• Mandy Moore will be lending her voice to "Rapunzel" in Walt Disney Pictures' upcoming 3D-animated musical, which Byron Howard and Nathan Greno are directing. Zachary Levi from "Chuck" has also been cast, and the music will come from Oscar winner Alan Menken. (via Heat Vision)

• Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles," which stars Zac Efron and Claire Danes, has a release date: Nov. 25, 2009. The film follows a high school student noticed by Orson Welles at the Mercury Theater. He later lands a part in "Julius Caesar" at the production that catapulted Welles to the top... (Variety)

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Kim Basinger is set to join Zac Efron in Burr Steers' upcoming drama "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud," with Universal Pictures developing the project.

Based on the novel by Ben Sherwood, the film follows Efron as a cemetary caretaker who meets weekly with a younger brother, who recently died.

Variety says Basinger will play the grieving mother of the lead character. Also starring as Efron's love interest is Amanda Crew.

Basinger's more recent credits include "Cellular," "The Sentinel" and "The Burning Plain." Good to have her back on the big screen.

BTW, "Cloud" marks Efron's second collaboration with the director after "17 Again.

Here's your dose of film news for June 1, 2009:

• Lucy Punch, whose credits include "The Class" and "Hot Fuzz," will replace Nicole Kidman in Woody Allen's upcoming film. Plot details are still kept under wraps, but the cast also includes Freida Pinto, Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Josh Brolin. (Variety)

• Halle Berry is in negotiations to star in Paul Verhoeven's "The Surrogate," a thriller based on the book by Kathryn Mackel. The story follows a couple who discovers the surrogate they hired to carry their baby is completely nuts. Berry last starred in "Things We Lost in the Fire." (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon ("Revolutionary Road") is almost set to star in "The Runaways," the biopic of the popular girl rock band. He's joining Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart. The plot will focus on the formation of The Runaways all the way to the end of their career as a group. (THR)

• Because I don't think the MTV Movie Awards deserve a separate entry, here are some winners: "Twilight" wins best movie; Kristen Stewart wins best actress; Zac Efron wins best actor; Heath Ledger wins best villain (only decent outcome); and Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson win the award for best kiss. Yeah, the MTV Movie Awards suck indeed.

Zac Efron is in talks to star in Burr Steers' upcoming big-screen adaptation of Ben Sherwood's novel "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud."

Variety says the story follows a caretaker at a cemetary who meets weekly "with a younger brother whose accidental death he feels was his fault."

Craig Pearce wrote the original screenplay, which Steers is revising. If Efron joined "Cloud," it would mark his second collaboration with the director after "17 Again," which opens April 17, 2009.

Efron was attached to star in the upcoming remake of "Footloose," but he recently dropped out. The actor was last seen in "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."

Other Efron credits include "Me and Orson Welles," and "Hairspray." Steers also directed "Igby Goes Down" in 2002.