Paul Giamatti, one of my favorite actors, will star in Richard J. Lewis' indie drama "Barney's Version," according to Variety. The project is based on Mordecai Richler's final novel and focuses on a character who's been through three marriages, has had two children, and may have been somehow involved in the disappearance of one of his buddies. Michael Konyves wrote the screenplay. Lewis' credits include plenty of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" episodes.

Here's your dose of film news for March 2, 2009:

• Jason Bateman is the latest to join George Clooney in Jason Reitman's upcoming "Up in the Air," based on the novel by Walter Kirn. The film follows a counselor who helps large companies fire their executives and spends most of his time flying to collect one million frequent-flyer miles. (Variety)

• At this year's WonderCon, J.J. Abrams briefly talked about a sequel to "Cloverfield." "We're actually working on an idea right now," he said. "We have an idea that we thought was pretty cool that we're playing with, which means there will be something that's connected to 'Cloverfield,' but I hope it happens sooner than later because the idea is pretty sweet." (via ComingSoon)

• Gurinder Chadha is currently developing "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," which she describes as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" meets "Shaun of the Dead," according to Variety. The plot follows a British-Asian mother who's ready to engage in anything to marry off her daughter, even serial murder.

• Paul Giamatti, Sacha Baron Cohen and Reese Witherspoon are ready to star in Alexander Payne's upcoming film "Downsizing," about "a married couple who are low on money and decide they can have a much nicer life retiring as little people." (Variety)

Paul Giamatti and Anthony Mackie are set to star in Andrés Baiz's upcoming indie drama "Babylon," according to Variety.

Written by Ian Stone, the film follows a British minister (Giamatti) and a Rasta (Mackie) who help a 12-year-old Jamaican boy outrun a bunch of gangsters from the Kingston ghetto.

Giamatti, who most recently starred in "Fred Claus" and television's "John Adams," has several projects coming up, including "Duplicity" and "The Last Station."

As for Mackie, he was last seen in "Eagle Eye." He will next star as Tupac Shakur in George Tillman Jr.'s "Notorious."

AICN recently had a nice chat with actor Paul Giamatti, who’s been attached to star in Don Coscarelli’s “Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires,” a follow-up to “Bubba Ho-tep.”

In the original film, Elvis Presley set out to battle an ancient Egyptian mummy. Bruce Campbell starred in the lead role, but he recently said he wouldn’t return for a second film.

Well, according to Giamatti, Ron Perlman is interested in stepping as Elvis. Here’s part of what he had to say about this:

“So then he asked me if I was interested in doing this one and I was just like “You have got to be kidding me. Yeah, absolutely!” I said, “I have a little production company and we can help you guys do this” and he brought me in onboard and now we have got Ron Perlman interested in playing Elvis.”

I have to admit I haven’t seen “Bubba Ho-tep” yet, but Giamatti and Perlman together in a horror comedy sounds like quite the enjoyable experience.