Because we know you can’t get enough of shortlist stories, we’ve got yet another line-up of actresses vying for a role. Today the film in question is the magician comedy Burt Wonderstone starring Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. Deadline reports that Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan, Judy Greer, Sarah Silverman, and Jessica Biel are all on the short list for the female lead in the Las Vegas-centered comedy. The film tells the story of a Vegas magician (Carell) who is upstaged by a younger, more hip magician (Carrey) after breaking up with his partner. Nevermind that Carell and Carrey are the same age.

While all the actresses mentioned are find leading ladies in their own right, no one comes close to the comedic talents of Greer in my mind. She’s been shining in supporting roles left and right for years (just thinking about her stint on Arrested Development makes me crack a smile), and it’d be great to see her go toe-to-toe with Carell and Carrey. Jason Reitman was recently commissioned to do “several weeks worth” of work on the script, previously written by Horrible Bosses scribes John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein.

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“Free Hugs”, the first film directed by Olivia Wilde is now available to watch online! Check it out at Glamour Reel Moments!

FREE HUGS captures the “rock bottom” moment of post-breakup wallowing, when friends lose their patience, and the pitiless world moves on without you. We follow the hilariously bitter Billie as she attempts to find catharsis through comfort food (and wine), sawing her belongings in half and attacking a particularly meaningful local monument. Ultimately Billie must slam into the harsh reality of heartbreak before she can understand that sometimes the purest form of love is a free hug from a stranger.

Starring: Jaclyn Jonet, Justin Long, Sarah Burns, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Aziz Ansari, Bryn Mooser
Inspired by Glamour Reader Suzanne P. Reese

Olivia Wilde plays an “old soul” in new sci-fi movie In Time, the film’s director has revealed.

The actress plays Justin Timberlake’s mother in the thriller, which sees people stop ageing at the age of 25.

“It was challenging, because some characters, like Olivia Wilde, had to be very old souls, very mature,” Andrew Niccol explained.

And although she was playing the role of a woman a generation older than him, Wilde is actually 27, while Timberlake is 30.

“Olivia had to play the mother of Justin Timberlake, who’s actually a couple of years older than she is,” Niccol laughed. “So it was challenging.”

The film was shot in Los Angeles, which the director, who is also set to helm the adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s The Host, described as apt.

He said: “Working in LA was very interesting because the movie is a lot about staying young forever, and this is the capital of staying young forever.”

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Fiction meets reality in the oddball sensation of the summer, Cowboys & Aliens, which is bolstered by a cast comprised of Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, and more.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will be bringing the sci-fi/western mash-up to DVD and Blu-ray on December 6, 2011, making it the perfect strange gift for the resident weirdo in your life. After all, cowboys fending off an alien invasion is about as crazy as you can get, right? The DVD will be available for the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) of $29.98, while the Blu-ray will run at the MSRP of $34.98.

The releases will feature the following bonus materials:

* Igniting the Sky: Making Cowboys & Aliens – A comprehensive, behind-the-scenes look at the production that invites viewers on set to meet the filmmakers and cast as they create this one-of-a-kind action film. In revealing conversations, Jon Favreau, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, as well as stars Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde, share their insights into the movie. Also featured are visual-effects powerhouses Legacy Effects and ILM, which join forces once again to push the technological envelope beyond anything ever seen before on screen. It includes:
o Finding the Story — Cowboys & Aliens, based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, has been in development for over a decade. Filmmakers, writers and cast explain why this particular team of Hollywood heavyweights hit the right note to bring this to the big screen.
o The Scope of the Spectacle — A look at the team behind the camera for the film’s massive New Mexico shoot, as the stars ride horses, shoot guns, jump from explosions, and get yanked 80 feet in the air! Director Jon Favreau stages unforgettable action set-pieces as cameras capture every moment, while legendary stuntman and Cowboys & Aliens’ second unit director Terry Leonard brings a lifetime of experience to the big-screen stunts, from legendary moments in John Wayne classics to doubling for Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
o Outer-Space Icon — Take a closer look at the creation of a new, terrifying alien design from Legacy Effects and Industrial Light and Magic.
o A Call to Action — A profile of prolific actor, writer and director Jon Favreau featuring on-set video diaries shot throughout the production. (BD only)
o Absolution — A look at the practical re-creation of a dusty Old West mining town, the town’s inhabitants and the amazing ensemble of actors who portray them, as well as an exclusive look at the film’s meticulous production and costume designs. (BD only)

* Conversations with Jon Favreau — Jon Favreau hosts candid interviews with cast and crew. (BD only)
* Director Commentary. (BD only)

You can pre-order the Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Copy in Blu-ray Packaging or the DVD only.

The actress has enjoyed a decent year in the movies with Cowboys & Aliens and The Change-Up this past summer and In Time still coming later this month, and now Olivia Wilde has lined up a new project. While a whole slew of actresses apparently wanted the role, Deadline says it’s Wilde who has been set to play 70′s supermodel Suzy Miller in Ron Howard’s Rush, the chronicle of the rivalry between the late playboy British Formula One driver James Hunt and his nemesis, Austrian champion Niki Lauda. There might even be a small role that would reunite Howard with his A Beautiful Mind star Russell Crowe as well. More below!

