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Apparently there's nothing like a good killing spree to get Tom Cruise going.

The actor and his United Artists have snapped up the rights to The Monster of Florence as a potential starring vehicle, according to Variety.

Based on the true-crime thriller by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, the book chronicles a three-decade spate of serial murders in the cradle of the Renaissance that served as the inspiration to another big-screen bloodbath, Hannibal.

Preston and Spezi are quoted in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera saying Christopher McQuarrie (who wrote Cruise's forthcoming Valkyrie) will adapt and that Cruise will decide whether to star after giving the script a once-over.

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NBC is bringing out the big guns for its 15th and final season of ER. The big, nostalgia-laden, tear-inducing guns.

E! News has confirmed that original ER castmember Anthony Edwards, who played Dr. Mark Greene on the medical hit for eight years before heading to that big emergency room in the sky back in 2002, has signed on to reprise his role for a one-episode guest stint during—when else?—November sweeps.

Show purists can rest easy that producers are only interested in resuscitating ratings, not Edwards' character, and that Dr. Greene will be appearing in flashback form.

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As if Hellboy and Hobbits weren't enough to keep him off the streets, Guillermo del Toro has literally scared up some more work.

The fantastical filmmaker has been tapped by Universal to helm remakes of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, per Variety, along with a big-screen adaptation of Charles Dickens' final novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood simply titled Drood, and a new take on Kurt Vonnegut's cult novel Slaughterhouse-Five.

The Oscar-nominated helmer, who is currently prepping the Hobbit films with Peter Jackson, will most likely begin with Drood, a murder mystery that Dickens never completed.

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• Quentin Tarantino is swapping muses. Uma Thurman is out and Diane Kruger (Troy) is in as the femme fatale in the Pulpmeister's highly anticipated World War II drama, Inglorious Bastards. While Thurman wasn't really up for the part, Kruger was, per the Hollywood Reporter, the second choice after Nastassja Kinski and rounds out a cast that already includes Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak, Michael Fassbender and Tarantino mainstays Michael Madsen and Tim Roth.

• Speaking of the latter Roth, he's come aboard Skellig, a U.K.-produced fantasy about a boy and his magical creature that costars Kelly MacDonald. Skellig will premiere on Britain's Sky One next spring and then hit theaters.

• Is Penélope Cruz making another play for Oscar? The Spanish star is making it a threesome with countryman Pedro Almodóvar as they team for their third joint, Broken Embraces, described as a noirish romance. Almodóvar previously helmed Cruz in 1999's All About My Mother and 2006's Volver, which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nom.

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Why are these two smiling?

Maybe because Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson are young, gorgeous and looking good together at the Venice Film Festival. That'd be enough for most people.

But most people aren't Kruger, who has reportedly been asked to join the cast of Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited World War II film, Inglorious Bastards.

"I just found out I'm going to do [Quentin] Tarantino's next film with Brad Pitt," she told People.

So she's got that going for her, too. And who else is smiling in Italy? Check out our gallery of some of the famous faces who made the scene.

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Ricky Schroder is drumming up some thunder down under.

The actor has signed on to direct the Sci Fi Channel movie Hellhounds, about a Greek warrior who teams with his loinclothed posse to rescue his bride from Hades, circa 500 B.C. The film, starring Men in Trees' Scott Elrod as the put-upon groom, is set to start shooting Sunday in Romania, per the Hollywood Reporter.

Schroder, the former Silver Spoons lad who grew up to carry a badge on NYPD Blue and most recently costar in The Andromeda Strain for A&E, has stepped behind the camera before for music videos and the boxing drama Black Cloud.

In other celebrity-gets-assignment news:

• Welcome to the jungle, Vanessa Marcil. E! News has confirmed that the former Las Vegas beauty has a recurring role coming up on the NBC estrogenfest Lipstick Jungle, playing an ambitious music manager who promises Paul Blackthorne's character a gig scoring an indie film.
• Current Spamalot player Drew Lachey has been tapped to host the star-studded Broadway on Broadway 2008 concert in Times Square, marking the launch of the coming theatrical season, which will be showcasing the talents of, among others, Katie Holmes, Haley Joel Osment, Daniel Radcliffe and Mary-Louise Parker. "I look forward to showing the Broadway fans from New York and around the world just what we have to offer," Lachey said in a statement.
• The newest addition to the plucked-from-obscurity canon, MTV's Top Pop Group, has snared the Black Eyed Peas' Taboo, former Destiny's Child harmonizer Michelle Williams and choreographer Brian Friedman for its judging panel. Mario Lopez is hosting the competition series, which premieres Sept. 11.

