“Downton Abbey” Star Michelle Dockery Offered “The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society” Adaptation

April 26, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

michelle-dockery Following in Kate Winslet’s footsteps? Not a bad move for a rising British actress. The Daily Mail reports “Downton Abbey” star Michelle Dockery has been offered the lead role in Simon Curtis’ adaptation of bestselling novel “The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Socity”, a role Winslet had been previously attached to when Kenneth Branagh was going to direct it.

If a deal happens, Dockery will play a single, 30-something author named Juliet Ashton who wrote during World War II. The novel is set up as a series of vignettes from colorful characters who write letters to Juliet detailing their quirky, funny and heartbreaking stories as the war rages on. Letter-writing eventually leads to the formation of the titular Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as the island falls to German occupation. Filmmakers are hoping Dockery will be available to shoot the adaptation after the fourth season of “Downton Abbey” wraps in August.

Dockery was last seen on the big screen in two of Joe Wright’s films – “Hanna” and “Anna Karenina” – and she’s wrapped shooting on upcoming Liam Neeson thriller “Non-Stop”, but certainly her claim to fame thus far is as Lady Mary on ITV/PBS series “Downton Abbey.” Co-star Dan Stevens has already propelled “Downton” into a thriving movie career, and a role such as this one would surely open the same kind of doors for Dockery. Will she leave the show, as Stevens did?

Scoot McNairy and “Downton Abbey” star Michelle Dockery join Liam Neeson flight thriller “Non-Stop”

October 10, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Liam Neeson and Nate Parker are welcoming aboard some fellow passengers. Variety reports Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy and “Downton Abbey” actress Michelle Dockery have all joined the cast of Jaume Collet-Serra’s in-flight thriller “Non-Stop.”

Neeson plays an air marshall who is confronted – via text message! – by an America terrorist who claims to be aboard his flight. The villain threatens to kill a passenger every 20 minutes unless Neeson kills himself. Parker will play a passenger on the flight who helps Neeson solve the mystery while there’s no word just yet on who the new cast additions will play. Filming is set to begin in New York City on November 1st. John Richardson and Chris Roach wrote the script.

McNairy has been on an upward swing since breaking out in Godzilla reboot director Gareth Edwards’ low budget thriller “Monsters.” He can be seen in Ben Affleck’s political thriller “Argo”, out this weekend, and soon in Andrew Dominik’s “Killing Them Softly” opposite Brad Pitt. He also recently wrapped up filming on Steve McQueen’s “Twelve Years a Slave.”

Dockery was last seen on the big screen in Joe Wright’s “Hanna” and will next also appear in Wright’s “Anna Karenina”, but is most known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley on PBS’ mega-hit “Downton Abbey.” Curiously, several of Dockery’s audition tapes for high profile films were leaked online in recent weeks – Rob Marshall’s “The Thin Man” and “Into the Woods” among them – indicating there’s interest from her side in a more visible big screen career.

Saoirse Ronan to play “Mary Queen of Scots” in big screen biopic

August 9, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Saorise Ronan is gearing up to play one of the most infamous rulers in history, as Deadline reports she is attached to the titular role in Working Title Films’ “Mary Queen of Scots.” Producers are talking to directors and hope to begin production early next year.

Ronan will be playing a scandal-ridden monarchy that saw Mary Stuart crowned Queen of Scotland at 9 months old, briefly become Queen Consort of France through marraige, two subsequent marriages, murder plots, abdication of her own crown and imprisonment in England and a major rivalry with her cousin Elizabeth over who the rightful queen of England is. Spoiler Alert: She was executed for assassination plots against Elizabeth after an 18 year imprisonment.

Ronan, who’s currently filming teen novel adaptation “How I Live Now”, broke out at age 13 in Joe Wright’s “Atonement”, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, and has impressed critics and audiences alike ever since. Most recently seen in another Wright film, “Hanna”, her upcoming features include alien ationer “The Host” and Neil Jordan’s Toronto-bound vampire drama “Byzantium.”

