Everyone is currently lining up to fictionally kill the mass-murdering asshole Osama Bin Laden (South Park) for Kathryn Bigelow. It’s obviously a wonderful opportunity for actors to work with the Oscar winner, especially considering how Jeremy Renner’s career blew up after defusing bombs for her. The good news is that all the names that are signing on the line happen to be worth their weight in statues. According to Deadline Destry, Jessica Chastain might continue her dominance with the now-untitled project alongside Mark Strong and Edgar Ramirez (Carlos). Meanwhile, Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) is now confirmed, and Joel Edgerton is double confirmed. Bringing on Chastain, Strong and Ramirez would be a strong move for the production. Bigelow is of course re-teaming with writer/producer Mark Boal for a project that will most likely be controversial due to the subject matter. They’re currently slated for a December release (a date conspicuously after the Presidential election). It’s possible that the date might be moved back due to a congressional investigation into whether the production was given information it wasn’t supposed to have, but December is what to watch for currently. And all of it sounds fantastic. The big question is how star-spangled this thing can get.

According to the LA Times, Congressman Peter King of the great state of New York is urging the CIA and the Department of Defense to take a look into Kathryn Bigelow‘s forthcoming, still-untitled movie about killing Osama Bin Laden. Apparently, Mr. King thinks the government should have script approval. Why is he calling for such a probe? It’s not readily obvious that he has any evidence to warrant it, but the movie deals with very sensitive subject matter, and that, for Mr. King, seems to be reason enough. On the one hand, it’s absolutely important that the movie not contain any classified secret or top secret information on how the raid was carried out, but on the other, what Mr. King is insinuating is that government officials and CIA members that cooperated with the production may have given out secret information. “I’m very concerned that any sensitive information could be disclosed in a movie,” King told the Times. “The procedures and operations that we used in this raid are very likely what we’ll use in other raids. There’s no way a director would know what could be tipping off the enemy.”

Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal continue to play in the political sandbox, and the recent killing of Osama Bin Laden has turned their attention back to a project they were already formulating. Their next task is to assemble an ensemble of men that are up for the mission, and according to LA Times Blog, Joel Edgerton is the first name on the team. It’s difficult to speculate at this point about the project, but Edgerton is a solid talent that can absolutely take on more physical roles. All in all, it’s a great call. What’s questionable is whether a movie about the event coming out so quickly will be cathartic or intrinsically problematic. As with most traumatic events, it will be a gamble as to whether this injures the real-world closure of the death or seems like a cashing-in of sorts. Fortunately, Bigelow is one of the better talents working in Hollywood, and her skill at creating true tension should come in handy here. Plus, maybe in thirty years, Tarantino can come along and cinematically fill Bin Laden with thousands of bullets instead of just two.

The first woman to win a Best Director Oscar has decided to head back to the sand before taking her tropical vacation this Fall (in the most dangerous place in South America). Apparently, the comfort of home isn’t as appealing as the call to adventure. That’s a good thing for fans. We’ve reported that Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal would continue their collaborations with a thriller about a black ops mission in the Middle East, but according to Variety, they’ve now secured financing for the flick and should be casting within the month. We’ll wait until they cast Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie to start speculating about The Hurt Locker 2: Explosive Boogaloo. What does it all mean? That we might just have two action movies from Kathryn Bigelow in theaters, months apart from each other. If that doesn’t wake you up quicker than a cup of coffee, I don’t know what would.

Kathryn Bigelow won the Best Director Academy Award as well as Best Picture for The Hurt Locker alongside the Best Original Screenplay win for Mark Boal. So it seems natural that they would want to team again to see if that winning combination can be repeated. As we’ve reported before, their next project is Triple Frontier – a film focused on the nexus of three South American countries where organized crime goes to do business with ease and comfort. Fortunately, Bigelow and Boal are hedging their bets by bringing on Academy Award winner Tom Hanks in one of the lead roles. He’s officially on board to star in the project. At this point, it’s a matter of seeing if Johnny Depp is insterested, following the filming beginning in March, and anticipating a late Fall release. Just in time for awards season. [Coming Soon]

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, Brian Salisbury returns to the program alongside Scott Weinberg for an all-out, guns-blazing exploration of B Movies that you should have in your rental queue. Plus, Weinberg does his best Rocky impression, does his best Australian accent, and Salisbury does the entire show wearing a Spider-Man costume. Double plus, we find the time to review Piranha 3D. In 3D!

Earlier today a very juicy email from an exec at Paramount was let loose into the world by the folks over at The Wrap. Within said email was details on a good number of projects currently in development. Insider notes — like the fact that producers are “very happy” with the recent draft of G.I. Joe 2 from Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. That’s encouraging, to say the least. But perhaps the most interesting piece of news to come out of this whole debacle — save for World War Z being on track, which is awesome — is a project that would re-team Oscar winners Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) and pair them with an ensemble of very big names.

It’s Academy Awards time again, and even though we all know the awards are basically an irrelevant exercise in mutual masturbation it’s still fun to watch. This year sees a wide variety of films gain entry into Oscar history via nominations for Best Screenplay, Original and Adapted. Some deserve the honor, while others are based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire.

Even though Kathryn Bigelow’s intense Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker hit theaters back on June 26, that sure won’t stop me from writing about it — it is perhaps the best film that will hit theaters in 2009.

Screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow share the methods they used to create an intense, heartfelt combat film. We talk camera angles, mistaken journalists, and cleaning the dust off after coming in from the desert.

In a very real sense, this movie is the first of its kind. The first boots-on-the-ground Iraq War film. It immediately places the audience in the dusty streets of Baghdad and refuses to let anyone leave until the end.