Christian Slater and Cuba Gooding Jr. will join hands for the action/comedy ‘Lies & Illusions.’ It’s a fairly cheap ($8.5 million) picture made by Nu Image/Millennium Films and will start shooting in Spokane this week. Still, it’s good to see these guys are still working.

The story revolves around a pair of stolen diamonds worth millions of dollars. Spies are hunting a novelist, who they think has those precious diamonds. ‘Lies & Illusions’ is set for an October release. But really, what happened to these guys after ‘Jerry Maguire’ and uhm, what’s Christian Slater’s last hit? Isn’t he straight-to-video these days?

Nicolas Cage will help Werner Herzog with his remake of the 1992 cult hit ‘Bad Lieutenant.’ Originally played by Harvey Keitel, he will play a corrupt cop who spends most of his time doing drugs and having sex. Doesn’t sound too bad right?

Pressman Film Corp. will produce the new picture for financier Nu Image / Millennium Films, with production starting in July. Producer Avi Lerner also wants to note they will put in ‘as much filth as the original.’

In this day and age I’d say it wouldn’t be that hard to beat a movie from 1992 in filth, but I can’t say, since I didn’t have the honor to see the original.