Saoirse Ronan to (sort of) play Snow White after all, takes lead in Disney’s “Order of the Seven”

February 10, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

After being linked to and turning down both other current Snow White movies (in the end “Mirror Mirror” went to Lily Collins and “Snow White and the Huntsman” to Kristen Stewart), Saoirse Ronan has chosen to play a sort of version of that fairy tale princess after all. Variety reports Ronan is in final negotiations for Disney’s self-described “warrior pic” “The Order of the Seven”, which originated as a version of the Snow White tale, going under the titles “Snow White and the Seven Samuri” and then “Snow and the Seven” before settling on its current fairy tale-less title.

Ronan will play Olivia, a young Brit living in Hong Kong in the 19th century who seeks protection from an international order of warriors (seven of them). When an evil empress threatens them, she helps the warriors defend their destiny and reclaim their noble roots. Sure, Disney is claiming the film no longer has anything to do with the fairy tale, and who can blame them, but… come on. It still sounds an awful lot like the revisionist Snow White tale that existed a year ago, minus an evil stepmother and magic mirror or two. The studio is also looking for an international audience by seeking to cast local Chinese, Japanese and Russian actors to play the parts of the warriors. Filming under the direction of Michael Gracey – making his feature directorial debut – will begin this fall.

Ronan, Oscar nominee for “Atonement” and one of the most talented and promising young actresses working today, just wrapped up vampire flick “Byzantium” opposite Gemma Arterton and is gearing up to shoot “The Host” for director Andrew Niccol, based on the novel by “Twilight” author Stephanie Meyer. She is also attached to sci-fi actioner “How I Live Now”, about a teenage girl trying to survive WWIII in the British countryside. Ronan was most recently seen as teenage assasin “Hanna” and next lends her voice to “The Secret World of Arriety.”

Saoirse Ronan ponders “How I Live Now” in new wartime drama

December 13, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Saoirse Ronan, at the tender age of seventeen, is becoming quite an expert at surviving life-threatening situations. She’ll add even more experience to her resume as Variety reports the accomplished young actress is now set to topline “How I Live Now”, a teen drama set amidst war-torn England, based on the 2004 novel by Meg Rosoff and directed by Kevin MacDonald.

Rosoff’s novel sees Ronan’s Daisy as a teenager in a slightly futuristic New York City who is sent to live with her aunt and cousins in the English countryside. In a perhaps controversial plot point, Daisy falls in love with her cousin Edmond. But hey, what’s a little potential incest in the face of total destruction? That fateful summer, England is invaded by an unnamed enemy, and the cousins are split up, with Daisy forced to flee with her younger cousin Piper. Variety’s report indicates the film will perhaps take some giant liberties with the source material, by setting it not in the future but in the past: during the onset of World War II.

Ronan is no stranger to playing young women struggling for survival, having starred in WWII-set “Atonement”, afterlife drama “The Lovely Bones”, sci-fi assassin thriller “Hanna” and, of course, Andrew Niccol’s upcoming alien invasion actioner “The Host”, based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer. She is currently filming vampire flick “Byzantium” opposite Gemma Arterton.

Asa Butterfield, Elle Fanning, Thomas Horn, Ezra Miller and more nominated for Critics Choice Awards

December 13, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Awards 5 Comments

From one Critics Society’s nominations to another, and today the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Awards. Once again The Artist and Hugo lead the pack with eleven nominations each – and a surprise but hugely welcome nomination for Melissa McCarty in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in Bridesmaids.

There has been a slow buzz around McCarthy’s performance and we have previously commented on her Oscar chances. This new nomination follows on from awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics.

Elizabeth Olsen gains another Best Actress nomination for the outstanding Martha Marcy May Marlene, and TV star Patton Oswalt garners a further nomination for his supporting role alongside Charlize Theron in Young Adult.

Most notably, the Broadcast Film Critics have a category focusing specifically on the best young actor or actress of the year. This year they’ve chosen some of our favorite performances of the year – and a surprise choice of Saoirse Ronan in the little talked about Hanna. Also nominated are Asa Butterfield (Hugo), Elle Fanning (Super 8), Thomas Horn (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants)

Click below for the full list of nominees. The awards ceremony will be televised on VH1 on January 12th 2012.

