Movie buzz: Invasion of the role snatcher

WHO Nicolas Cage

THE MOVIE "Trespass"

THE DEAL The actor stars opposite Nicole Kidman in this thriller about a well-to-do family terrorized by a home invasion. Cage plays Kidman's husband, though during filming he reportedly switched his role to one of the invaders and at one point left the production altogether. According to Variety, "Trespass" is set for a fall release through Millennium Entertainment, which also distributed Cage's "Drive Angry" and "The Wicker Man." The director is Joel Schumacher, who teamed with Cage on "8mm."

WHO Penn Badgley

THE MOVIE "Greetings From Tim Buckley"

THE DEAL The star of "Gossip Girl" will play Jeff Buckley, son of 1960s troubadour Tim Buckley, in an independent film set to begin shooting this summer, The Associated Press reports. The father was a cult figure who died of a drug overdose at 28; the son seemed headed for voice-of-a-generation status in the mid-1990s but drowned at 30. Another film on the younger Buckley, officially approved by his mother, is also in the works with director Jake Scott, son of Ridley.

WHO James Franco

THE MOVIE "The Broken Tower"

THE DEAL This biopic about poet Hart Crane, which screened earlier this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival, marks Franco's third high-profile gay role in recent years. He played Harvey Milk's boyfriend in Sean Penn's 2008 drama, "Milk," then starred as Allen Ginsberg in "Howl." At last year's Hamptons International Film Festival, Franco informally agreed to play artist-photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in a film by Ondi Timoner ("Dig!"). The Hollywood Reporter noted that "The Broken Tower" contained one explicit and "entirely gratuitous" sex scene but was otherwise "a tedious chore."