Casting Call: Julia Roberts Helps ‘Flowers’ Bloom

Julia Roberts signs on to help “Flowers” grow. An Oscar winner becomes “Enemies” with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Plus, has “The Hobbit” found its director? It’s all in the latest edition of the Access Hollywood Casting Call!

Julia Roberts will produce and star in “Hothouse Flowers,” an adaptation of Margot Berwin’s upcoming novel, per The Hollywood Reporter.

In “Flowers,” Roberts will play a recent divorcee who is unhappy with her job at a Manhattan ad agency, and, subsequently, embarks on an adventure which takes her places she never expected.

Roberts currently stars alongside Tom Hanks in “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

She recently finished shooting “Fireflies in the Garden,” a drama co-starring Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson and Hayden Panettiere.

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Oscar nominee Marion Cotillard is in talks to join Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in “Public Enemies,” according to Variety.

Directed by Michael Mann, the film is set during the great crime wave of 1933-1934, when J. Edgar Hoover was hot on the tail of criminal legends like John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.

Depp will play Dillinger, one of the most notorious gangsters of the Depression era, while Cotillard would play his girlfriend, Billie.

Bale will play famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis.

The film is based upon Brian Burough’s book, “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43.”

Shooting is slated to begin in late 2008 in Chicago and other Midwest locations.

Cotillard is up for the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in “La Vie en Rose.” Her other film credits include “A Good Year,” opposite Russell Crowe and the 2003 drama “Big Fish.”

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Director Guillermo del Toro is in talks to helm back-to-back installments of J.R.R. Tolkein’s legendary series “The Hobbit,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The highly anticipated literary adaptation is the famed prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

“The Hobbit,” which Tolkien initially wrote for his children, was published in the U.K. in 1937 to wide acclaim. It centered on Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit who joins a group of dwarves and the wizard Gandalf on a quest to find the treasure of a dragon named Smaug. Tolkien went on to write “The Lord of the Rings” 17 years later.

Due to other commitments that included “The Lovely Bones” and “Tintin,” “LOTR” boss Peter Jackson could not take on writing and directing roles for the upcoming “Hobbit” films, instead staying involved as an executive producer while maintaining approval over creative elements for the pair of films.

However, due to the ongoing writers strike, no writer has been hired to adapt Tolkien’s classic novel, though that process will reportedly be fast-tracked once it’s resolved. Both Del Toro and Jackson will oversee “The Hobbit’s” writing.

Production is slated to begin in 2009, with the release of the first film set for 2010 and the second coming out 2011.

Del Toro’s other directing credits include “Hellboy,” “Blade II,” “Mimic,” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”