surprising (as it’s been chattered about for years now), but it does somewhat confoundingly smack of an article from The Onion yesterday. That article, titled “Moviegoers Not Interested In Hearing What Is, Isn’t Possible, Demand Heath Ledger ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Appearance” might focus on the impossibility of bringing back the deceased Ledger for The Dark Knight Rises, but it does remind of the impossibility of bringing back the central character of I Am Legend: Will Smith‘s Robert Neville, who (spoiler alert?) crocked off at the end of the first film. But no matter in Hollywoodland! Though a second film has been talked about ever since the first film did big business at the box office (making $584m worldwide), it was long thought that the new film would be a prequel, but today’s report from Deadline Staten Island refutes that: “the film is not being called a prequel.” Well, alrighty! Maybe if they can bring back Neville, they can bring back his charming German Shepard, too. The new film is set to be penned by Arash Amel (the scribe behind the new Grace Kelly biopic, Grace of Monaco). Smith is reportedly waiting until the script is ready before he commits, and director Francis Lawrence has yet to weigh in on his potential involvement.