In the works: "Pump your brakes kid, that man's a national treasure."

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 | 4:37 PM

In the works: Paul Hogan has a new film -- "Charlie & Boots" will follow "a father and son who travel from Victoria to Cape York to fulfill their lifelong ambition to fish off Australia's northern tip." Hogan's last, 2004's "Strange Bedfellows," found him and Michael Caton pretending to be a gay couple in order to take advantage of new tax laws -- it was the source of a minor uproar when the producers took up a failed copyright suit against the awfully similar "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry." [Variety]

The Coens have found the leads of their next film, "A Serious Man," a black comedy set in the '60s: Tony-nominated stage actor Michael Stuhlbarg and character actor Richard Kind will play brothers living together in the Midwest. [Variety]

Tom Cruise is leaping on the graphic novel bandwagon -- he's "loosely attached" to star in "Sleeper," an adaptation of this graphic novel. Sam Raimi, a long-time fan of the comic, would produce the project. [Hollywood Reporter]

And Tom Harper, whose short, "Cherries," played at Sundance this year, has cast Shane Meadows' favorite Thomas Turgoose in his feature debut, "The Scouting Book for Boys." Turgoose will, once again, play a troubled teen. [Variety]

Acquired: Variance Films, a new distribution company started by a former ThinkFilm exec, will launch with Franklin Martin's "Walking on Dead Fish," a doc about football narrated by Terry Bradshaw, and Vince Di Meglio's "Smother," a Diane Keaton comedy. Both films will open in theaters in September. [indieWIRE]

[Photo: "Strange Bedfellow," Screen Media Films, 2004]