Michael Imperioli is to make his directing debut.

Sam Mendes is swaping Toni Collette for Maggie Gyllenhaal.

And the Wachowski Brothers have added a new cast member to Ninja Assassin

Michael Imperioli will direct his first feature film when he takes on The Hungry Ghosts, the drama starts filming this month. I loved him in The Sopranos so it will be interesting to see how this turns out. News from Variety is that it is a relationship drama involving one broken family, and another complicated relationship.

Sam Mendes has had to find a somewhat last minute replacement for Toni Collette's role in his unnamed film. Collette has had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts, but Maggie Gyllenhaal has stepped in. The film follows a couple as they travel around America looking for a place to settle down. Gyllenhaal will play an old friend of one of the couple, she starts filming next week. The news comes from Variety.

The Wachowski Brothers film Ninja Assassin has a new cast member. Rick Yune joins the cast already in place, with James McTeigue who has worked with them on The Matrix films directing. The news is from The Hollywood Reporter.