Fraser's Quiet Dramatic Bid

August 22 -- If you've been pining for Brendan Fraser to take a vacation from all things goofy (such as the upcoming devilish comedy Bedazzled) and show off his dramatic chops, as he did in the critically acclaimed Gods and Monsters, well, wait no more.

Besides stepping into heroic mode next year in The Mummy Returns, Fraser's in final negotiations to star in a remake of The Quiet American, a thriller based on Graham Greene's 1955 novel.

Providing the necessary British cynicism to the film will be Michael Caine, who is in advanced talks to star in the story of an opium addict's increasing resentment of American colonialism in Vietnam (prior to the Vietnam War). Part of that resentment includes his rivalry with a young American (who would be played by Fraser) over a beautiful Vietnamese woman.

Phillip Noyce (Dead Calm, Clear and Present Danger) will direct the new version, from a script by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons), Variety reports.

Filming on the update is slated to begin in January in Australia and Vietnam.

Anglophiles may already know of Greene's other novels, which resulted in such films as The End of the Affair, Our Man in Havana, The Third Man, and This Gun for Hire.

Today's Variety also confirms that Fraser will star in an August 2001 production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in London's West End. Steamy!