Even the prospect of being married to Nicole Kidman wasn't enough to lure Gwyneth Paltrow back to work earlier this year. But now the Oscar-winning Iron Man actress may be teaming with Bruce Willis and Bradley Cooper for M. Night Shyamalan's next, top-secret film.

The Sixth Sense writer-director, whose The Last Airbender opens July 1, is reportedly shopping the project with all three actors attached, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Paltrow had been expected to star in The Danish Girl, a trans-gender drama in which she and Kidman were to play husband and wife.

But Paltrow, who has two children with husband Chris Martin of Coldplay, told us during Iron Man 2 interviews that she felt the production schedule would have been too stressful on her four-year-old son, Moses.

"When I was doing the last movie, my son didn't like it. It was really hard on him. And I just thought, 'I can't do this right again in May.' It would've been my first starring role, working every day for 10 weeks. It just wasn't right for him, so I didn't do it."

FAIRY TALE BEGINNING: In Hollywood, living happily ever after means making sequels.

So while the vampire genre continues to endure despite -- after Twilight and True Blood and what feels like dozens of other films and TV shows -- seemingly being sucked dry, studios are scoping for new public domain material to exploit. Enter fairy tales.

While you might have thought Shrek was the final word on folklore, it's anything but. Thanks to the phenomenal success of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland -- which has grossed more than $1 billion worldwide -- multiple producers are hoping to retell numerous childhood favourites.

Updates of both Cinderella and Snow White are in the offing, along with Sam Raimi's Wizard of Oz prequel, entitled Oz: The Great and Powerful.

And two comic-book properties are also being developed. Legends -- a gritty steam-punk story that finds Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel investigating the murder of Pinocchio -- hails from multimedia publisher Radical Pictures.

And David Yates, the director of the past two Harry Potter films, is said to be circling Fables, about what happens when such characters as the Big Bad Wolf are banished to modern-day New York City.

Additionally, director Bryan Singer (X-Men) will next shoot the fantasy Jack the Giant Killer; the title says it all.

X MARKS THE ENSEMBLE: His commitment to Jack the Giant Killer forced Singer from directing X-Men: First Class, the prequel that Fox hopes will re-energize its mutant franchise.

Singer will instead produce with Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) directing. And with James McAvoy set to play the young Professor X, the rest of the cast is quickly rounding out for a summer shoot in London. Michael Fassbender, whose credits include 300 and Inglourious Basterds, will play a pre-villainous Magneto.

Also rumoured to be in the mix, according to various online reports, are Rosamund Pike (as the White Queen), Amber Heard (possibly as a young Mystique) and Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson (a young Cyclops?).

The movie is scheduled for a June 2011 release.

kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca