Baghdad Zoo is setting for 'Good Luck'

Taylor Hackford will direct "Good Luck, Mr. Anthony," a fact-based film about the South African game-preserve owner who snuck into Iraq after the war began in 2003 and rescued the animals in the Baghdad Zoo. Aryman Bernstein wrote the script with Terry Jastrow.

The film tells the story of Lawrence Anthony, who owns and operates Thula Thula , a game preserve in South Africa. While watching the invasion of Iraq, he recalled that when wars begin, zoo animals are usually killed or die of neglect. Crossing the border from Kuwait seven days after the start of the US-led invasion, Anthony arrived at the zoo to find that half of the 1,000 animals had already died. Engaging mercenaries to battle insurgents and poachers, Anthony rallied the zoo staff to return and protected the animals. Anthony stayed in Baghdad for six months.

BASIC HULK: "The Incredible Hulk" will be matched against the oversize adversary Abomination, and Tim Roth will play the villain's alter ego, Emil Blonsky. Roth joins Edward Norton and Liv Tyler in the Louis Leterrier-directed drama. While Roth's deal is still being negotiated, he becomes the latest piece in a reinvention of the franchise, following the self-serious "Hulk" directed by Ang Lee.

Blonsky is a KGB agent who deliberately exposes himself to the gamma rays that caused Bruce Banner to morph into the Hulk. Blonsky has upped the dosage, making him larger and stronger than the Hulk, but unable to change back to human form. He blames Banner and does his best to destroy the Hulk.

NUMBER CRUNCHER: Laurence Fishburne and Cole Hauser have signed to star in the crime thriller "Tortured," with cameras rolling tomorrow . Nolan Lebovitz will direct from his own script.

The story centers on an undercover FBI agent (Hauser) who infiltrates the world's most powerful crime syndicate. When he cracks the inner circle, he's assigned the task of torturing one of its accountants, played by Fishburne.

WISLON IN 'POOLE': Mark Pellington is set to direct Luke Wilson in the dramedy "Henry Poole Is Here." The story revolves around a man who discovers he has only six weeks to live. All he wants is to disappear into suburbia and live on a diet of pizza, Twinkies, and vodka.

Pellington, also an accomplished music-video and commercial director, most recently directed "U2-3D," a 3D film about U2's Vertigo tour in South America. Wilson is in theaters with the thriller "Vacancy." After that, he'll be seen in "The Wendell Baker Story," which he wrote and co-directed.

SMART SWINGS: Amy Smart will top the indie swing-dancing project "Love N' Dancing" opposite Tom Malloy, with Robert Iscove ("She's All That") directing. The story, by Malloy, centers on a bored-with-life English teacher (Smart) who forms a connection with a West Coast swing dancer and attempts to win the world title while overcoming obstacles presented by her workaholic fiance and his former dance partner.

Material from Variety.com was used in this report.