Ansel Elgort Is Augustus Waters in "The Fault in Our Stars" Opposite Shailene Woodley

From siblings to star-crossed lovers! EW reports rising star Ansel Elgort has been offered the male lead in "The Fault in Our Stars" opposite Shailene Woodley - who plays his sister in the currently-filming dystopian adaptation "Divergent." The two Read more

Dylan O'Brien Lands "The Maze Runner" Lead; Ki Hong Lee Also Joins

UPDATE: Director Wes Ball tweets that Ki Hong Lee has also joined the cast as Minho, a fellow Glader and ally to Thomas throughout the series. Lee is probably best known as a regular on short-lived ABC Family Read more

Shailene Woodley Confirmed for "The Fault in Our Stars"

I mean, duh, we called it. It has now been officially confirmed with glowing quotes from director, producer and author in tow that the increasingly in demand Shailene Woodley will play the lead role of Hazel Grace Lancaster Read more

Up and Comers Presents: 20 Faces to Watch in 2013

After a somewhat unpredictable year in which the stars we expected to break out largely didn't but fresh faces came out of nowhere to surprise us all, we are ready to look ahead to the new talent waiting to Read more

Up and Comers Presents: The Breakout Stars of 2012

Another year, another new crop of fresh talent. Just like last year, the hardest part is narrowing down which of the dozens of the year's rising stars shone the brightest. This year we heralded the arrival of the unlikeliest Read more

casting

Aussie actor Callan McAuliffe to lead coming of age indie “Blue Potato”

August 1, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Seventeen year old Australian actor Callan McAuliffe continues to leave his mark on Hollywood, with Variety now reporting he has taken the lead role in coming of age indie drama “Blue Potato.”

The Aron Gaudet-directed film revolves around two teenage boys and their last summer working the potato harvest in Aroostook County, Maine. Kiefer Sutherland’s daughter Sara Jude Sutherland has also been cast as McAuliffe’s love interest, and filming begins next week in Maine.

McAuliffe made his American film debut as the star of Rob Reiner’s “Flipped” and also appeared alongside Alex Pettyfer in “I Am Number Four.” He’ll next be seen as a young Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby.”

Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton to have a “Two Night Stand”

August 1, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

The next wave of future movie stars are graduating from playing best friends and sidekicks to lead roles and it’s exciting to hear about two of the most promising joining forces to do so. Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton will headline romantic comedy “Two Night Stand”, according to Variety.

Max Nichols will make his feature directorial debut from a Black List script by Mark Hammer. Teller and Tipton play “a pair of unlikely lovers” who have have a one night stand but are forced to stay together as they get trapped the next morning by a record-setting blizzard. We’re betting they end up discovering they’re more suited for each other than they initially thought over the course of the blizzard. Filming is set to begin at the end of September.

After making his feature film debut opposite Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”, Teller went on to do comedies, including supporting roles in “Footloose”, “Project X” and starring roles in the upcoming “21 and Over” and “Get a Job.” Before having a two night stand with Tipton he’ll film “The Spectacular Now” opposite Shailene Woodley and Brie Larson. Tipton, perhaps the most successful alum to come out of reality show “America’s Next Top Model”, recently appeared in “Crazy Stupid Love” and Whit Stillman’s “Damsels in Distress”, and will next be seen in zombie love story “Warm Bodies” with Teresa Palmer and Nicholas Hoult.

“Parental Guidance Suggested” for Selena Gomez, Nat Wolff and Austin Stowell

July 31, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Selena Gomez will lead indie coming of age comedy “Parental Guidance Suggested”, according to THR, and will be joined by fellow teen TV stars Nat Wolff and Austin Stowell.

Based on the novel “While I’m Dead…Feed the Dog” by musician Ric Browde, Wolff plays Ric Thibault, a teenager in the 1970s, who goes on a rock n’ roll journey involving “narcoleptic nuns, nymphomaniacs, the Mafia, a huckster televangelist, dying Latin teachers, corrupt school administrators, inept policemen, unscrupulous lawyers, buffoon reporters, half — witted rock and roll musicians, transsexual record company presidents, drug addicted disc jockeys, greedy family members and the lovely Nina Pennington”, played by Gomez. Stowell plays her overbearing boyfriend. Tim Garrick adapted the screenplay and will direct the film in Los Angeles.

Gomez rose to fame on Disney Channel series “Wizards of Waverly Place” and last appeared on the big screen in “Monto Carlo.” She heads to Venice next month as part of Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers” opposite James Franco and Vanessa Hudgens. Wolff’s rise to stardom is similar as one of Nickelodeon’s “The Naked Brothers Band”, and he too is headed for the festival circuit in family drama “Writers” with Lily Collins and Logan Lerman, premiering at Toronto in September. Stowell, who recurs on ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” opposite Shailene Woodley, recently completed Vietnam War drama “Love and Honor” opposite Liam Hemsworth and Teresa Palmer.

