Abigail Breslin Lands Lead in Thriller “Peste”

May 15, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

abigail-breslin Abigail Breslin has landed the lead role in thriller “Peste”, which Mark Ponderai will direct from a Black List script by Barbara Marshall. Breslin will play a teenage girl confronted with a virus outbreak that spreads into her neighborhood, turning friends and neighbors into monsters. She goes into quarantine with her family in their home, but the virus soon infiltrates them as well.

“Abigail is one of the outstanding talents of her generation. Her recent standout performances in genre hits like Zombieland, The Call and the forthcoming Ender’s Game make her a perfect fit for Peste,” says IM Global’s Stuart Ford. Global’s genre arm Octane is shopping the upcoming project at Cannes this week.

Breslin was nominated for an Oscar for 2006′s “Little Miss Sunshine” and is attempting to make the transition from child to adult actress. It’s a road paved with plenty of thrillers and horrors (“Final Girl”, “Haunter”, “Perfect Sisters”, “Wicked Blood”) but also prestige projects (“August: Osage County”) and potential franchise blockbusters (“Ender’s Game”).

Watch: First Trailer for “Ender’s Game” Starring Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld

May 7, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos 1 Comment

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Children are sent into battle in a futuristic world in this potential franchise launcher from Summit/Lionsgate, but “Ender’s Game” is very different from “The Hunger Games” in the first trailer for Gavin Hood’s adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s iconic sci-fi novel. Children’s innate innocence and bravery are emphasized in our first look at the film, which features Harrison Ford narrating why “a new kind of soldier” is needed to combat aliens who are always one step ahead of humans.

Set in a futuristic world where the human race has been all but wiped out by a race of bug-like aliens called Formics, the government recruits the best and brightest children to attend Battle School, where they are trained in the art of war through a series of games, including one in an anti-gravity Battle Room. Asa Butterfield plays Ender Wiggins, whose brilliance causes him to be promoted to Command School to act as a leader of children’s armies to “simulated” wars against the alien Formics, to largely successful outcomes. Hailee Steinfeld has an expanded supporting role as Petra, the only girl at the Command School, and Abigail Breslin plays Ender’s protective older sister.

The footage looks sleek and exciting, though frankly, also a bit generic and confusing, but sci-fi nerds should be excited about this one, which comes out on November 1st and hopes to be the start of a franchise. Watch the first trailer below and judge its potential for yourself.

First Look: Asa Butterfield stands at attention in first photo from “Ender’s Game”

December 5, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images 1 Comment

Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford face off in our first look at a scene from Gavin Hood’s highly anticipated of Orson Scott Card’s seminal sci-fi novel “Ender’s Game.”

EW debuted the image this morning, describing it as a scene that takes place early on in Ender’s (Butterfield) time at the Battle School, where he is a new recruit. Ford’s Colonel Graff is questioning Ender over his e-mail exchanges with the family he left behind. This futuristic sci-fi tale sees Ender leading an army of other exceptionally bright children in a simulated fight against the alien race of Formics. The cast also includes Hailee Steinfeld as Ender’s most trusted ally and Abigail Breslin as his older sister.

Hood worked extensively with Card, who also adapted the screenplay from his own novel. “I am a fan,” Hood tells EW, “and I have had a desire to do this and have been working on this now for nearly four years.” He also hints that the book’s ending (to which I’m not privy, having never read it) remains in tact. “That ending — and the complex moral questions that it raises — is one of the reasons why I love the book. I promise you that it is very much there.”

“Ender’s Game” will be released on November 1, 2013 and the full still can be viewed below.

First look at Abigail Breslin on the set of “August: Osage County” with Julia Roberts and Juliette Lewis

October 5, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images Leave a comment

Filming is now underway on the highly anticipated and super star-studded big screen adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play stage play “August: Osage County”, and today we have our first look at at Abigail Breslin on the set, along with co-stars Juliette Lewis and Julia Roberts.

Letts’ play follows one dysfunctional family in Oklahoma over the course of several weeks one summer as they come together in the wake of the father’s disappearance and John Wells is currently directing his A-list cast in Oklahoma. Meryl Streep’s Violet is the pill-popping matriarch, while Roberts plays her oldest daughter Barbara, who’s separated from her husband. Lewis plays youngest daughter Karen, self-absorbed and willfully ignorant of the problems in her own life. Breslin’s Jean is 14 and already a pot-smoking rebel. The ladies are all dressed in black from head to toe in these first set photos, which seems to imply a funeral scene may be on the docket for this day of shooting. The cast also includes Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Cooper and Dermot Mulroney.

