Here's your dose of film news for March 31, 2009:

• Ice Cube has signed on to star in New Line Cinema's comedy "Ride Along." Variety says Cube will play an overprotective cop who tries to destroy his sister's relationship by inviting her white fiancé on a ride-along. Steve Faber and Bob Fisher recently rewrote an original script by Greg Coolidge. Cube was last seen in "The Longshots."

• Julie Anne Robinson will make her directorial feature debut with "The Last Song," the big-screen adaptation of a novel Nicholas Sparks wrote specifically for "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus. According to Variety, the film follows a "rebellious teenager sent to spend the summer with her estranged father."

• Jonathan Levine, director of "The Wackness" (a film I adored), is set to helm Fox Atomic's "The Sitter." Written by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, the film centers on a suspended college student whose life takes a drastic turn when he ends up babystitting his neighbor's eccentric kids. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Paul Bettany is in talks to star in Scott Stewart's "Priest," a horror Western produced by Michael De Luca, among others. Adapted from a comic book, the flick centers on a tough priest who turns his back on the church to free his niece from the hands of a bunch of ruthless vampires. (THR)

Warner Bros. has acquired the big-screen rights to Nicholas Sparks' latest bestseller "The Lucky One," which hit book shelves last month.

Variety reports Denise Di Novi will produce the adaptation. Her credits include "Nights in Rodanthe," "A Walk to Remember" and "Message in a Bottle."

In the book, Sparks tells the story of a Marine who carries a photograph of a woman he has never met. He eventually decides to track her down upon his return to North Carolina.

The next Sparks book to hit the big screen is "Dear John," which Lasse Hallstrom is directing for Relativity and Screen Gems. Amanda Seyfried stars as a young woman who falls in love with a solider while he’s on leave.

Sparks is also currently writing an untitled novel he is simultaneously turning into a movie for Miley Cyrus to star in.

Sparks also wrote "The Notebook," which turned into a huge success in theaters and on DVD.