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Michael Phelps is taking one hell of a victory lap…around the TV dial.

Fresh off news that Phelps Phans will get their fix of the all-time Olympic champ next month as both a VMA presenter and Saturday Night Live host comes word that the Flipper-esque phenom will be making his premium cable debut later this fall with a cameo appearance on Entourage.

E! News has confirmed that Beijing's eight-time gold medalist shot a "spontaneous" cameo with the cast of the HBO hit in New York City earlier this morning. No further details on the episode or when it will be airing were available. The new season begins Sept. 7.

Let the battle of the Aquamen begin.

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George Clooney wants to be an Air head.

The Oscar winner is in talks to star in Up in the Air, the new feature from Juno director Jason Reitman about a corporate downsizer obsessed with racking up air miles.

The 47-year-old star would play a shallow management consultant who goes around firing people to cut costs for big business. But his dream is to collect 1 million frequent-flier miles and switch jobs to work for the mysterious MythTech.

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Time will tell if Eden proves heavenly for CBS' ratings.

The network has unveiled the 18 castaways for the 17th installment of its time-tested and slightly ratings-worn reality stalwart, Survivor Gabon—Earth's Last Eden.

Befitting its verbose title, the new season marks the Emmy-winning show's first time broadcasting in high definition, and will, per host Jeff Probst, live up to its name.

"In a strange coincidence to Earth's Last Eden, good vs. evil emerges as a major theme this season. I think the audience will quickly identify with one group or the other."

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• Apparently over that whole Pacifier interlude, Vin Diesel wants to blow things up again. The 41-year-old thesp is ready to resurrect his ass-kicking sci-fi antihero Riddick, reteaming with writer-director David Twohy for a pair of sequels to 2000's Pitch Black and 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick.
  "The only question is whether we take a page from the Lord of the Rings guys and try to shoot the two chapters at the same time," Diesel tells MTV, adding that the new flicks "would answer Pitch Black in the same way that Lord of the Rings answered The Hobbit."
• Hilary Swank has snapped up the film rights to the chick-lit novel Something Borrowed and its sequel for a potential starring vehicle, per Variety. The soapy saga centers on a self-professed good girl who ends up sleeping with her best friend's fiancé.
• Real-life spouses David Mann and Tamela J. Mann of Tyler Perry's film Meet the Browns are set to reprise their roles in a TBS sitcom version developed by Perry. The cable channel has ordered 10 episodes of the show, which it plans to syndicate as a spinoff to Perry's House of Payne, TBS' all-time highest-rated original sitcom. Perry will pop up in one ep as his beloved, no-nonsese Medea.
• Jesse James, best known for Monster Garage and being Mr. Sandra Bullock, has been signed by Spike TV for 10 episodes of Jesse James Is a Dead Man. The series will feature James partaking in potentially deadly stunts. His life is in jeopardy beginning in February.
• Blythe Danner (aka Mother of Gwyneth) will guest in NBC's Medium as a mother whose adult daughter is missing. The Patricia Arquette-starring show returns in the midseason.

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• Woody Harrelson's done the Natural Born Killers thing. Now he's tackling the supernatural kind in the horror comedy Zombieland. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Harrelson will be the world's last hope, bashing some brains in the blood-and-guts romp for Columbia Pictures.
• Mario Lopez keeps finding gainful employment. He's just been tapped to front MTV's Top Pop Group, an Idol-esque competition to find—wait for it—the top pop group in the U.S., with the winning outfit getting $100,000. The reality contest kicks off Sept. 11.
• Former O.C. denizen Ben McKenzie is heading back to the boob tube, playing a rookie cop in the NBC drama pilot LAPD.
• Former American Idol finalist Ace Young is the word for Grease. The season five finalist makes his Broadway debut Sept. 9, starring as Kenickie in the hit revival.

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The rumors were partly true: Lance Bass will be among the celeb hoofers on the forthcoming seventh season of Dancing With the Stars.

His pro partner, however—much to the chagrin of the blogging public, if not outspoken pro Karina Smirnoff—will be of the fairer persuasion.

Bass leads the roster of 13 for the latest installment of ABC's hot-stepping hit, a group of contestants cobbled together from the worlds of music, acting, reality TV and, in a bit of perfect timing, Olympic-caliber sport.

Here's the full list:

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