Nate Parker joins crime drama “Every Secret Thing”

March 20, 2013 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Rising actor Nate Parker has joined Dakota Fanning in the crime drama “Every Secret Thing“, which has already started production in New York City and is being directed by Amy Berg from a script by Nicole Holofcener.

Adapted from Laura Lippmann’s 2004 novel, the film follows two 18 year olds (Fanning and Danielle Macdonald) who have recently been released from prison after being convicted aged 11 for the murder of a baby they had found in an alley. Soon after their release, children begin to go missing and the secrets that have remained around the case, and the girls, begin to unravel.

The film also stars Diane Lane, as one of the girl’s mothers, and Elizabeth Banks as an ambitious homocide detective. BlackFilm.com reports that there is no word on which character Parker will play but this is a story with very few men in it so it’s possible Parker will be playing one of Banks’ colleagues in the police force.

Last year Parker starred in George Lucas “Red Tails“, and “Arbitrage” with Richard Gere, and recently premiered the Rooney Mara-Casey Affleck starrer “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” at January’s Sundance Film Festival. Later this year Parker will have Spike Lee’s “Oldboy” remake and the in-flight thriller “Non-Stop” with Liam Neeson.

Dakota Fanning and Danielle Macdonald know “Every Secret Thing” in crime drama adaptation

February 7, 2013 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Fresh off mixed reviews at Sundance Film Festival for coming-of-age drama “Very Good Girls“, Dakota Fanning is continuing to show audiences that she’s all grown up, deciding her next project will be an adaptation of crime drama “Every Secret Thing“, also starring Australian newcomer Danielle Macdonald.

Based on Laura Lippman’s 2004 novel of the same name, “Every Secret Thing” sounds very dark and gritty, starring Fanning and Macdonald as two 18 year olds, Alice Manning and Ronnie Muller, recently released from prison, after being convicted aged 11 for the murder of a baby they had found in an alley. Soon after their release, children begin to go missing and secrets are still surrounding the case and the girls. Diane Lane will also star as one of the girls mother, and Elizabeth Banks will play the lead police officer.

Directed by Amy Berg in her feature film debut (she previously directed documentary “Paradise Lost”) and scripted by Nicole Holofcener, Variety reports the film will begin production late March in New York.

Macdonald has most recently been seen in Sundance Film Festival pic “The East” and has “Trust Me“, a comedy starring Amanda Peet and Sam Rockwell, in post-production. Fanning, who came to fame as a young girl in “I Am Sam” and “War of the Worlds”, took a few years away from the big screen but is beginning to make her comeback, recently signing on to play Kevin Kline’s teenage lover in “The Last Of Robin Hood“, and replacing Rooney Mara in thriller “Night Moves” with Jesse Eisenberg.

Sundance out of competition premieres announced; first look images from “The East”, “Stoker” and more

December 3, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis and Linda Ge in Images Leave a comment

Just last week Sundance Film Festival announced their 2013 picks, the films that will be competing against each other to win the coveted Grand Jury prizes and hopefully go on to bigger box office and critical success. Now today Sundance have announced the Out of Competition premieres and there are a lot of familiar and exciting rising stars in attendance.

Some of our most anticipated films of 2013 are included in today’s released line up, including Park Chan-Wook‘s English language thriller “Stoker” starring Mia Wasikowska, and “Breathe In“, the second directorial effort from Drake Doremus. Doremus, who hit the 2010 festival with “Like Crazy” which won him the Grand Jury prize, reunites with Felicity Jones in this new film – which again stars Jones as a foreign exchange students in America.

Brit Marling and writing partner Zal Batmanglij are back again with “The East“, starring Marling as an operative whose loyalties are tested when she goes undercover to infiltrate a mysterious anarchist collective attacking major corporations. The pic also features Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell and Shiloh Fernandez.

Noir film “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman” with Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood will also premiere at the 2013 festival, as will the Amanda Seyfried-starrer “Lovelace“. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who starred in the 2012 festival hit “Smashed“, will be back again in “A.C.O.D“.

For Brie Larson and Elizabeth Olsen, Sundance 2013 will be especially busy, as both have films in and out of competition – “The Spectacular Now” and Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s directorial debut “Don Jon’s Addiction” for Larson, and Beat pic “Kill Your Darlings” and the Naomi Foner helmed “Very Good Girls“, also starring Dakota Fanning and Boyd Holbrook for Olsen.

