Hot Topics:

Nielsen harvests 'Ice' role

Thesp to star in pic alongside Cusack, Thornton

Feature pix not alien to Humanoids

Comedy Central has good tidings for 'Santa'

'New Moon' crosses $200 million(4810 views)

Invictus(2088 views)

The costs of H�w�d spending(1723 views)

Hollywood sea of change(1434 views)

Football player elbows vampires on Turkey day(670 views)

Pearce hops on to 'Hungry Rabbit Jumps'(667 views)

Connie Nielsen has been set to replace Monica Bellucci as the female lead in "The Ice Harvest," a Harold Ramis-directed black comedy for Focus Features that stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton.

Bellucci had to drop out of the role because she and her actor husband, Vincent Cassel, are expecting a baby in the fall.

Filming begins in a few weeks and Nielsen was available to step in and play a strip club owner of a strip club who manipulates a gangster (Thornton) and a lawyer (Cusack) into stealing a wealthy politician's money.

Robert Benton and Richard Russo adapted the Scott Phillips novel; Bona Fide partners Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa are producing.

Nielsen has just completed a trio of films: She stars this fall in Miramax's "The Great Raid," and went back to her home country of Denmark to star in "Farewell My Brother" for director Susanne Bier and "Return to Sender" for helmer Bille August.