Alex Pettyfer heading to “Cali” with Kristen Stewart

July 25, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Kristen Stewart has found her partner in crime in British actor Alex Pettyfer. Variety reports Pettyfer has landed the male lead and will play opposite Stewart in gritty indie actioner “Cali”, scheduled to begin filming later this summer under the direction of Nick Cassavetes.

Stewart and Pettyfer will play a pair of Southern Californian lovebirds who have become rich and successful through some not so savory or legal means. After making and selling a fake snuff film starring Stewart’s character Mya, the two drive off into the sunset, only to be forced to return “from the dead” years later to face the people they scammed when Mya’s sister gets into trouble. Stewart has revealed she will be blonde and tan in the film, a far cry from the pale, brunette Bella Swan that has made her an international superstar. “I’m going to get into the best shape of my life,” she told Women’s Wear Daily magazine. “I’m going to look like a stripper. I’m going to looks like a porn star.” Michael Diliberti wrote the script.

Pettyfer, who gained fame and notoriety from teen fare like “I Am Number Four” and “Beastly”, was most recently seen in Steven Soderbergh’s sleeper summer hit “Magic Mike”, and is committed to indie thriller “Diamond Dogs”, as well as Lee Daniels’ historical drama “The Butler.”

Lee Daniels casts Alex Pettyfer in “The Butler”

June 18, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Lee Daniels has had his eye on Alex Pettyfer for a while. He wanted to cast him in “The Paperboy” over a year ago, but scheduling ultimately couldn’t be worked out and the role, for better or worse, went to Zac Efron. Now it appears the time is right for the actor and director to finally work together, as Deadline reports Pettyfer has joined the all-star cast of Daniels’ next, “The Butler.”

Pettyfer will play the supporting role of Thomas Westphall amongst a cast that already includes Forest Whitaker, David Oyelowo, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Minka Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrance Howard, and Lenny Kravitz. Whitaker plays Eugene Allen, the White House butler who started out as an entry level “pantry man” in pre-Civil Rights 1952 to serving eight presidents over 30 years and witnessing firsthand such historical events as the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy, and Robert Kennedy. Pettyfer’s Westphall “appears early in the life of Forest Whitaker’s character and has a pivotal influence on the rest of that character’s life.” Filming begins in mid-July.

Pettyfer, who gained fame and notoriety from teen fare like “I Am Number Four” and “Beastly”, will soon be seen in Steven Soderbergh’s LA Film Festival closer “Magic Mike”, and is committed to indie thriller “Diamond Dogs.”

Alex Pettyfer to lead thriller “Diamond Dogs”

May 18, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

“Magic Mike” star Alex Pettyfer will headline indie drama “Diamond Dogs”, according to Variety.

Pascal Chaumeil, who is gearing up to shoot “A Long Way Down” with Emile Hirsch and Imogen Poots, will direct Pettyfer as a popular high school student whose life spirals out of control when he accidentally kills someone, a crime his father then tries to cover up. The search is currently on for a high profile actor to play the teen’s sheriff father. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alan Watt.

British thesp Pettyfer had been deemed the Next Big Thing a year or two back on the cusp of “I Am Number Four” and “Beastly” being released, but both movies tanking at the box office, coupled with tabloid rumors of the young actor’s bad attitude, put a halt to his on-the-verge career. A bounce back could be in the near future though, as Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper buddy dramedy “Magic Mike” is set for release in June, with positive buzz already going strong.

Vanessa Hudgens joins thriller film “The Frozen Ground” with John Cusack and Nicholas Cage

September 12, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Vanessa Hudgens, still perhaps most well-known for her starring role in the Disney musical franchise High School Musical, has been slowly choosing roles outside of that genre, unfortunately with mixed success. 2009′s Bandslam was a charming dramedy, that through the wrong marketing failed to capture the right audience, and two films in 2011 – Beastly and Sucker Punch – suffered from terrible reviews and poor box office success.

Deadline today reports that Hudgens has signed on to The Frozen Ground, a thriller based on “true events surrounding Alaska’s most notorious serial predator, Robert Hansen”.

Also starring John Cusack and Nicholas Cage, the film follows Hansen (Cusack) who over “12 years abducted more than 24 women, flew them into the Alaskan wilderness, and hunted and murdered them. Hudgens will play the one teenage victim who escaped. When she returned to tell her story, nobody believed her. Cage will play the Alaskan State Trooper who finds her on the street. Together they work to bring Hansen to justice.”

Certainly a departure far from the twee singalongs over at Disney!

Filming begins mid October on location at Anchorage, Alaska. The film is to be directed by first time director Scott Walker, who also wrote the script.

Matthew Goode and Alex Pettyfer go into “Overdrive”

May 13, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

Looks like Alex Pettyfer is bouncing back quickly after a disappointing start to 2011 amid disappointing box office and tabloid rumors running amuck. Variety reports from Cannes that the young thesp is in talks to join “Overdrive”, a high voltage action thriller which will pair him with fellow Brit Matthew Goode. This news comes just one day after it was announced director Steven Soderbergh had hand-picked Pettyfer to star opposite Channing Tatum in his male stripper project “Magic Mike”, based on a summer from Tatum’s own adolescence.

