Via Variety:

Christensen cracks “Code”

Thesp to topline action-thriller

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

Hayden Christensen is set to topline David R. Ellis’ “The Genesis Code,” an action-thriller about genetic engineering and a religious sect known as the Shadow of the Cross.

Myriad Pictures topper Kirk D’Amico is co-producing with Tove Christensen, the actor’s brother; Michael Mailer; and Alvaro Longoria. Tove Christensen produces via his Forest Park Pictures.

Myriad, which owns worldwide rights, will sell the film at the Cannes film market, which gets under way Wednesday.

“Genesis Code” is based on John Case’s book of the same name. Scribe Kevin Bernhardt is adapting it for the bigscreen.

Storyline focuses on a former national security expert who is investigating the death of his sister and her young son. Clues lead him to a clinic in the mountains of Italy, where a terrifying secret experiment is being conducted.

Christensen, who played “Star Wars ‘ ” Anakin Skywalker, stars in John Lussenhop’s upcoming “Takers,” opposite Matt Dillon and Zoe Saldana, as well as Brad Anderson’s “Vanishing on 7th Street,” opposite Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo.

Myriad’s Cannes slate also includes 2010 Sundance audience winner “Happythankyoumoreplease”; Simon Wincer’s “The Cup,” which Brendan Gleeson has joined; “Every Day”; “Main Street”; and “Good Neighbors.”

According to this article, Hayden may be a guest at the Vancouver Winter 2010 Olympic Games.

Impressive Games guest list to include sport, society, Hollywood A-list
Not everything that sparkles during next month’s Winter Games will be Olympic gold. Some of the Games-time gleam in the city will come from the many, many stars expected to be in town to party.

In Vancouver, business should be a bit easier. Not all celebrities shun a camera lens.

“I’ve heard some pretty big names coming here. It’ll be good A-listers, put it that way,” Fedyck says.

He’s been told that Hayden Christensen of Star Wars fame, and rapper Sean “Puffy” Combs are on the Games guest list.

Source

I posted earlier about Hayden possibly being part as “The Chase” cast. Well, looks as if Cinando.com has him listed as part of the cast and the film itself will try to be sold at the Berlinale/European Film Market next month. Source

Synopsis
Ex pat American getaway driver SCALPEL (Hayden Christensen) is the best in the business. A former test driver for Lamborghini, behind the wheel he can slice through the streets with surgical precision, a skill that’s tested to the limit when he signs up for a heist that goes awry. Barely escaping the law following an epic, tire melting pursuit, Scalpel promises his frantic kid sister SAMANTHA that he’s retired, much to the
chagrin of his arch nemesis, crooked cop RAY who’s obsessed with taking him down.
After failing to lure Scalpel back into the game with a lucrative joyriding job, ruthless Ray pulls out the stops and goes after Samantha, determined to get to Scalpel by any means necessary. Now with his family under threat Scalpel realizes the only way to escape Ray is to leave town forever and accepts the job. He knows it’s a set up, but running out of choices and time the only option left is to give Ray what he wants: a showdown on wheels.

Thanks Trish!

According to Toutlecine.com Hayden is rumored in to be in “The Chase”.
Google translation-

Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader in the last three Star Wars films to date, Hayden Christensen (the photo) is currently driving lessons to the needs of The Chase.

Entrusted to the care of John McTiernan, who formerly shines in Action (Die Hard 1 and 3, Predator), The Chase relies on an ace driver who used to pilot test the Lamborghini, engages in a snack. Which goes wrong and pushed the man to store cars, history also meet a promise to his little sister. But, as of course, his past catches up with him in the person of a cop bent on his destruction, and in its strings, a very lucrative job. Pilot course …

Hayden Christensen is he through whom The Chase finally takes the road? Previously, when he headlined again Run, the film has seen Karl Urban and Thomas Jane.
Source and Source

From Arclightfilms.com

The Chase (Action / Pre Production)
Expat American getaway driver SCALPEL is the best in the business. A former test driver for Lamborghini, behind the wheel he can slice through the streets with surgical precision, a skill that’s tested to the limit when he signs up for a heist that goes awry.

Barely escaping the law following an epic, tire melting pursuit, Scalpel promises his frantic kid sister SAMANTHA that he’s retired, much to the chagrin of his arch nemesis, crooked cop RAY who’s obsessed with taking him down.

After failing to lure Scalpel back into the game with a lucrative joyriding job, ruthless Ray pulls out the stops and goes after Samantha, determined to get to Scalpel by any means necessary. Now with his family under threat Scalpel realizes the only way to escape Ray is to leave town forever and accepts the job. He knows it’s a set up, but running out of choices and time the only option left is to give Ray what he wants: a showdown on wheels.
Cast: TBA

Director: John McTiernan (DIE HARD, HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR)
Writer: Scott Reynolds

Producers: Gary Hamilton, Mike Gabrawy

Right now this looks to be a rumor, so stay tuned as more information becomes available.

In an article about John Leguizamo’s live shows, they mention Vanishing on 7th Street.