Emma Stone to headline Cameron Crowe’s “Deep Tiki”

July 30, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Emma Stone will be the star of Cameron Crowe’s next film, according to Deadline. The untitled love story is a two-hander with the male lead still to be cast and was written by Crowe himself. He will direct it next spring. Deadline seems unclear about plot details, though it’s expected the film will be in the vein of “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous.”

Meanwhile, Variety reports the film is likely to be a rewritten version of Crowe’s long-gestating Hawaiian-set romance “Deep Tiki”, which at one point had Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon attached to play the leads. Stiller would have played a military consultant assigned to oversee a secret satellite launch on a Hawaii military base. There, he begins to fall for an uptight colleague, presumably Stone taking over for Witherspoon.

The picture is set up at Sony, who seems very pleased with Stone after she played Gwen Stacy in “The Amazing Spider-Man” to a warm critical and fan reception. She’s locked in for the sequel, and will next be seen in Warner Bros’ “Gangster Squad”, which was recently moved back to February of 2013 following the Aurora, Colorado shooting. She’s attached to two comedies, drug-fueld “Little White Corvette” and modern rom com “He’s Fuckin’ Perfect”, but both are still in the development stages.

“The Raid” star Joe Taslim and British model Clara Paget join “Fast and Furious 6″

July 30, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Indonesian actor Joe Taslim has landed a villainous role in the fifth sequel to “The Fast and the Furious”, aptly titled “Fast and Furious 6″, according to Variety and British model and actress Clara Paget has joined the ever-growing cast as well, according to Daily Mail. Incredibly, the entire cast from the original film – Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez – will return (some more incredible than others, in Rodriguez’s case), along with Tyrese Gibson, who appeared in the first sequel opposite Walker, Dwayne Johnson, who first appeared in “Fast Five”, and newcomers Gina Carano and Luke Evans.

Since “Fast Five” the long winded action franchise has taken a step away from its street racing roots, focusing more on heists, and the new film is expected to be set overseas, perhaps in London, with director Justin Lin telling the Daily Mail that he and his production designer have recreated in full-scale London’s famed Piccadilly Circus area in Surrey after being denied a license to film a major action scene involving an exploding oil tanker at the actual site. Evans plays the main bad guy, while Taslim will play Jah, “a cold-blooded killer who uses his martial arts and parkour skills to fight the pic’s protags.” Paget, for her part, will have a “sidekick” role as Veigh, a “gun-slinging action woman.” “Fast and Furious 6″ will be released on May 24, 2013.

Taslim, like new co-star Garano, was a martial arts champion athlete before being discovered by a film director and put into movies. For Garano it was Steven Soderbergh and “Haywire”, while Gareth Evans propelled Taslim to fame in “The Raid”, the Indonesion actioner that has found broad crossover appeal in the States. Paget has worked mainly in her native Britain, with supporting roles in “One Day” and “Johnny English Reborn.”

“True Blood” star Nelsan Ellis to play Martin Luther King, Jr. in Lee Daniels’ “The Butler”

July 30, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

The cast of Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” is still growing. Today Deadline reports Daniels has found his MLK in “True Blood” actor Nelsan Ellis, who joins a cast that already includes Forest Whitaker, David Oyelowo, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Liam Neeson, Nicole Kidman, Minka Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr, Alex Pettyfer, Terrance Howard and Lenny Kravitz in the true historical tale.

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. Winfrey and Oyelowo play his wife and son, respectively, while the rest of the cast all play real life historical and political figures, which now includes Ellis as the iconic Civil Rights leader. Filming is underway.

Ellis appeared in “The Help” with Oyelowo, as well as sports films “Secretariat” and “The Express”, though he’s most well known for his role as short order cook and gay witch Lafeyette Reynolds on HBO’s “True Blood”, now in its 6th season. He recently wrapped up shooting indie films “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” opposite Keiefer Sutherland and Kate Hudson, and “Gods Behaving Badley” with Christopher Walken and Sharon Stone.

Nina Arianda to play Il Maestro’s muse Giulietta Masina in “Fellini Black and White”

July 30, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Nina Arianda has really come from nowhere to become a major talent to keep an eye on in Hollywood. After scoring a major get portraying Janis Joplin on the big screen, Deadline reports she has lined up another gig playing a real life icon. In biopic “Fellini Black and White” about the iconic Italian director, Arianda will portray Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s wife of fifty years and the star of many of his films, including “La Strada” and “Nights of Cabiria.” William H. Macy, Terrence Howard and Peter Dinklage round out the cast that is led by Brazilian star Wagner Maura, who plays Fellini.