In “Overdrive”, Pettyfer and Goode will play handsome, jet-setting brothers who are known for being high profile car thieves. When they travel to the South of France in search of their next adrenaline rush, they are thwarted by a tough local crime boss. Written by “3:10 to Yuma” scribes Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, the film is a passion project for producer Pierre Morel, who directed “Taken”. ” ‘Overdrive’ is an action flick with brains and a great dose of humor, mixing elements of ‘Point Break’ and ‘The Hangover,’ ” said studio exec Gregoire Melin.

Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer strip down and party hard in “Magic Mike”

May 12, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Channing Tatum is about to reveal parts of himself that the world has never seen. Yes, he will be playing a male stripper in Steven Soderbergh’s next feature, “Magic Mike”, and today it was announced that he will be joined by Alex Pettyfer, but more astonishingly, the film is a bit of a biopic, and is based on Tatum’s own real life experiences working as a male stripper the year he was 19 years old. Deadline reports that the British up and comer Pettyfer will actually be playing the character based on Tatum in the film, while Tatum himself will be the titular “Magic Mike”, who mentors the youngster in hustling on and off the stage. The film is described as a tale of friendship set in the world of male stripping, taking place over “a wild summer of dancing, partying, and women.”

“When Channing talked to me about this, I thought it was one of the best ideas I’d ever heard for a movie,” Soderbergh said in a statement. “I said I wanted in immediately. It’s sexy, funny and shocking. We’re using Saturday Night Fever as our model, so hopefully we’re on the right track.” Adds Tatum, who will also serve as a producer on the project, “This was a wild and pivotal time in my life and I couldn’t be more thrilled to go down the rabbit hole with Steven.”

Tatum and Soderbergh previously worked together on actioner “Haywire”, which is complete and awaiting release. Tatum is currently filming “21 Jump Street” opposite Jonah Hill and will next be seen in Nicholas Sparks-esque weeper “The Vow” opposite Rachel McAdams. Pettyfer came seemingly out of nowhere in late 2010 and seemed on the fast track to the A-List, until disappointing box office receipts for “I Am Number Four” and “Beastly” coupled with rumors of arrogance and bad attitudes seemed to put a halt in his rise to stardom. Being hand picked by Soderbergh for such a plum role is certainly one step back in the right direction for the young Brit. Pettyfer will next be seen in Andrew Niccol’s sci-fi thriller newly renamed “In Time” (previously “Now” and “Im.mortal”) opposite Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake.

Once Upon a Time: A Fairy Tale Adaptation Round-Up

March 5, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge and Rebecca Lewis in Features 9 Comments

Hang tight to your memories of childhood fairytales, because most of them are about to get a make-over in the next couple of years. Thanks in no small part to the massive success of Tim Burton’s live-action 3-D fantasy “Alice in Wonderland”, nearly every fairytale, legend and folklore is being snatched up by studios to remake, re-invent and re-imagine for the big screen, sometimes more than once (yes, there really are three Snow Whites and two Peter Pans in active development). And each one has a new “twist” to make you believe you’re not paying $14 just to see a tale as old as time. From modern-day Beasts to self-sufficient Snow Whites and grown-up Hansels and Gretels, each new project promises to be “modern”, “edgy” and inevitably, “brand new”.

It all kicked off yesterday with the release of “Beastly”, a modern-day retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” starring Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens. What better place to start?

Start Here: Beastly >>

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Alex Pettyfer to star as James Hunt in racing biopic

December 17, 2010 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Dreamworks is envisioning their 2011 teen alien actioner “I Am Number Four” to be the first film in a huge franchise, and is busy grooming its star, 20-year-old British import Alex Pettyfer, to be the Next Big Thing. Deadline reports the studio is developing a biopic of 70s race car driver James Hunt for Pettyfer, who will also act as a producer. The project, optioned from “Shunt: The Story of James Hunt” by Tom Rubython about the British driver who won the Formula One World Championships in 1976 and launched a nation’s obsession with the sport, is putting out feelers for “high-end” screenwriters.

“I Am Number Four” releases February 18, 2011 and also co-stars Dianna Agron, Teresa Palmer and Callan McAuliffe. Pettyfer also has modern day “Beauty and the Beast” re-imagining “Beastly” with Vanessa Hudgens and Neil Patrick Harris out the following month, on March 11, 2011.

Watch: Double dose of Alex Pettyfer in new trailers for “I Am Number Four” and “Beastly”

December 7, 2010 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos 1 Comment

Pulling double duty in two highly anticipated teen-driven movies and surely more on the way, Alex Pettyfer looks poised to become the next young Hollywood heartthrob. A modern re-imagining of “Beauty and the Beast”, “Beastly” sees Pettyfer as a beautiful but selfish and vein teenager who is cursed with a monstrous appearance when he refuses to show kindness to a sorceress in disguise (played by Mary-Kate Olsen). Mentored by Neil Patrick Harris and falling for Vanessa Hudgens, I think we all know how this story goes. “Beastly” releases in theaters on March 11, 2011.

Hitting theaters a month earlier on February 18, 2011, is “I Am Number Four”, the much hyped teen alien actioner that sees Pettyfer as an out of this world fugitive who lands in high school and in the arms of “Glee”‘s Dianna Agron. Which Pettyfer movie are you looking forward to more? Which will make him a star? Seems to us that “I Am Number Four” has more broad appeal and looks much less hokey than “Beastly”, but watch both trailers below and judge for yourself!

beastly