Next

From all indications, Lee will imminently be signing on to helm Cleopatra.  He's currently in a close race with Steven Spielberg for Best Director with many Oscarologists tipping him to win.  It will be the second for either.  Perhaps he and Sony will make it official after the Oscars.

THR

Oscars: What's Next for the Nominated Directors

9:00 AM PST 2/20/2013 by Borys Kit , Tatiana Siegel 

David O. Russell heads to the 1970s, Ang Lee wants Angelina Jolie in "Cleopatra" -- and Steven Spielberg's still undecided.

MICHAEL HANEKE
The Amour helmer is directing the Mozart opera Cosi fan tutte in Madrid. After Spain, Haneke will take the light and breezy production -- a far cry from his films -- to La Monnaie in Brussels, where it will premiere May 23. Following Cosi's final curtain calls, the Austrian will turn his attention to writing his next movie.

ANG LEE
Although the Life of Pi director told THR in January that he really wants to direct Angelina Jolie in Sony's Cleopatra, he's not attached -- yet. "I'm about to read the script," Lee said at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. "It just feels right to me after all the other types of films I've done."

PHOTOS: Oscars 2013: 16 Icons Come Together for THR's Oscar Issue

DAVID O. RUSSELL
The director begins filming a still-untitled drama in New York and Boston in March that reunites him with Silver Linings Playbook star Bradley Cooper and The Fighter's Christian Bale and Amy Adams. He's also signed on to direct Jennifer Lawrence again in The Weinstein Co. drama The Ends of the Earth.

STEVEN SPIELBERG
Now that Robopocalypse is on ice, the Lincoln helmer is mulling -- but undecided on -- his next directing vehicle. He is said to be interested in a George Gershwin biopic, and he's executive producing Jurassic Park IV (there's little chance he would direct) and prepping the 3D theatrical release of the first Jurassic Park.

BENH ZEITLIN
Zeitlin is writing an original screenplay that he will direct next for Beasts of the Southern Wild distributor Fox Searchlight. The filmmaker is keeping plot details close to the vest, but the project has been described as a Louisiana-set story about a place with an abnormal aging proces