Jack Black, Mike White, and Jared Hess are partnering on an untitled wrestling project as a vehicle for Black. White and Hess will write, with Hess directing.

In the film, inspired by a true story, Black will play a Mexican priest who moonlights as a masked wrestler to save an orphanage destined for closure. All the while, the priest must keep his identity hidden from the wrestling world and the church. ’’I can’t think of two people I’d rather party with than Mike White and Jared Hess," said Black, adding, ’’I can’t wait to get down to Mexico."

This feature will mark Hess’s first movie since his debut feature, ’’Napoleon Dynamite," became an instant cult hit. Hess wrote and directed ’’Napoleon Dynamite" for roughly $400,000, and it has grossed nearly $45 million domestically. The film was nominated for Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize as well as best first feature by the Independent Spirit Awards.

HE’S SOLD: Nick Cannon will star in ’’Cars," based on the true story of Robert Gomez and James Nichols, two 19-year-olds who committed the largest auto fraud in US history. While working as security guards in Carson, Calif., the duo sold $21 million worth of nonexistent cars to thousands of churchgoers who thought they were buying cars at bargain prices from a wealthy Christian’s estate.

SIGN OF SUCCESS? Mark Ruffalo is in negotiations and Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. have signed on to David Fincher’s long-gestating thriller ’’Zodiac."

Gyllenhaal will play Robert Graysmith, the journalist and author of the two books the film is based on, ’’Zodiac" and ’’Zodiac Unmasked." Downey will play fellow reporter Paul Avery; and Ruffalo, the San Francisco homicide inspector in charge of the case. The books revolve around the real-life tale of a serial murderer known as the Zodiac Killer, who terrorized San Francisco for 25 years. Graysmith and Avery worked at the San Francisco Chronicle, which the killer used as a conduit to communicate with authorities.

’BASIC’ MOVES: Charlotte Rampling and David Thewlis are joining Sharon Stone in ’’Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction," a sequel of the film that put Stone on the map in 1992.

The London-set movie finds Catherine Tramell (Stone) on the wrong side of the law. She meets a man who might finally be her match: the criminal psychologist (British actor David Morrissey) assigned to evaluate her by Scotland Yard. Rampling plays a psychiatrist friend of Morrissey’s character, with Thewlis portraying a police officer.

ROCK’S NEW ROLE: Dwayne ’’The Rock" Johnson will star opposite Seann William Scott and Sarah Michelle Gellar in Richard Kelly’s ’’Southland Tales." An ensemble piece, it’s set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as it stands on the brink of social, economic, and environmental disaster. Johnson will star as Boxer Santaros, an action star with amnesia whose life intertwines with Krysta Now (Gellar), an adult film star developing her own reality TV project, and David Clark (Scott), a police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.

PRISON SONGS: Adam Shankman is in negotiations to direct and Sarah Jessica Parker is in negotiations to star in ’’Slammer." The dark comedy follows crafty publicist Maggie Ray, who is framed for theft and shipped to Sing Sing prison in New York. In an attempt to polish the prison’s image, she produces an inmate-led musical that possibly could save her career.

WICKED OPPORTUNITY: Kristin Chenoweth is attached to star as Dusty Springfield in a bio-pic of the soul singer. Jessica Sharzer will write and direct the movie. Born in Britain as Mary O’Brien in 1939, Springfield became the finest white soul singer of her era, with such hits as ’’I Only Want to Be With You" and ’’I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself." She died in 1999 at age 59 after a long battle with cancer.

JOINING THE CUSACKS: Amanda Peet has signed on to star opposite John Cusack in ’’The Martian Child." Joan Cusack also is joining the cast. Menno Meyjes is directing the film. John Cusack plays a man who, after the death of his wife, adopts a 7-year-old who believes he’s from Mars. Peet will play Harlee, the best friend of the man’s deceased wife.

HASSELHOFF WATCH: Kate Beckinsale and David Hasselhoff have signed on to the upcoming Columbia/Revolution Studios film ’’Click." They join Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken in the romantic comedy, to be directed by Frank Coraci. The story centers on a workaholic architect who discovers a remote control that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life.