Written and to be directed by Henry Bromell, “Fellini Black and White” will follow Fellini and Masina’s 1957 trip to Los Angeles, where he would win his first Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. The trip, however, was marred in mystery as he disappeared for two days and almost didn’t make it to his ceremony. Bromell will speculate that Il Maestro “fell under the spell of Hollywood and America in the 1950s and spent the two days discovering jazz, surfing and romancing a local lover who was a vet. He then emerged as a changed man who broke with his previous neo-realist style and went on to create his greatest movie hits,” according to The Guardian.

Arianda landed her first major role on Broadway just a year after graduating from drama school and with her second Broadway play, “Venus in Fur”, she had her first Tony. After supporting roles last year in “Win Win” and especially memorably in “Midnight in Paris”, Arianda will have her first shot at headlining a film with Sean Durkin’s “Joplin”, in which she’ll do her own singing of the late rock legend’s songs. She’s currently shooting two-parter “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby” opposite Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy.

Taylor Kitsch prepares for “The Grand Seduction”

July 30, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

After headlining blockbusters didn’t really work out for him, Taylor Kitsch is giving small indies a shot. Variety reports the “John Carter” and “Battleship” star has signed on to star in “The Grand Seduction”, a remake of 2003 French film “Le Grand Seduction”, rounded out by a cast that includes Brendan Gleeson, Gorden Pinsent, Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones and Liane Balaban.

The film, to be directed by Don McKellar and written by Michael Dowse and Ken Scott, who also wrote the original French film, centers around a small ailing village who needs a doctor in residence in order to land a contract for a new factory to be built. Kitsch will play a doctor who passes through and ends up on the receiving end of a town-wide “seduction” effort to get him to stay permanently. Filming began today in Canada.

Kitsch received critical acclaim for his role as Tim Riggins on NBC series “Friday Night Lights”, prompting quick castings in major blockbuster films “John Carter” and “Battleship.” They were set to be Kitsch’s introduction to the movie audience, but really through no fault of his, both films were box office bombs and critically panned. A more serious role in Oliver Stone’s “Savages” didn’t garner much higher marks, so it’ll be interesting to see where his career goes next.

Kevin Zegers to play Alec Lightwood in “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”

July 27, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Canadian actor Kevin Zegers has been tapped for the role of Alec Lightwood in teen franchise hopeful “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”, according to Just Jared. He joins Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell-Bower, Robert Sheehan, Jemima West and fellow Canadian Godfrey Gao in the production set to film next month.

Collins stars as Clary Fray, a seemingly ordinary human girl who discovers that she can see supernatural beings that no one else can and gets drawn into the world of the Shadowhunters, humans born with angelic blood who hunt and kill demons. Campbell-Bower is male lead and Clary’s love interest Jace Wayland, while Sheehan’s Simon is Clary’s best friend who harbors a secret crush on her and plays in a band. West plays fellow Shadowhunter Isabelle and Zegers’ Alec is Isabelle’s brother, also a Shadowhunter. He also harbors a secret flame for Jace and is cold towards Clary at first because of it, though he ultimately realizes Gao’s Magnus, an 800 year old warlock, is his true love. Harald Zwart is directing the first movie based on Cassandra Clare’s best-selling teen novels and the film is scheduled for release on August 23, 2013.

Zegers had roles in “Transamerica” opposite Felicity Huffman’s Oscar-nominated turn, “The Jane Austen Book Club” and is a recurring guest on The CW series “Gossip Girl.” He’s currently filming indie drama “All the Wrong Reasons” opposite Adam Brody and Sarah Gadon.

“The Help” reunion ahead for Ahna O’Reilly and Octavia Spencer in “Fruitvale”

July 26, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Ahna O’Reilly has joined the cast of true life drama “Fruitvale”, according to Variety. It’ll be a reunion for O’Reilly and “The Help” co-star Octavia Spencer, who signed on for the film back in April alongside “Chronicle” star Michael B. Jordan. Melonie Diaz, Tristan Wilds, Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray are also part of the cast.

Jordan will play Oscar Grant, who was one of several passengers of the Oakland, CA sunway system detained by police at the Fruitvale BART station after reports of fighting in the early hours of New Years Day 2009. With Grant prostrate and bound on the ground, police officer Johannes Mehserle stood back and shot him in the back, fatally wounding him. The incident was captured by various recording devices and cell phones and widely seen after being disseminated to the media. Mehserle was charged with murder but pleaded not guilty, insisting he meant to shoot Grant with his taser and not his pistol. When he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter but not premeditated murder, demonstrations and eventually violent riots broke out in protest. Ryan Coogler wrote the script and will direct the film on location partly on the very platform where Grant was killed.

Since the whirlwind of “The Help” (in which she played Elizabeth Leefolt) and Oscar season, O’Reilly has completed filming on a quartet of indies, including the female lead in Steve Jobs biopic “Jobs” opposite Ashton Kutcher as the late Apple creator.

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