The first image of Breslin as Jean can be viewed below. Roberts fan website About Julia got the first snaps of the cast on set, and you can head over there for even more.

Alexander Ludwig sets sights on “Final Girl” Abigail Breslin

October 2, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Alexander Ludwig is setting his sights on Abigail Breslin, with Variety reporting the “Hunger Games” actor has signed on to join Breslin in the cast of indie horror “Final Girl.”

Breslin plays a girl dropped into the woods and hunted by a pack of teenage boys, who turns the tables on them one by one. Presumably Ludwig will play one of the boys. Photographer Tyler Shields, who has a demonstrated taste for the macabre, will make his feature directorial debut on the film from a script by Adam Prince.

Ludwig played Career Tribute Cato, the main nemesis to Jennifer Lawrence’s heroic Katniss in Gary Ross’s adaptation of “The Hunger Games”, recently wrapped up a supporting role in Kevin James-Adam Sandler comedy sequel “Grown Ups 2″ and is part of the cast of Peter Berg’s Navy SEAL thriller “Lone Survivor” alongside Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster.

Abigail Breslin joins Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County”

July 20, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Abigail Breslin will play Julia Roberts’ daughter in “August: Osage County”, according to Deadline. Meryl Streep plays the family matriarch and Juliette Lewis has also joined the cast (replacing Andrea Riseborough) of the big screen adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play.

Letts’ play follows one dysfunctional family in Oklahoma over the course of several weeks one summer as they come together in the wake of the father’s disappearance. Streep’s Violet is the pill-popping matriarch, while Roberts plays her oldest daughter Barbara, who’s separated from her husband. Lewis plays youngest daughter Karen, self-absorbed and willfully ignorant of the problems in her own life. Breslin’s Jean is 14 and already a pot-smoking rebel. John Wells will direct on location in Oklahoma this fall, and the rest of the large ensemble cast still needs to be assembled.

Breslin, one of the youngest Oscar nominees ever for her role in “Little Miss Sunshine” back in 2006, has had a somewhat patchy career since as she begins to traverse that awkward stage of transitioning from child to adult roles. She most recently appeared in Garry Marshall’s ensemble comedy “New Year’s Eve” and recently wrapped up a key supporting role in Gavin Hood’s adaptation of seminal sci-fi novel “Ender’s Game.” Indie flicks including horror “Final Girl” and comedy “Virgin Mary” are also on her horizon.

New poster, stills and trailer for Abigail Breslin’s “Janie Jones”

September 14, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images, Videos Leave a comment

Here’s a first look at Abigail Breslin in new film Janie Jones also starring Elisabeth Shue and Alessandro Nivola. Premièring back in April at Tribeca Film Festival, the film has received solid reviews ready for wide release on October 28th this year.

Also starring Brittany Snow, Frank Whaley, Joel Moore and Peter Stormar, the film follows an ageing rocker, whose life is suddenly transformed when his teenage daughter is left in his care.

Rocker Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola) and his band, the Ethan Brand Experience, are on the comeback trail when a former flame (Oscar® nominee Elisabeth Shue) drops a bomb in his lap—their 13-year-old daughter, Janie Jones (Abigail Breslin). Ethan refuses to believe Janie is his kid, but when her mom suddenly leaves for rehab, the child has no place to go but with the band.

With no inclination toward fatherhood, Ethan continues his hard-living ways, leaving Janie to fend for herself in the dive bars and sleazy motels along the way. As his drug- and booze-fueled antics take their toll on and off stage, the band deserts him one by one, until he and Janie are left alone.

Desperate to finish the tour and revive his career, Ethan stays on the road as a solo act with Janie in tow. As Ethan’s self-destructive spiral threatens to derail his comeback, Janie uses her own surprising musical talents to help guide him down the rocky road to redemption.

(via Coming Soon)

Below the cut we have several images from the film, plus the new poster and a trailer.

Abigail Breslin and Carter Jenkins to star in sex comedy “Virgin Mary”

September 13, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Teen actress Abigail Breslin has signed on to star in Virgin Mary, a new sex comedy about two teenagers who vow to lose their virginity with each other if they have yet to, by the age of 18.

Also starring Carter Jenkins, the film looks set to be in the vein of ‘Sixteen Candles’, according to Variety. Directed by Beth Schacter, Breslin and Jenkins will be supported by Keke Palmer and Daryl Sabar. Filming is to begin early in 2012, perhaps ready for the fall festival season that year.

