Guardians of Ga’Hoole, director Zack Snyder’s owl-centric animated film, is taking wing, lining up a voice cast headed by Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Rachael Taylor and David Wenhem.

Based on the children’s book series by Kathryn Lasky, the film, which is shooting in Australia, follows a young barn owl and his friends as they join forces with the mythical Guardians of Ga’hoole, owl protectors, to save the owl kingdom from rogue elements.

Rush most recently appeared in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Taylor, repped by Endeavor, has appeared in Transformers and Bottle Shock. Wenham, also repped by Endeavor, worked with Snyder in 300 and was seen in the recent Australia.

Village Roadshow and Warners are producing with Animal Logic, which also worked with Roadshow and Warners on the dancing penguin movie Happy Feet. Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian is producing, with Donald De Line, Deborah Snyder, Lionel Wigram, Bruce Berman and Dana Goldberg as exec producers.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Jim is about to sign on to a new film, entitled The Way Back. Variety reports:

Director Peter Weir will find The Way Back with Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan.

The thesps are in final negotiations to star for Weir in the fact-based story of a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942.

Weir wrote the script, based on the memoir by Slavomir Rawicz. Farrell plays a tough, tattooed Russian; Harris an American; and Sturgess portrays a young Polish inmate. Ronan will play a Russian on the run who meets up with the fugitives.

The film will begin production in March in Bulgaria, financed by producer Spitfire Pictures through its Cyrte Investments-backed holding company HS Media. The film is the first Weir has directed since 2003’s Master and Commander.

Weir is producing with Joni Levin, Duncan Henderson, Spitfire’s Nigel Sinclair and Scott Rudin. Keith Clarke, John Ptak and Guy East are executive producers along with Simon Oakes and Jonathan Schwartz.

Farrell, who is Golden Globe-nominated for his performance in In Bruges, most recently completed the Neil Jordan-directed Ondine, the Terry Gilliam-directed The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and the Danis Tanovic-directed Triage. Harris, who directed and starred in Appaloosa, just starred in the Ash Adams-directed Once Fallen.

From: IGN 

While promoting the SXSW 2008 opening night premiere of his card counting flick 21, actor Jim Sturgess spoke exclusively to IGN about his potential involvement in a Broadway musical based on 2002’s Spider-Man. According to rumors floating around the Web, the actor’s Across the Universe (a Beatle’s musical in which he performed all of his own songs) director Julie Taymor is working hard to make such a project a reality.

“I don’t know if I’m the man to do it,” said Sturgess when asked if he was the actor to fill Peter Parker’s musical shoes. “I mean, Julie’s [Taymor] definitely kind of making that project happen. We did some workshops, and me and Evan [Rachel Wood] just kind of went along and hung out and… you know, it was just an excuse to be with Julie again and work with Evan again. But that was kind of it; I don’t know any more other than that.”

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