Are vampires still in? Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton to star in “Byzantium”

May 14, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Aren’t people just a tiny bit sick of vampires in this post-Twilight world? Apparently not, according to Oscar-winning director Neil Jordan, as he has cast two of the hottest young actresses working to star in his new female-centric vampire tale, “Byzantium”. From Cannes, THR reports that Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan are in talks to play a duo of bloodsucking vampires in the story that revolves around a mother vampire who turns her own daughter into a vampire and the two “form a lethal relationship”, often posing as sisters while immortalized in their youth and beauty.

Moira Buffini wrote the original screenplay, inspired by her own youth theater play, though the film will be darker and more adult in tone. Longtime Jordan collaborator Stephen Woolley will produce. “I love the horror genre and we’ve been working on this for three or four years. I sent it to Neil and he liked the script,” Woolley tells THR. “It was just chance that when I called [Jordan], we were thinking along the same lines.”

Saoirse Ronan toplines “Twilight” author’s alien actioner “The Host”

May 3, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Big casting news is flooding in with Cannes around the corner, and today Deadline unveils a doozie: Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan has been set to star in “The Host”, the big screen adaptation of the novel by Stephenie Meyer, author of the (to put it lightly) massively popular “Twilight” series.

The adaptation has long been in development, with a script by Andrew Niccol, who was at one time attached to direct but opted out to direct “Now” with Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake instead. Now that film is finished, Niccol could return to the director’s chair on “The Host” once again. The story centers around a post-apocalyptic world in which aliens called Souls have body-snatched and are occupying the majority of the human population. Ronan plays Melanie Stryder (who appears to have been aged down significantly from the character in her mid-20s in the book), whose body is taken over by a Soul named Wanderer. However, Melanie’s strong will to survive have the two consciousnesses fighting for domination and eventually becoming allies as they set out to find Jared, the man Melanie loves, and their small colony of human resistance.

Ronan is something of a hot commodity in Hollywood at the moment, thanks in no small part to her ass-kicking turn as a teenage assassin in March’s “Hanna”. She was sought by Gary Ross for “The Hunger Games” and Tarsem Singh for “Snow White” but appears to have passed over both for “The Host”. She will likely reteam with frequent collaborator Joe Wright (“Atonement” and “Hanna”) on “Anna Karenina”, filming this fall, and hasn’t ruled out another reunion with “The Lovely Bones” director Peter Jackson on “The Hobbit”, which is already filming but casting is still underway.

Meyer and the producers will be in Cannes to sell the film.

Watch: Saoirse Ronan in international trailer for “Hanna”

February 3, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

Saoirse Ronan will kick your ass. Playing a cold-blooded teenage assassin who was trained from a young age by her ex-CIA agent father (Eric Bana) to seek out and kill one particular government official (Cate Blanchett), the usually delicate, fragile looking 16-year-old Ronan turns stone-faced and bad-ass as she runs around shooting, snapping people’s necks, even roughing up a boy who innocently tries to lay a kiss on her in the new international trailer for Joe Wright’s “Hanna”, set for release on April 8, 2011.

Watch the new trailer below, debuted earlier today by MSN.

Watch: Saoirse Ronan as teenage assasin “Hanna” in first trailer

December 20, 2010 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

Saoirse Ronan follows in the footsteps of Chloe Moretz to play a teen female action hero in 2011′s “Hanna”, about a young girl who lives in the icy terrains of Finland and trained from childhood by her ex-CIA agent father (Erica Bana) to become an assassin with one very specific target in mind. When she sets off on her solo mission across to kill Marissa Wiegler, played by Cate Blanchett, she connects with a conventional French family and begins to discover there’s more to life than being a cold-blooded killer.

The film, directed by Joe Wright, who deviates from his usual genres and reunites with Ronan after directing her in “Atonement”, will be released on April 8, 2011 and today the first trailer was released, which you can watch now below.

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