James McTeigue Directs 'Alien Sleeper Cell', Ned Benson Pens 'How Starbucks Saved My Life', and More

Where has The Raven and V for Vendetta director James McTeigue been lately? He's been busy working on Sense8, the new TV series developed by his buddies the Wachowskis. He's now headed back to the big screen for Alien Sleeper Cell, a film that hasn't been heard about in more than four years. It's described as an alien invasion flick with elements of The Bourne Identity and FX's The Americans,  penned by Morgan Davis Foehl. Foehl wrote Michael Mann's upcoming cyber-thriller, Blackhat, and wrote the script for the upcoming Mass Effect movie. McTeigue's next film is the Milla Jojovich-led action thriller, Survivor, due out next year. He's also set to helm the Bloodsport remake at some point. [THR]

Ned Benson's ambitious directorial debut The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby has made him one of Hollywood's rising stars before the film has even hit theaters, and already he's gaining more work because of it.  He's set to rewrite an adaptation of Michael Gates Gill's memoir, How Starbucks Saved My Life. In the works since 2006 when Tom Hanks optioned the rights before it was even published, the story tells of how Gill went from being a high-powered ad exec to working as a barista at Starbucks. While there he finds an unexpected mentor who helps reshape his outlook on life.  Hanks had been planning to star with Gus Van Sant directing, but now that the project is set up at Weinstein it's basically starting over from scratch. Benson is taking over screenplay duties from Chocolat writer Robert Nelson Jacobs.

SNL and Funny or Die's Jake Szymanski is in talks to direct Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, a comedy based on the true story of Mike and Dave Stangle, whose attempts to find wedding dates through Craigslist went viral for some reason.  Andrew Cohen and Brendan O'Brien, writers on the Seth Rogen/Zac Efron comedy Neighbors, penned the screenplay which has the immature brothers' dates turning out to be even less refined than they are. Szymanski will first complete work on The Social Life (formerly He's Fu**ing Perfect) which stars Rebel Wilson and Amanda Seyfried. [THR]

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Kit Harington and Andy Samberg Serve Up '7 Days in Hell'; Allison Williams is Peter Pan

 Being a part of the HBO family comes with many perks. Not only are you a frequent target for Emmy nominations, but it also leads to some pretty big opportunities outside of the network. And now we're seeing two members of the HBO fam taking on new projects, one that sounds potentially awesome and another that could be disaster in the waiting.

First up, Game of Thrones star Kit Harington will team up with Andy Samberg for the star-studded tennis mockumentary, 7 Days in Hell. Check out the cast being assembled for this one: Fred Armisen, Lena Dunham, Will Forte, Karen Gillan, Howie Mandel, Soledad O’Brien (!!!), Michael Sheen, Mary Steenburgen and Oscar nominee June Squibb. Samberg and Murray Miller developed the story with Miller writing the script, and it follows two fierce tennis rivals during an epic 7-day match at Wimbledon. SNL's Jake Szymanski is directing. [Deadline]

And then there's Allison Williams, who plays vocally-challenged wannabe singer Marnie Michaels on Girls. She'll kind of get her wish in a sense as Williams has agreed to play the boy who wouldn't grow up in NBC's Peter Pan Live. She'll sing and dance alongside Christopher Walken as Captain Hook, and hopefully this won't be as terrible as their live version of The Sound of Music. Ratings be damned, that thing sucked.

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Amanda Seyfried to Star in 'He's F-ing Perfect'

Amanda Seyfried's attempt to dirty herself up for Lovelace didn't quite pan out the way she might have hoped. Actually, the film was total joke, although it wasn't for lack of trying. So she's going to veer in the other direction and do something she hasn't done in a long time, which is star in a straight-up comedy.

 She'll take the lead in He's F-ing Perfect, which is probably looking at a name change somewhere down the line. Produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, with Funny or Die vet Jake Szymanski directing, the film centers on a pessismistic woman who scrutinizes the men in her friends' lives. When she convinces one of her friends to dump her new boyfriend, Seyfried's character uses all her social media savvy to win him for herself.

McKay's assistant Lauryn Kahn wrote the script, and this one's been kicking around for some time. Emma Stone had been eying it at one point, back when the project was still at Fox. Universal picked up the rights and are moving forward with Seyfried, who hasn't done a film of this type since Mean Girls. [THR]

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