Clint Eastwood’s latest soon-to-be-acclaimed outing as a director seems to now be sticking with the title “J. Edgar”, after having flirted with “J. Edgar Hoover” and in addition to the previous casting news (which you can look back through here) we now have an update of the “one in, one out” variety.

Having previously been rumoured to be on board as Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk who then became Hoover’s PA, Charlize Theron has now backed off, although rumours abound that her representatives had portrayed her as being more interested in the role than she really was, resulting in her having to apologise to Eastwood.

Of further interest are reports that now being free of the Hoover bio-pic, Theron may be available to star in Ridley Scott’s Alien prequels. Ridley Scott seems to be less keen on the idea, which may therefore result in a little pressure being exerted by nervous execs at 20th Century Fox, who seem to want to try to increase the presence of higher-profile, better known actors in what may prove to be a pretty expensive and therefore quite risky couple of films.

With Naomi Watts and Amy Adams now being considered by Eastwood for the role of Helen Gandy, Ed Westwick (Children of Men, Breaking and Entering, Gossip Girl) has landed a supporting role, namely that of one Agent Smith. Smith was an FBI operative with considerable skill as a writer and was therefore brought in by Hoover to write his biography, until problems arise as Smith gets too close to the truth.

Sources: Vulture and Deadline.

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Dave has been writing for HeyUGuys since mid-2010 and has found them to be the most intelligent, friendly, erudite and insightful bunch of film fans you could hope to work with. He's gone from ham-fisted attempts at writing the news to interviewing Lawrence Bender, Renny Harlin and Julian Glover, to writing articles about things he loves that people have actually read. He has fairly broad tastes as far as films are concerned, though given the choice he's likely to go for Con Air over Battleship Potemkin most days. He's pretty sure that 2001: A Space Odyssey is the most overrated mess in cinematic history.