Breslin’s recent film choices are showing us that she is looking to move past her image as the pageant princess in the 2006 surprise hit indie film Little Miss Sunshine. In recent months Breslin has been cast as a killer in Stan Brooks’ A Class Project, a true story of two Canadian sisters who plot to kill their mother after tiring of her alcoholism and abusive boyfriends, and her name was in the running for the high profile role of Katniss in The Hunger Games (she lost out on this role to Jennifer Lawrence). Breslin recently wrapped filming on ensemble comedy New Years Eve, and is soon to start filming alongside Julianne Moore in vampire flick, Innocence.

For Jenkins, who is mostly a TV actor, roles in films such as Aliens in the Attic and the ensemble-led Valentines Day haven’t given him much chance to show range in his skills. An upcoming supporting role in Struck By Lightening alongside Ahsley Rickards and Chris Colfer may give him that opportunity, but this will be his first leading role.

Abigail Breslin wants to kill her mother in “A Class Project”

August 20, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting 1 Comment

Abigail Breslin, who starred in Little Miss Sunshine and Zombieland, has signed on to star in A Class Project to be directed by Stan Brooks. Adapted from the 2008 book “The Class Project: How To Kill a Mother: The True Story of Canada’s Infamous Bathtub Girls”, the film will tell the true tale of two Canadian sisters who, tired of their mother’s alcoholism and her abusive boyfriends, plot to kill her. The crime was not discovered for over a year.

Production is due to start next month, but there is still no word on which other young actress will star as Breslin’s sister.

Breslin recently wrapped filming on the ensemble film New Year’s Eve and is currently in pre-production on Innocence, about a recently bereaved teenage girl (Breslin), who attends an elitist private school, which is also home to a nest of vampires. An adaptation of Jane Menelsohn’s novel, Hilary Brougher (“Stephanie Daley”) will direct and also feature Julianne Moore.

Abigail Breslin, Emily Browning, Saoirse Ronan and more thrown into “The Hunger Games” mix.

March 3, 2011 | Posted by Lindsey Young in Casting 3 Comments

Yesterday, the word spread like wildfire that Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”) was the frontrunner to play Katniss Everdeen in the highly anticipated film adaptation of “The Hunger Games.” Following that report, Variety posted that fellow Oscar-nominee Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”) was still in pursuit of the role, as was Abigail Breslin (“Zombieland”, “Little Miss Sunshine”). Today, EW is reporting that Lionsgate has exclusively confirmed about 30 actresses have either met or read for the role. These actresses include the aforementioned Lawrence, Steinfeld, and Breslin, but also added to the mix are a few new names and some names that have been tossed around before including Chloë Moretz, Lyndsy Fonseca, Kaya Scodelario, Saoirse Ronan, Emily Browning, Shailene Woodley, and Emma Roberts.

So what’s up, Lionsgate? Just when we thought that they were finally closing in on an actress to play the bow and arrow-wielding heroine, it seems that the casting pool has opened up again—and quite vastly, I might add. What is especially interesting is the range of actresses that are being considered. Not too long ago, casting director Debra Zane stated that they were open to unknown actresses. Zane’s office was also tracking potential actresses online via Breakdown Services.

Fan favourites and speculative articles have never been quick to leave out any actresses regardless of appearance or age, but now that there is actual confirmation of certain actresses having read for the roles, a question begging to be asked is what exactly is Lionsgate looking (and waiting) for? The list of reported actresses range from Oscar-nominees to tv series regulars to huge Hollywood names, and perhaps most notably the actresses range from the ages of 14-23. If this is the case, perhaps there is still hope for a few actresses we mention in our “Casting Katniss Everdeen” feature.

However, it must be said. Maybe all of these names are simply being thrown around to deter the public away from Lawrence’s all-too-telling red carpet interview in which her mom may have prematurely hinted that “The Hunger Games” was her daughter’s next project. As we observed yesterday, judging from Lawrence’s reaction to her mom’s slip of the tongue, this project could definitely be the “big break” she referred to in her interview with Ryan Seacrest. It certainly makes sense for Lionsgate to want to cover it up until anything (or everything) is finalized.

It feels like we’ve been saying this forever, but with filming scheduled to begin in a couple of months and a release date set in stone, an announcement will soon have to be made and Katniss will be cast once and for all. Come on, the clock is ticking!

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