Miller became quite fond of Hunt who is described as a handsome, womanizing racer, but the story will also show how the model soon came to fall in love with Richard Burton, and that’s the role that Howard is looking to have Crowe take on (though it would be a very small one). Written by The Queen and Frost/Nixon scribe Peter Morgan, the film follows three-time Formula One champion Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) and his near-fatal 1976 racing season where he was nearly burned to death after his Ferrari swerved off the track in only the second lap of the German Grand Prix, crashed, and burst into flames. He emerged six weeks later to pursue his rivalry with fellow driver James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth). Sounds like a great story for the big screen, especially with Howard in the director’s chair.

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Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman, Olivia Wilde and Leslie Mann switch bodies in The Change-Up, an R-rated comedy from Universal Studios coming to Blu-ray and DVD on November 8.

Marking his feature film directorial debut, Peter Glanz will direct “The Longest Week” — a new indie comedy assembled by Far Hills Pictures — and has nabbed Olivia Wilde as his leading lady.

Pic, which Glanz also wrote, joins the titles currently for sale at the Toronto Film Fest. Story centers on Conrad Valmont, affluent and aimless, who lives a life of leisure in his parents’ prestigious Manhattan hotel. In the span of one week, he finds himself evicted, disinherited and in love.

Stone Douglass and Taylor Materne are producing through their Far Hills Pictures banner along with “Rachel Getting Married” producer Neda Armian.

Far Hills packaged and developed the pic and will finance, budgeting “Longest” at under $5 million. Company will look to get the film into production within the next three months.

Wilde has kept busy with Universal’s “Cowboys and Aliens” and 20th Century Fox’s “In Time,” which unspools in October; and “Butter,” which bowed at the Telluride Film Festival.

Glanz based “Longest” on his black-and-white short, “A Relationship in Four Days,” that screened at Sundance and at the Critics Week in Cannes in 2008.

A fully financed development and production shingle, Far Hills most recently produced “Corman’s World,” which unspools in October. Company looks to produce up to three pics a year in the $5 million to $20 million range. WME Global arranged the financing and will represent distribution rights.

Wilde is repped by WME and Untitled Entertainment.

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Who would you most want by your side in a post-apocalyptic, alien-run Earth? You have five options. Also, this question only applies to Tom Cruise.

Cruise is headlining a developing Joseph Kosinski sci-fi piece, Horizon, in which he’ll play a globetrotting electronics repairman who is reponsible for keeping the human race alive. If this sounds somewhat familiar, you might have known about the project back when it was still advertized under its original name: Oblivion. That title, however, has been sent into… well, you know.

In the film, Cruise’s character will have a right-hand woman: this is one of the two Horizon roles currently in contestion for a handful of actresses. Those included: Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life and The Help), Olivia Wilde (who has been expanding her reputation beyond House with Tron: Legacy-also directed by Kosinski-and Cowboys & Aliens), Sundance darling Brit Marling (who will play opposite Alexander Skarsgard in the upcoming The East), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace and Centurion) and Noomi Rapace (the 2009 Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy and Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequel, Prometheus). The other major Horizon role looking to be filled is that of Cruise’s character’s deceased fiancee (who will presumably manifest in dream sequences, flashbacks, hallucinations, or maybe your odd hologram).

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The dark comedy thriller Better Living Through Chemistry has been going through some casting changes as of late. Last month, Sam Rockwell replaced Jeremy Renner in the lead role (since Renner is starring in every movie possible for the next two years), and now Olivia Wilde is in talks to replace Jennifer Garner in the lead female role. Garner is forced to leave the project not because of scheduling issues, but because she’s now expecting her third child with husband Ben Affleck.

Variety reports that Wilde is in talks to play a trophy wife with whom Rockwell’s small-town pharmacist strikes up an affair as a result of a loveless marriage. Things take a turn, however, when the two start using hard drugs and begin plotting the murder of Wilde’s husband. Michelle Monaghan will play Rockwell’s wife and Judi Dench is set as the film’s narrator. Writer/directors Geoff Moore and David Posamentier are making their feature film debut with the project, and I must say I’m quite intrigued. The cast is spot-on for the darkly comic story, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how this one shapes up.

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What happens when an actor steps behind the camera to direct short films for a fashion magazine? Readers of Glamour magazine are about to find out. Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana and Eva Longoria have all partnered with the magazine’s Reel Moments program, for which they’ll direct short films telling the real stories of Glamour readers.

Saldana’s film, Kaylien, is about a young girl who feels like an alien. (Spoiler alert: it turns out that the girl is autistic.) She cast Bradley Cooper and Malin Ackermann in the 20-minute short, which she told Women’s Wear Daily was an important story for her to tell. Saldana’s niece is autistic. And in order to tell the story right, she even hired a few members of the Avatar team to help with stunts and special effects.

Longoria is taking on what she calls the “surprisingly humorous” story of a woman facing a double mastectomy. It hasn’t been revealed what Wilde is working on yet (although we do know from this photo that Justin Long is in it), but the thrust of the project seems to be stories with a definite didactic message. She told WWD that she wanted to do a short film to learn how to be a better actor — and because there aren’t enough women who direct films.

“I’ve always kind of mourned the small number of female directors in this business and I kind of complain about it a lot without doing anything. So instead of whining about there being a lack of female directors, why don’t I become one and create my own story. So it’s been a dream for a long time.”

Whether or not the films will be a dream come true remains to be seen, but the Reel Moments program has gotten some A-list talent to direct films in the past. Since 2005, Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore and Jennifer Aniston have made shorts, and if they were happy with the results, we’d bet the viewers (and new directors) will be, too.

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