Monica Bellucci, star of Shoot ‘Em Up and the French film Ne te retourne pas (Don’t Look Back, premiering this weekend at Cannes), will play opposite Nicholas Cage in Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, according to Variety. Belluci’s sorceress Veronica is the long-lost love of Cage’s character, Balthazar Blake. Directed by Jon Turteltaub, the film about a sorcerer who recruits and trains a young protege to fight forces of darkness in modern-day Manhattan is scheduled for a July 2010 release.

Australian actor Liam Hemsworth will play Miley Cyrus’ love interest in Disney’s adaptation of the upcoming Nicholas Sparks novel, according to the Hollywood Reporter. In The Last Song, Cyrus’ rebellious teenager must spend the summer with her estranged father, while Hemsworth is a local beach volleyball-playing cool kid with Ivy League dreams. Julie Anne Robinson will direct. The studio has set a start date of June 15.

Action star Jason Statham will headline The Killer Elite, a new film based on the Ranulph Fiennes bestseller The Feathermen, according to Variety. Statham will portray a former Navy Seal who comes out of retirement to save his friend. The movie is based on a true story about a group of former British Special Forces soldiers who were hunted by assassins. Filming is set to begin overseas this fall.

Worldwide rights to Chris Rock’s Good Hair, an HBO Films documentary about the way hairstyles affect the African-American community, have been sold to Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Roadside plans to release the film, which premiered at Sundance in January, this fall. HBO will retain the pay cable rights.

Rock produced and co-wrote the documentary, which features appearances from Ice-T, Raven Symone, and Maya Angelou.

The AP is reporting that the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office charged British-born actor, Gerard Butler, best known for his leading roles in 300 and P.S. I Love You, with misdemeanor battery in relation to a run-in with a photographer last October outside the premiere of his movie, RocnRolla. Butler’s lawyer, Blair Berk, says the charge does not require Butler to appear in court and, therefore, he’s not expected to show up. If convicted, Butler faces up to six months in jail.