He may be a muggle in real-life, but "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe hopes to bring some of his box-office magic with him as he goes beyond the blockbuster franchise for the first time. An Australian independent film company has signed Radcliffe for "December Boys," a coming-of-age drama to be overseen by veteran "X Files" and "The Practice" director Ron Hardy. The film tells the story of four adolescent orphans whose hopes for adoption grow slimmer with each passing year, until a young couple befriends the group. As they all compete to be selected, the boys find their friendship threatened. The film, which the production company describes as "Stand by Me" meets "Billy Elliot," will begin production in the fall ...

Speaking of everyone's favorite lightning-scarred wizard, Harry will return on November 18 with "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Those who remember Gary Oldman's mischievous Sirius Black as the best part of the last film, however, might be a bit disappointed by the direction in which his character will head this time around. "Well," Oldman smiled, "head is the operative word. I appear in the embers of the fire to warn Harry about Voldemort. I'm in it for 45 seconds. Just a head -- that's all they filmed." Smiling at the oddity of his cameo, he added, "I flew the head to London." ...

Now that Angelina Jolie has shown that she can play a convincing hit woman with "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," she's taking on another acting challenge: playing old opposite fellow Oscar-winners Matt Damon and Robert De Niro. "We're going to make it in September," she said excitedly about "The Good Shepherd," which De Niro will direct. "It goes from the late 1930s to the '60s, and it's [about] the CIA and Bay of Pigs -- it's very heavy and interesting. I probably couldn't pitch it properly, but Matt Damon plays the main guy who goes all the way through, and [it tells] how secrets and lies and corruption [can become confused with] trying to be patriotic, and what it does to your family. It gets pretty heavy." Jolie is looking forward to aging onscreen, but warns fans that it won't be pretty: "I just become a raging alcoholic; I get broken capillaries and bags." ...

They'll be so money once again, and they know it! Completing an unofficial trilogy that has so far encompassed the cult films "Swingers" and "Made," Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau will reunite again for "The Break Up," a comedy about a divorcing couple (Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston) forced to cohabitate. "He's going to come into 'The Break Up' and play my best friend," Vaughn reported, saying that the two friends will switch up their usual styles this time around. "There's no one funnier that Favreau, or brighter than Favreau. He [usually] makes himself the straight guy and sets me up to be the comic relief, but he's one of the best at being that comic-relief guy, so he gets the chance to do that a little bit here in 'The Break Up.' " ...

With "The Interpreter" on its way out of theaters and "Bewitched" about to invade the same screens, Nicole Kidman continues to be one of the busiest actors in the business. "I'm doing a film at the moment about Diane Arbus, so I've got my hands full," she laughed. Barely taking time to breathe, the statuesque Australian beauty reports that the biopic about the revered photographer is something of a passion project. "She was one of the great photographers, I think. I'm doing it with the guy that directed 'Secretary,' so it's a little odd." The film, currently titled 'Fur,' co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and is scheduled for release next summer. ...

If there's ever been a string of three more diverse movie projects, Scarlett Johansson would like to hear it. After working with filmmaking legend Woody Allen on the soon-to-be-released drama "Match Point," Johansson collaborated with blockbuster king Michael Bay on this summer's action flick "The Island" and recently confirmed that she will be working with the Woodman again on a currently untitled comedy. "I don't know that there is a comparison you can make between Michael and Woody," she chuckled. "Put it this way: when I told Woody that I'd be doing a Michael Bay movie, he was like, 'Who?' He doesn't know [who he is]. I mean, he's so totally separated. He's such a snob when it comes to that kind of thing. I told him, 'Well, you've got to see 'The Island' when it comes out; it's going to be great. It's a great science-fiction movie,' and he said, 'Oh, I like science fiction.' We'll see if we can get him to the premiere." ...

"Everybody likes fake poo," declared "Herbie: Fully Loaded" heartthrob Justin Long, and with his freshly grown porn-star moustache, we're not going to argue. Long is working with the creators of "Napoleon Dynamite" on "The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang," a comedy about some white-trash entrepreneurs and the exploitation of an urban legend. The mullet-bearing Long plays a "crazy redneck character who plants evidence of a Bigfoot track, and then wants to take it a step further," by planting the titular Sasquatch dump ... er ... dumpling. Describing his character as a cross between Matt Dillon and Sam Rockwell, he said the film is "about this kid Jeremy, who is obsessed with the Bigfoot legend. He comes from a small town in the Northwest. I play this crazy redneck character -- hence, I have a mullet."

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