Still in production: “Vanishing on 7th Street,” an existential horror flick with Hayden Christensen, comes out in 2010.

Source

IMDB now has Hayden listed in the cast of Jumper 2, with a release date of 2011. The filming dates are listed as April 27, 2010. I’m sure it will change, but here’s hoping it gets made!

Thanks Trish!

It seems we might have a production date for Beast of Bataan. Mark Jean has the following paragraph listed on his website.

For producers Mel Brooks and Jonathan Sanger he co-wrote BEAST OF BATAAN, a historical drama slated for production in 2010.

Looks as if the UNTITLED MAGIC PROJECT is now titled JAX OF HEART, according to Omega Entertainment.

CREDITS
Director: Mimi Leder (The Peacemaker, Deep Impact)
Writers: Josh Oppenheimer & Thomas Dean Donnelly, JV Hart, Ian Jeffers. Based on an original script by Kevin Bernhardt.
Cast: Hayden Christensen and Djimon Hounsou
Production companies: Tiger8 Production / Omega Productions Inc.

STATUS – Pre Production

Jax lives life on the edge. Working as an underground magician and escapologist, his act has grown increasingly dangerous. Following a daring escape from an SUV that has been dropped out of an aeroplane at the Burning Man Festival, he is coerced by the CIA into breaking a deep-cover agent named Xi Shing Lung out of a maximum security jail. Hypnosis, contortion, distraction and technical wizardry all come into play as Jax breaks the agent out from the inside within a 24-hour deadline.

But back on the outside, Jax learns that it was all a set-up. Xi is a CIA agent gone bad. He offers Mandrake the chance to join his crime ring. When Jax refuses, he’s a marked man. He must escape his would-be-killers and also the real CIA who accuse him of being in league with Xi. His quest to clear his name leads him into all sorts of dangers, which he must overcome with daredevil escapes that require all his conjuring skills. And along the way, Jax is forced to confront his past and the girl he left behind.

ShockTillYouDrop.com has learned Hayden Christensen (Star Wars, Jumper) is in talks to co-star in Vanishing on 7th Street, the latest picture from Brad Anderson, the director of Session 9 and The Machinist.

Christensen will join previously rumored cast members John Leguizamo and Thandie Newton. The three play survivors of a mysterious phenomenon in which, during a blackout most of the population disappears. Holed up in a tavern, they try to piece together what’s happening before the “darkness” returns.

Shooting is expected to begin later this month in Spokane, Washington and New York.

Hannibal Pictures is the production company that will take on this film, but it looks as if they’re calling the film “Darkness”.

Also on the horizon is Darkness, directed by Brad Anderson, a terrifying thriller about a blackout that mysteriously takes the lives of most of the world’s population. A small group of survivors in Spokane, Washington holes up in a bar and plots their survival as the darkness returns to reclaim them. In negotiations to star in Anderson’s film are Thandie Newton and John Leguizamo. No mention of Hayden’s name as of yet.

Official plot crunch:

Following a mysterious blackout, most of the population vanishes into thin air. As the remaining survivors converge in a small tavern to figure out what happened, the darkness returns to claim them one by one.

Source and thanks Trish!

Yesterday afternoon, word hit the wire that Star Wars prequel star Hayden Christensen had signed on for a live-action film based on the Mandrake the Magician comic strip created by Lee Falk. After speaking with a representative of Christensen, however, MTV News has been told that he is not attached to the Mandrake movie.

The initial announcement had claimed that Christensen and Gladiator actor Djimon Hounsou would have lead roles in a movie about the underground magician and escapologist who is approached by the CIA for a special operation. In a conversation with MTV News, Christensen’s representative denied the report, saying that the actor will not be starring in the film.

Little else is known about the Mandrake movie, which is currently scheduled for release in 2010. Movie site IMDB still lists the original actor announced for the lead role, Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Source

Hayden is no longer involved with Casino Jack. A friend sent George Hickenlooper a message on Facebook and he wrote back telling her

” Hayden became unavailable “.

Websites like Screen Daily.Com and Cinema Blend, both have Barry Pepper listed in the role as Michael Scanlon.

According to toutlecine.com- Translation states: Chuck Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers spent hand, it is now Mimi Leder (The Lawgiver with George Clooney) and Hayden Christensen (Darth Vader in the fate of the last two Star Wars live date), leaving them with the heavy focus Mandrake on the screen. The first implementation, the second in the fraction of the hypnotist magician appeared for the first time in a comic book signed Lee Falk in 1934. A hero with extraordinary powers who spend most of his time to face Cobra, the leader of a secret society.

It also appears that Djimon Hounsou has agreed to the interpretation of Lothar, an old African king who follows the conjurer where he goes.

Not 100% sure that Mandrake is born. It would be greatly time since, at the beginning of 70 years, Federico Fellini worked in vain on his return to the screen with Marcello Mastroianni. I would take this with a grain of salt until further information is available.

Cinando has Hayden listed for MANDRAKE- by Mimi Leder.

Source