Ellen Page to star in adaptation of Jean Hegland’s “Into The Forest”

January 10, 2013 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

She’s gearing up to premiere two new films at next week’s Sundance Film Festival but Ellen Page will soon be back in front of the camera, as Variety tweets she is attached to star in an adaptation of Jean Hegland‘s “Into The Forest“.

There is no information yet on script writers nor who may direct, but The Playlist have uncovered a synopsis and it sounds like the kind of project we love to watch Page in – compelling, understated films with strong female characters.

“Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home. Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society’s fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other.”

Last seen in Woody Allen‘s “To Rome With Love“, Page will star alongside Brit Marling and Alexander Skarsgaard in the action drama “The East“, and in Lynn Shelton‘s “Touchy Feely” which also stars Scoot McNairy, all of which premiere in the next few weeks at Sundance.

As for “Into The Forest”, we can’t wait to find out who takes on this intriguing plot – and of course, now we can begin to speculate on who could play Page’s sister.

Aaron Johnson emerges as frontrunner for “Godzilla” reboot

January 10, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

We knew it wouldn’t be Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but now it looks like “Godzilla” won’t be fended off by Scoot McNairy, Caleb Landry Jones or Henry Cavill either. Instead, a new contender has taken the frontrunner role in this casting game, with Deadline now reporting Aaron Johnson has emerged as the first choice for the lead role in Gareth Edwards’ reboot of the classic Japanese monster movie.

Frank Darbont is now putting the final touches on a rewrite, and Johnson is said to be interested, but waiting to make his decision until after he sees the final script. Despite a messy legal battle with exiting producers, Edwards is expected to get cameras rolling in March, with the film already set for a May 16, 2014 release. Deadline further reports Johnson would have a second franchise on his hands if he accepts the role, indicating this probably won’t be a stand-alone movie.

Johnson, of course, broke out as the star of 2010′s comic book adaptation “Kick Ass”, and he recently completed work on its sequel. A perennial name on various high profile properties casting for young male leads (“X-Men: First Class”, “Winter’s Tale”, etc), he was seen in this year in Oliver Stone’s “Savages” and Joe Wright’s “Anna Karenina”, in which he played Count Vronsky opposite Keira Knightley.

Newcomer Roberto Aguire to star opposite Robin Williams in indie drama “Boulevard”

January 9, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Newbie actor Roberto Aguire has landed the co-lead of indie drama “Boulevard”, which casts him opposite Robin Williams, reports Variety.

Williams plays “a devoted husband in a marriage of convenience until a run-in with a guarded young man forces him to come to terms with his own secrets”, with Aguire in the role of the young man. Douglas Soesbe wrote the script and “Empire State” director Dito Montiel will direct.

Aguire recently wrapped up his feature debut in “Glee” star Chris Colfer’s “Struck By Lightning”, whic premiered last year at the Tribeca Film Festival. Aguire played the character Emilio and also acted as a producer on the film.

Michael Bay confirms Jack Reynor will star in “Transformers 4″

January 8, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Michael Bay himself has taken to his official website to confirm last month’s report that he has hired Irish actor Jack Reynor to star in “Transformers 4″, which already has Mark Wahlberg attached to the lead role.

Reynor will play one half of the young couple at the center of yet another action-packed struggle between giant space robots Optimus Prime and friends. A yet-to-be-cast actress (who could be Nicola Peltz, Isabelle Cornish, Gabriella Wilde, or someone else) will play a high school student and daughter to Mark Wahlberg, while Reynor will play her motorbike racing boyfriend. Filming is slated to begin in April and the movie already has a release date of June 29, 2014.

Reynor is currently earning raves for his leading role in Irish indie “What Richard Did”, and recently wrapped up his first Hollywood studio picture, comedy remake “The Delivery Man” starring Vince Vaughn, Cobie Smulders, Chris Pratt and Britt Robertson. If we weren’t sure before, the “Transformers” casting almost certainly now takes him out of contention for the male lead in YA adaptation “Divergent”, which has Shailene Woodley in the lead role and will be filming at the same time.

Lucas Till, Jeremy Irvine and Alex Pettyfer vying for “Divergent” male lead opposite Shailene Woodley

January 8, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 6 Comments

Shailene Woodley is still searching for her Four. Two months after she tested opposite a quartet of young leading men, director Neil Burger and the filmmakers behind “Divergent” are still looking for the perfect male lead. Variety reports today that a trio of guys will test opposite Woodley later this week, and the contenders are Lucas Till, Jeremy Irvine and Alex Pettyfer.

