The Daily Dish: July 23

--Michel Gondry to helm Green Hornet The innovative French director behind visionary films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep has signed on to replace Stephen Chow in the director's chair for the forthcoming film adaptation of The Green Hornet. The Hong Kong actor was to co-star as sidekick Kato (played by Bruce Lee in the original), as well as direct, but chose to walk away from both duties to work on a superhero movie with, well, Jack Black...erm, right. And Columbia House Pictures spokesman Steve Elzer revealed that Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz are in talks to join the cast, with Cage lined up to star as a villain and Diaz as a reporter. The original series, which debuted on the radio in 1936 before making the leap to the small screen in 1966, follows a masked crime-fighter who works as a newspaper publisher by day and battles evil by night alongside his trusty martial arts expert and sidekick. As was previously announced, the title character is to be played by the newly-thin(ner) funnyman Seth Rogen, who stars in this month’s Funny People with Adam Sandler.

-- Jude Law in paparazzi scuffle The Talented Mr. Ripley and Alfie star was leaving a nightclub in London early Thursday morning and when he apparently hit and slapped an unnamed female photographer as she tried to snap his picture. Law, who was previously accused of assaulting a pap in 2007, said, however that the incident was an accident. His lawyer, Graham Shear, released a statement saying; "This is all nonsense. Last night's incident was an accident. Jude was blinded by the camera flashes when he left the restaurant, raised his hand to shield himself and inadvertently struck somebody standing very close. He apologized and left. Pictures of this sort can often be misleading." Law's 2007 infraction happened after he tried to grab a camera from a pap stationed outside his London home. He was released without charge.

-- New films from Almodovar and Solondz among TIFF's Special Presentations Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar's latest film Broken Embraces, starring his Oscar-winning muse Penelope Cruz, will see its North American premiere as part of the coveted Special Presentations programme at the renowned film festival. A story of "amour fou", it follows a blind writer who revisits his past in order to heal old wounds and marks the most recent collaboration between Cruz and Almodovar since 2006’s Volver. Todd Solondz, the man behind provocative and difficult films like Happiness, Storytelling and Palindromes, is at it again with Life During Wartime, a dark comedy starring Allison Janey, Ciarán Hinds, Shirley Henderson and Ally Sheedy about friends and family trying to make sense of it all within a world torn apart by war. Efforts from Japan (Kamui), France (A Prophet), the UK (Glorious 39), Italy and Argentina round out the top-tier selections. The Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10-19, 2009.