New projects in the works for Eliza Dushku and Kristen Bell

With the Sundance Film Festival coming right on the heels of the Television Critics Association tour, there's lots of television and film news (and gossip) being bandied about these days. Two of the most promising tidbits involve some of our favorite ass-kicking women of television, Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) and Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse).

At the TCA tour, Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas (who was promoting his upcoming series, Cupid, which will star out actress Sarah Paulson) hinted that a Veronica Mars movie just may be in the works.

Kristen Bell

Thomas told TCA journalists, "[Executive producer] Joel Silver does have a certain pile of money that he can decide on and he called me asking if we — you know, can we do this now? So I know that Kristen [Bell] wants to do it. I want to do it. Joel wants to do it, and now I suddenly find myself with enough time to write that script." (Thomas has free time because ABC has cut their original order of 13 episodes down to 8.)

Though there had been talk of focusing a fourth season of Mars on the young sleuth's involvement with the FBI (Thomas even shot a 20-minute pilot pitch of that scenario for the CW when he was trying to win the show a fourth season, and the clip found its way to some viral video sites) the film would not follow that trajectory. Thomas instead said "it would open just days before her college graduation, so Veronica would be just at the end of her college career."

Meanwhile, at Sundance, Eliza Dushku told E!Online's Marc Malkin that she'll be co-producing a biopic about the controversial gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. "Literally this week after quite some time, we finalized the deal with the Mapplethorpe estate." (Mapplethorpe died in 1989 at the age of 42 from complications arising from AIDS.)

Eliza Dushku

She's using her power as co-producer to make some executive decisions, including casting her brother, Nate Dushku, in the lead role as Mapplethorpe. She told E!, "Nate physically has an uncanny resemblance to Robert. Some pictures are really eerie."

No word yet on whether or not Dushku will be appearing in the role as well. But in the meantime, you can look for her highly anticipated new show Dollhouse (helmed by Buffy creator Joss Whedon), set to premiere on Fox on Feb. 13.

So we don't have much news yet on either project, but would you plan to see the Veronica Mars movie or the Mapplethorpe pic anyway just to support Bell and Dushku?