Josh Duhamel and Rosamund Pike Team for Psychological Thriller “French Window”

May 16, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

frenchwindow Josh Duhamel and Rosamund Pike will star in “French Window”, described as an erotic psychological thriller, according to Screen Daily.

The two will play a young couple who embark on a home exchange with a couple in Paris but miss their flight, leading them to spy on their French houseguests, with “fascination and attraction [escalating] into a deadly game of cat and mouse.” Joe Ahearne will direct the film that is said to be in the vein of “Match Point” and “Closer.”

Former soap opera star Duhamel recently became the latest Nicholas Sparks leading man when he starred opposite Julianne Hough in “Safe Haven.” Pike, who’s known for “Pride and Prejudice”, “An Education” and more, recently wrapped Nick Hornby adaptation “A Long Way Down” as well as Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy conclusion “The World’s End.”

The Young Lovers of Nicholas Sparks Adaptations: A Retrospective

February 13, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Features Leave a comment

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As Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel prepare to embark upon being star-crossed lovers in a film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel – “Safe Haven”, opening on Valentine’s Day – we look back at the tragic lovebirds who came before them. Sparks movies are critical flops and box office successes but seem to be hit and miss when it comes to creating stars. For the purpose of this study, we’ll omit the two Sparks adaptations which starred established stars. Kevin Costner, Robin Wright, Richard Gere and Diane Lane are doing just fine, thank you very much.

Are Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams still the most iconic of Sparks couples? How have Sparks adaptations helped or hurt the careers of the likes of Mandy Moore, Shane West, Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried? Hough and Duhamel are two actors whose careers could certainly use a breakout-style boost, but as we will show here, leading a Sparks adaptation is no guarantee of movie stardom. We’ll see how they fare when “Safe Haven” is released tomorrow, but for now, let’s take a look back at the couples who came before them.

Start Here: A Walk to Remember, 2002 >>

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Keira Knightley out, Julianne Hough in for Nicholas Sparks adaptation “Safe Haven” opposite Josh Duhamel

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

Keira Kinghtley said no, will Julianne Hough say yes? Variety reports it’s the “Dancing with the Stars” graduate who is now in negotiations to star in the latest Nicholas Sparks big screen adaptation, Lasse Hallstrom’s “Safe Haven”, which already has Josh Duhamel as its leading man.

Hough will play Katie, a mysterious young woman who shows up in a small coastal town in North Carolina harboring dark secrets about her past. Though she tries to avoid it, she falls for handsome widower Alex (Duhamel), with two young children in tow, and forms a friendship with her next door neighbor Jo. Her past catches up to her and we can only assume that at least one person will end up dead and everyone else depressed in the end. The film already has a release date of February 8, 2013, with filming set to begin ASAP.

After dancing her way to stardom on hit ABC reality series “Dancing with the Stars” (she was a dancer, not a star), Hough has been steadily landing high profile big screen roles, first taking on the female lead in the “Footloose” remake, then the big screen adaptation of Broadway musical “Rock of Ages”, out next month. She recently wrapped playing another lead, in Diablo Cody’s untitled drama formerly known as “Lamb of God”, and starring in “Safe Haven” seems right in step with her repertoire thus far.

Josh Duhamel becomes the latest Nicholas Sparks leading man in “Safe Haven”

April 25, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Following in the footsteps of Shane West, Ryan Gosling, Channing Tatum and Zac Efron, former soap star Josh Duhamel is set to become the latest hottie to make girls everywhere swoon and cry, as Variety reports he is now in negotiations to play the male lead in “Safe Haven”, the latest big screen adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks bestseller. Keira Knightley had entered talks to play the female lead, but that fell through and the search is still on for Duhamel’s love interest.

Lasse Hallstrom directs the film that follows Katie, a mysterious young woman who shows up in a small coastal town in North Carolina harboring dark secrets about her past. Though she tries to avoid it, she falls for handsome widower Alex (Duhamel), with two young children in tow, and forms a friendship with her next door neighbor Jo. Her past catches up to her and we can only assume that at least one person will end up dead and everyone else depressed in the end. The film already has a release date of February 8, 2013, so casting should come together fast.

Duhamel first made girls swoon and cry as Leo on long-running soap “All My Children”, then seemed poised for big screen heartthrob status when he headlined rom coms like “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!”, “When in Rome” and “Life As We Know It.” Well, those fizzled, but he was in all three “Transformers” movies. Looks like he’ll make another play for that coveted female audience here. Hopefully it’ll work out better than “New Year’s Eve” did.

Watch: New “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” trailer

May 2, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

After the train wreck disappointment that was “Transformers: Rise of the Fallen”, most moviegoers are skeptical and could do with a little arm-twisting to get them interested in another installment of the giant robot aliens protecting our earth, but we have to say, all the footage on “Transformers: The Dark of the Moon”, including the new trailer below, have looked really cool so far. The fight seems to be going more global this time, with scenes that appear to be the stuff of full on alien invasion flicks, cities being blown up and getting overtaken by metallic tentacles, the whole shebang. Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson all reprise their roles from the first two films, but it needs to be said: we miss Megan Fox. Sorry, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, that vacant scared look doesn’t convince us we can care about you the same way we cared for Fox’s sexy mechanic Mikaela. And we’re not exactly happy to see LaBeouf’s Sam move on so quickly either. Those action sequences better be really cool.

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” releases on July 1, 2011 and is poised to dominate the coveted July 4th weekend.

Josh Duhamel joins Gary Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve”

January 27, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Gary Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve” party just keeps getting bigger. Josh Duhamel is the latest actor to RSVP his attendance, as The Wrap reports today. Seth Meyers and Jon Bon Jovi jumped on board a couple of days ago, joining the already enormous cast that includes Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Abigail Breslin, Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank and Sofia Vergara.

The film follows intertwining lives and romantic escapades of a large group of New Yorkers over the course of one New Year’s Eve. It’s a follow-up to the commercially successful “Valentine’s Day”, Marshall’s first holiday-themed large ensemble romantic comedy, but the characters of “New Year’s Eve” will have no relation to that film, as evidenced by crossover cast members Biel and Kutcher playing new roles in the new film.

Duhamel, a soap opera veteran, made the sometimes difficult transition into more mainstream roles first becoming a regular on NBC’s “Las Vegas”, then playing Major William Lennox in Michael Bay’s “Transformers”, a role which he will reprise in this summer’s “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”. He’s also no stranger to (bad) romantic comedies, having brought us such gems as “When in Rome” and “Life As We Know It”.

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