Esther and Richard Shapiro’s flick would be a prequel centered on a young Blake Carrington and his first wife Alexis.

Well, I just chatted with the original ruthless and bitchy Alexis—Joan Collins!

Who does she think should play the young future oil moguls? Read on to find out…

For Alexis, Collins thinks onetime Bond Girl and new face of G-Star, Gemma Arterton, would be perfect.

“She has all the qualities that Alexis needs,” she exclusively told me from Birmingham, England, where she’s costarring in stage show Dick Whittington. “She’s sexy. She looks clever and she’s kind of vixenous.”

As for Blake (originally played by the late John Forsythe), Collins said, “I do think Chris Pine would be great as Blake. He’s a wonderful actor.”

Collins said she’d love to play Alexis again. “I certainly couldn’t play her in a prequel in the 1960s,” the 77-year-old Hollywood icon said, laughing. “But I always thought they should do it today with Alexis’ grandchildren, who about 20 years ago were five and six.”

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Star Trek‘s Chris Pine is in “preliminary discussions” to star in the upcoming family drama Welcome to People, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Alex Kurtzman, who wrote the screenplay with Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert, is set to direct.

Welcome to People is about a man who, per his recently deceased father’s will, has to bring $150,000 to an alcoholic sister he didn’t know he had. He then involves himself in her life and the life of her “angry 12-year-old son,” without letting on about their family connection.

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Here are some recent news snippets about Chris and his upcoming projects Jack Ryan and This Means War.

Chris was spotted arriving at the Vancouver airport Sunday (Sept. 19th) evening. He is in Vancouver for the his upcoming film “This Means War” also starring Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy which begins filming at the end of this month.

Word is that Paramount has hired a new writer for upcoming film ‘Jack Ryan’ which Chris is attached to. Recently the studio brought on Anthony Peckham, who wrote INVICTUS and did a pass on SHERLOCK HOLMES, to write a draft of the script that would center on Ryan’s early career tracking down terrorists in Russia. Paramount is hoping that Peckham can deliver a script that will finally get the project kicked into high gear. Recently Jack Bender (“Lost”) signed on to direct the film. There’s another script in existence from Adam Cozad but it’s unclear if Peckham will work off that draft or start fresh.

In a recent interview The Collider asked William Shanter if he saw echoes of his own performances as Kirk, in what Chris Pine did? William’s reply was “I appreciated his performance. I didn’t see what some people have written about, but I’m not that observant.”

With all the high-speed Internet connections and mobile devices out there, we receive breaking news at blistering speeds these days. And in movie news, one rumor can spark a million stories. Case in point: when New York magazine’s Vulture blog reported that George Clooney was planning to follow through with his plans to adapt the play “Farragut North” into a feature film, with Chris Pine attached to star.

But we here at MTV News like to take every possible opportunity to clarify or confirm rumors. And when the very pleasant Pine called to chat about his upcoming thriller “Unstoppable” a few days after the Clooney news surfaced, we had to ask his thoughts about it.

“I have, I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said with some hesitation.

So, we told him the short version of the story.

“Wow!” he responded, sounding genuinely shocked. “Um … that would be another dream come true,” he said, having mentioned earlier that working with Denzel Washington and Ridley Scott on “Unstoppable” was just that.

“Farragut North,” written by former Democratic political operative Beau Willimon, revolves around the shady tactics a young presidential campaign wunderkind named Stephen Myers uses to get his candidate the nomination against a rival senator.

“I love that part, I love the story,” said Pine, who received rave reviews in the lead role of “Farragut” onstage last year. “I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful story about a really intelligent young guy who’s kind of hyper-articulate, and spinning a bunch of plates at once, that’s obviously hiding a lot of trauma and a lot of insecurity and a lot of hurt. And to work with George Clooney, that would be pretty f—ing awesome.”

We then mentioned the report that Clooney is eyeing Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as Pine’s potential co-stars.

His reaction? He laughed out loud in disbelief.

“Jesus Christ! Well, you can’t get better than that,” he said. “I hope it works out. That would be a lot of fun.”

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Farragut North was written for the stage by Beau Willimon, who drew inspiration for the political drama from his experiences working on Howard Dean’s presidential campaign back in 2004. Clooney has been working with Willimon to adapt the play to the big screen for nearly three years now.

Pine would star in the role of spinmeister/wunderkind Stephen Myers, a shrewd political campaigner who is working to get his candidate nominated during the Iowa Democratic caucuses. The young man’s attempts are complicated by the efforts of an investigative journalist and a teenage intern – the latter of which Myers has an affair with. Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood are in talks to play the respective roles.

Leonardo DiCaprio was at one point attached to play the role of Myers, but that is no longer the case. Pine was widely praised for his portrayal of the character in an L.A. production of Farragut North last year (see below) and has seen his star meter in Hollywood rise significantly since – needless to say, he seems all but a perfect choice to play Myers in Clooney’s adaptation as well.

Chris Pine Farragut North movie George Clooney

Clooney already has two credible indie actors onboard to star in Farragut North as well: Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will play Myers’ boss, and Paul Giamatti, in the role of a rival candidate’s campaign manager. The politician Myers works for is never seen in the original play, but will have a short appearance in the film version and may be brought to life by Clooney himself.

Sony is currently holding negotiations with Clooney to distribute the pic, which will most likely be an independent production. The combination of a high-caliber cast and Clooney at the helm should be sufficient to attract the attention of financiers to fund the project.

We will keep you updated on the development of Farragut North as more news comes in.

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Out to prove he’s more than just an immensely pretty face, Channing Tatum hopes to make it as a producer as well. We heard about his first effort, the thriller The Contortionist’s Handbook, earlier this month. Project number two is an ensemble drama entitled Ten Year, which reunites a group of friends a decade after their high school graduation. Naturally, Tatum intends to star in addition to his producerial duties, shared with producing partner Reid Carolin (Stop-Loss) as well as Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey (Eclipse).

According to THR, Tatum hired his Dear John scribe Jamie Linden to write and direct, with a few of Tatum’s friends in mind for the ensemble. There’s a role set aside for wife Jenna Dewan (Step Up), and the wishlist includes Chris Pine (Star Trek), Anna Faris (Observe and Report), Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation), and Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights). There are no deals in place yet, but if Tatum and Co. can land that cast, I’m sold. I actually tend to respect Tatum more than most males in my age bracket, and like the conceit enough that I imagine I could get behind even a Pine-less Ten Year. The filmmakers hope to assemble financing and cast in time for a November shoot.

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