Click below for the first images from these films and the official synopses for the featured films.

Casting “Cinderella”: Who should play the next fairy tale princess opposite Cate Blanchett?

November 27, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting, Features 1 Comment

Move over, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the next fairy tale princess is ready for her moment in the spotlight. Ok, so “Mirror Mirror” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” didn’t exactly light the box office on fire, and “Maleficent” is still a big question mark, but Disney is ready to move forward on another live action big screen adaptation of another fairy tale. This time, it’s “Cinderella”, and it’s happening fast, with Mark Romanek already set to direct and acclaimed Aussie actress Cate Blanchett in negotiations to join the ranks of Julia Roberts, Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie in playing an iconic evil stepmother.

This project dates all the way back to 2010, when “The Devil Wears Prada” screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the original draft and Amanda Seyfried was cast in the titular role. But as The Wrap points out now, Blanchett is officially the first cast member of this new incarnation of the project, which has also gotten a rewrite from Chris Weitz, so we still need a girl to fit into those awfully specific and constricting glass slippers. Here are just five of our favorite suggestions:

Paul Dano and Rooney Mara out, Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning in for indie thriller “Night Moves”

August 13, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

There will be no “Meek’s Cutoff” reunion after all. After nearly a year, Kelly Reichardt’s eco-terrorist thriller “Night Moves” is getting a bit of a cast makeover as it moves closer to production. Peter Sarsgaard and Paul Dano had been set to play the two male leads, while Rooney Mara was circling the female lead, but now Variety reports Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning will be taking over the roles vacated by Dano and Mara.

The trio of actors will play a group of eco-terrorists who plot to blow up a dam. Eisenberg will be the ringleader, Fanning the rich young girl who funds the project, and Sarsgaard the mastermind behind the plan. Sarsgaard spoke last year of his character’s motivations: “I can understand how my character gets to the point of wanting to blow up a dam. I never want to do this, but I can understand how someone can want to do that. We have a gun pointed to our planet. We see that the demonstrations are not working because they are being tackled with pepper [spray]… so you get the radical movement. I can understand that.” Production is scheduled to begin in October in Oregon.

Eisenberg has stayed busy since getting his first Oscar nomination in David Fincher’s 2010 masterpiece “The Social Network.” After a double dose of indies in “Why Stop Now” and “Free Samples”, Eisenberg starred in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” follow-up, “To Rome With Love”, opposite Ellen Page. He’s currently filming “The Double”, a comedy based on Dostoyevsky’s novella, opposite Mia Wasikowska and will also soon be seen in magician heist thriller “Now You See Me” with Dave Franco. Fanning is currently filming coming-of-age drama “Very Good Girls” opposite Elizabeth Olsen and has wrapped on indies “Now Is Good” (which showed at Cannes and which we didn’t really care for) and “The Motel Life.” She’ll also have one last appearance as vampire villainous Jane in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2″, out in November.

First official look at Dakota Fanning in Emma Thompson’s “Effie” biopic

June 8, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images 2 Comments

She may have taken a couple of years away from the big screen but in 2012, despite attending college in New York, Dakota Fanning looks set to return with a host of new films, including two films in post-production looking at potential 2012 release dates, the Ol Parker directed “Now Is Good” (which we reviewed here) being released in Europe later in the year and the final part in the “Twilight Saga” wrapping up in November.

One of those in post-prod is the Emma Thompson film “Effie”, which shot in England last year and also stars Tom Sturridge (“On The Road”) and Greg Wise. The film is based on the life of Effie Grey, who married young to a much older man, John Ruskin (Wise), only for him to refuse to consummate their marriage. Effie then turned to Ruskin’s more age-appropriate protege, the painter John Everett Millais (Sturridge).

Directed by Richard Laxton from Thompson’s script, we got our first look at Fanning and Sturridge on set last year and now Kinopoisk (via The Playlist) have the first set of official images.

Featuring Fanning and Thompson, who “is revealed as Lady Eastlake, the art historian and critic who was one of Effie’s confidantes”, the images show the two in Victorian garments, and it’s good to see the young actress away from her “Twilight Saga” robes and getting her teeth (pun intended!) into something new.

Still no word on a release date, although we’ll let you know as soon as anything is confirmed. Click below for further images.

Boyd Holbrook replaces Anton Yelchin in “Very Good Girls” opposite Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen

May 22, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

This one is a bummer! It looks like Anton Yelchin has fallen out of “Very Good Girls”, as THR reports it’s rising actor Boyd Holbrook who will join Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen the Naomi Foner-directed coming of age drama. Demi Moore and Peter Sarsgaard round out the cast.