Till is the only holdver from the guys who tested in November, so it seems fair to say Brenton Thwaites, Luke Bracey and Jack Reynor did not make the cut, while Variety is careful to point out that Till may have a slight advantage over his new competitors but there are no clear frontrunners just yet. Woodley plays Tris Prior, whose futuristic dystopic world is one in which society is divided into factions (Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, Candor, and Erudite), and each person is sorted into each faction based on a personality test that determines their dominant character traits. Born into the selfless faction Abnegation, Tris shocks her family when she opts to join Dauntless, the brave, instead. There she meets Four, a fellow Abnegation defector who has now taken on a leadership role in their new faction. Four is stand offish, mysterious and super hot. Well, of course. In any case, they discover they have bigger problems to worry about than their burgeoning romance. The film is scheduled to begin shooting in Chicago this spring for a March 21, 2014 release.

Till is perhaps best known for his role as Havok in “X-Men: First Class” (he’s not yet confirmed to return for its sequel, and scheduling conflicts would surely arise if he landed “Divergent”). He will next be seen Chan-wook Park’s “Stoker” opposite Mia Wasikowska and recently wrapped up shooting on “Paranoia” opposite Liam Hemsworth. Irvine was hand-picked by Steven Spielberg to star in his Oscar-nominated “War Horse” and also recently played Pip in a new adaptation of “Great Expectations.” He recently wrapped up shooting “The Railway Man”, in which he plays the younger version of Colin Firth. Pettyfer, who’s had YA adaptation experience thanks to his starring role in “I Am Number Four”, most recently headlined Steven Soderbergh’s sleeper hit “Magic Mike” opposite Channing Tatum. He recently wrapped up shooting on Lee Daniels’ “The Butler.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt committs to “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”, won’t lead “Guardians of the Galaxy”

January 7, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Glad this is finally settled. No, hotly in demand actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt will not star in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”, or the “Godzilla” reboot. Instead, according to Deadline, Gordon-Levitt has committed to a starring role in sequel “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”, which is already filming.

Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are directing the sequel to 2005′s “Sin City”, based on Miller’s graphic novel, and a large chunk of the original cast is returning, including Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jaimie King, Jessica Alba and Rosario Dawson, while newcomers don’t stop with Gordon-Levitt. Josh Brolin is among the names being tossed around as potential cast additions, while the film’s female lead has still yet to be cast as well, even though filming has been on-and-off-going since November. Gordon-Levitt will play a newly created character named Johnny, a “smooth gambler” role that had originally been offered to Johnny Depp.

Gordon-Levitt is arguably the most sought-after young actor in Hollywood right now, especially after a breakout year in 2012 that saw him play an integral transition character in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” (is “Justice League” next?), as the lead of Rian Johnson’s impressive sci-fi thriller “Looper” and as son Robert to Daniel Day Lewis’ “Lincoln.” Next, his directorial debut “Don Jon’s Addiction”, in which he also co-stars opposite Scarlett Johansson, which the now multi-hyphenate will premiere at Sundance in a couple of weeks.

Gareth Edwards eyeing Henry Cavill, Scoot McNairy and Caleb Landry Jones for “Godzilla” lead

January 7, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

So it looks like whatever Joseph Gordon-Levitt does next, it won’t be the reboot of “Godzilla”, to be helmed by indie breakout filmmaker Gareth Edwards. Despite an initial report from THR that Gordon-Levitt is amongst a select few potential leading men being considered for the lead role, they now update that Gordon-Levitt has already passed. Which is good news for he other guys on the list, who are, according to a Variety reporter, Henry Cavill, Scoot McNairy and Caleb Landry Jones.

There’s apparently some disagreement on who would be the best guy to fend off the iconic Japanese giant monster, with reports indicating the bigger names like Gordon-Levitt and Cavill are studio choices (more bankable, etc) while McNairy and Jones, lesser known, have shown great dramatic chops and are the choices of Edwards and the creative team. No official offers have gone out yet, with the script now being given a final polish by Frank Darabont, but a March start date is scheduled, so we could be finding out sooner rather than later who will lead the fight against Godzilla.

McNairy would seem to have a leg up on the competition, as he and Edwards broke out together in 2010′s low budget sci-fil thriller “Monsters”, and he certainly has seen a rise to his profile, especially after having a breakout year in 2012. Jones has blockbuster experience after playing Banshee in “X-Men: First Class”, but has stuck mostly to indies, most recently with two movies at the Toronto International Film Festival, Brandon Cronenberg’s “Antiviral” and Neil Jordan’s “Byzantium.” And while Cavill is a “studio choice”, it’s certainly unfair to downplay his talents, which he honed on four seasons of “The Tudors” before becoming Zack Snyder’s Superman and “Man of Steel” and gently nudged over to the “bankable” column.