Fanning and Olsen play best friends who are determined to lose their virginity as a rite of passage into becoming adults, but things are complicated when they fall for the same street artist. Yelchin had been set for the role of that artist back in November, but looks like the long-gestating development on the film has forced his exit, and Holbrook will play the object of the girls’ affections instead. Financing has finally come together on the indie project, and filming is set to begin in June in New York.

Holbrook just wrapped up playing older brother to Jake Abel in Andrew Niccol’s adaptation of Stephenie Meyer novel “The Host” and was recently seen in Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut “Higher Ground” and indie comedy “The Oranges”, as well as series like “The Big C” and “Hatfields & McCoys.”

Cannes REVIEW: Highly anticipated “Now Is Good” is a disappointing adaptation

May 20, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Reviews 7 Comments

Nearly a year after being cast, Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine‘s “Now Is Good” screened this past week at Cannes Film Festival. One of our most anticipated films of 2012 and based on Jenny Downham’s novel “Before I Die”, the film follows 17 year old Tessa, a terminally ill teenage girl, and her desire to experience life to the fullest before she dies.

It’s a decent performance from Fanning, whose journey from child actress to movie star has been patchy. Fanning’s Tessa is played as mad at the world, unable to come to terms with her illness as she deals with an overbearing father and a mother who can’t deal with her daughter’s imminent death. Unfortunately for Fanning, she is hindered by a poor script which doesn’t allow us to feel any sympathy for Tessa.

Juno Temple replaces Dakota Fanning, heads for the “Wild Side” with Nicholas Cage and Johnny Knoxville

May 8, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Looks like Juno Temple has become the de facto go-to replacement for Dakota Fanning. She’s already set to take on Fanning’s vacated role in “Girls Night Out”, and now Deadline reports Temple will also be taking over on “Wild Side”, formerly “Mississippi Wild”, which Fanning was attached to in early 2011. The entire original cast, in fact, which included Forest Whitaker, Mickey Rourke and Robert Duvall, are out, and joining Temple instead will be Nicholas Cage and Johnny Knoxville.

Temple will play Lila Belle Clyde, a Southern small town beauty queen who gets her hands on a stash of stolen diamonds and attempts to make off with them in order to leave New Orleans behind, forcing her to “elude authorities, a dogged news reporter, and Odel, a self described wolf determined to hunt her down and recover his swag.” Cage will play Odel, the murderous thief who stole the diamonds in the first place. Jesse Baget will direct the road trip drama from a script he wrote with Stefania Moscato. Filming begins on July 23 in Louisiana.

Temple is one of our Faces to Watch in 2012 and recently premiered indie romance “Jack and Diane” at the Tribeca Film Festival. She is currently filming indie drama “Truck Stop” and will then jump to thriller “Magic Magic” opposite Michael Cera and Emily Browning. She will be seen in Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises” and plays Amanda Seyfried’s best friend in pornstar biopic “Lovelace.”

Chloe Moretz and Haley Bennett lead the pack of “Carrie” remake candidates

March 24, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

Another day, another high profile horror remake. The hot topic this week is “Carrie”, the redo of the Brian DePalma classic that landed star Sissy Spacek an Oscar nomination and horror icon status in the title role. MGM is redoing it, and Vulture reports at the top of the list of candidates are Chloe Moretz and Haley Bennett, while others who have read for the part and may or may not still be in the conversation include such usual suspects as Emily Browning, Bella Heathcote, Lily Collins and Dakota Fanning. One girl who will definitely not be in the movie is “The Descendants” star Shailene Woodley, who was reportedly offered the part last week and said no.

Vulture also reports the new film, to be directed by Kimberly Pierce, will be more faithful to the original Stephen King novel – about an unpopular girl who reaches her limit and manifests telekinetic powers to torture and seek revenge on her bullying classmates after a particularly cruel trick involving pig blood at prom – than DePalma’s 1976 version. For the role of Carrie’s suffocating religious mother, Pierce is said to be eyeing the likes of Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore.

Moretz recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated “Hugo” and will next be seen in Tim Burton’s horror comedy “Dark Shadows.” Bennett is no stranger to horror having taken the title role in “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”, and will next shoot Terrence Malick’s “Lawless” opposite Christian Bale.

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