Rumored shortlist for “Guardians of the Galaxy”‘s Drax the Destroyer includes the Old Spice guy and more

January 4, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

The search for Peter Quill is still ongoing and seemingly getting more crowded by the hour, but there are other members of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”, after all. Today, we hear the first whispers of actors lining up to play another pivotal role in the Phase 2 film, that of Quill’s brutish teammate, Drax the Destroyer. Comic Book Movie report their source tells them Isaiah Mustafa, Brian Patrick Wade and former WWE Superstar Dave Bautista are all talking with Marvel about taking on the role.

The bald green guy on the left there will have his backstory “updated” for the movie, according to CBM, but the gist of it is that he was an ordinary human being named Arthur Douglas whose family was murdered by the intergalactic villain Thanos (who we briefly glimpsed after the credits of “The Avengers” this summer). By some kind of space magic, Douglas’ soul was taken from his puny human and put into a superior and verdigrised body so he can join Star-Lord and the other Guardians to fight Thanos. James Gunn will bring this ambitious and risky franchise to the big screen, with filming set to begin soon for an anticipated August 1, 2014 release.

A former football player, Mustafa is most known for being that guy in the Old Spice commercials, which he has since leveraged into other jobs, including a role in last summer’s comedy “Horrible Bosses.” Wade is primarily a TV actor who has appeared on everything from “Two and a Half Men” to “The Big Bang Theory” to “NCIS.” Pro WWE wrestler Batista most recently appeared in “Man with the Iron Fists” and has completed work on the “Riddick” sequel.

Brie Larsen to headline indie Bollywood musical “Basmati Blues”

January 3, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Rising star Brie Larson is definitely turning out to be someone to keep an eye on, with Showbiz 411 hinting that she may soon be in for a career boost in the vein of Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. Whether that boost comes from the new project she just landed, however, remains to be seen. Showbiz411 reports (via The Playlist) Larson will play the lead role in American-girl-in-India Bollywood style musical “Basmati Blues.”

Newbie director Dan Baron will shoot the film entirely on location in India and a search is now on for an Indian male lead to star opposite Larson. Plot details are vague, with IMDB calling the film a “musical comedy about love, adventure, and a grain of rice that could change the world” which will apparently feature the music of country band Sugarland.

Larson is one of the busiest and fastest rising young actresses of the moment after turning in a breakout role opposite Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in surprise hit “21 Jump Street.” She recently wrapped Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut “Don Jon’s Addiction” opposite Scarlett Johansson, which is headed to Sundance in a couple weeks, and she’ll also be in Utah representing James Ponsoldt’s adaptation of “The Spectacular Now”, in which she stars opposite Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. She’s also completed filming on indie drama “Short Term 12″ and is attached to two indie comedies, “Squirrel to the Nuts” and “Relanxious”, both opposite Olivia Wilde.

Holy crossover, Batman! Joseph Gordon-Levitt also in the mix for Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”

January 2, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

In an intriguing turn of events, Joseph Gordon-Levitt of all people has popped up in conjunction to Marvel’s current search for a leader of Phase 2 film “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Deadline reports his name is now in the mix but couldn’t nail down whether he had already been offered the role of Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, or not. Others who had been in contention include Eddie Redmayne, Lee Pace, Jim Sturgess, Joel Edgerton and Jack Huston, and most recently, Zachary Levi.

This newest bit of rumor is particularly intriguing, of course, because Gordon-Levitt had seemed poised to play a big role in upcoming adaptations of DC comics over at Warner Bros after having played John Blake in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” Hell, there were even rumors he could be taking over as Batman in 2015′s “Justice League”, DC’s answer to Marvel’s “The Avengers.” That rumor never solidified, and if Gordon-Levitt is indeed available to Marvel filmmakers for their rigorous 9-picture deals, it would seem to deflate the Batman rumors even more.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” is already set for an August 1, 2014 release, so filming should begin by early next year under the direction of James Gunn. We’re not so fond of this potential crossover choice, nor were we of Levi’s potential casting, since he’s already Fandral in “Thor.” Seriously, Marvel, there are other actors out there.

Gordon-Levitt is coming off a strong 2012 after starring in Nolan’s Batman conclusion, Rian Johnson’s sci-fi thriller “Looper” and Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” opposite Daniel Day-Lewis. He recently completed filming on his directorial debut, the romantic comedy “Don Jon’s Addiction” in which he also stars opposite Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. That film is headed to Sundance next month.

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