Tom Hiddleston In Early Talks For “The Crow” Remake

April 22, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Tom Hiddleston could be stepping into the shoes of the late Brandon Lee (and, briefly, Bradley Cooper) as The Wrap reports the British actor is in early talks with filmmakers about taking on the lead role in Relativity Media’s new adaptation of “The Crow.”

Hiddleston is the latest start linked to the role of Eric Draven, a rock star brutally murdered while trying to protect his fiance from a gang of thugs. He is resurrected by supernatural forces and seeks revenge. The original film starring Lee – itself adapted from comics by James O’Barr – spawned three sequels but with a different victim and resurrection each time. F. Javier Gutierrez is directing the latest incarnation of the gothic superhero tale, which Hiddleston is so keen on that he did his own makeup test in London and brought it to a recent meeting with producers. He will also undergo more proper visual tests soon as Devan has a specific look that is important to the franchise’s die-hard fans. With many false starts in its wake, production is for now tentatively scheduled for this fall.

Most known to audiences as main villain Loki in both “Thor” and “The Avengers”, Hiddleston is expected to continue to have a presence in the Marvel cinematic universe but has proven to be a versatile actor in plenty of other roles. He especially impressed us in 2011, with roles in “War Horse” and “Midnight in Paris” in addition to his Marvel duties. He has wrapped up filming on Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive” opposite Tilda Swinton and is attached to play wartime photographer Robert Capa in the long-gestating biopic “Capa.”

Tom Hiddleston to Play Wartime Photographer Robert “Capa” in Biopic

April 17, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

This one has been in development hell for quite some time, but it appears there’s movement on one of two dueling biopics of wartime photographer Robert Capa, with British actor Tom Hiddleston confirming to Shortlist (via Playlist) that he will play the titular role in Paul Andrew Williams’ “Capa.”

Back in 2010, it had appeared now-Spider-Man Andrew Garfield and Gemma Arterton may have the lead roles, though even then we were skeptical and it appears that skepticism was founded. Arterton is no longer attached to the film despite having starred in Williams’ “Song for Marion” last year, so now Hiddleston will need a co-star to play Gerda Taro, a fellow wartime photojournalist with whom Capa had an intense love affair. Michael Mann had long been attached to direct a rival biopic, “Waiting for Robert Capa” but he’ll be, uh, waiting for a while longer on that with other projects on his plate in the immediate future.

Hiddleston was one of our Breakout Stars of 2011, the year that brought us his mischievous Loki in “Thor”, noble Captain Nicholls in “War Horse” and charming F. Scott Fitzgerald in “Midnight in Paris.” He hasn’t slowed down since, reprising Loki in “The Avengers” last year and soon headlining Jim Jarmusch’s vampire saga “Only Lovers Left Alive” opposite Tilda Swinton.

Corey Stoll and Arnold Oceng Join Reese Witherspoon in “The Good Lie”

April 3, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

goodlie Uganda-born British actor Arnold Oceng has landed the lead role in true life African refugee story “The Good Lie” opposite Reese Witherspoon, according to Deadline, who further report that Corey Stoll and Sarah Baker have also joined the cast.

Philippe Falardeau is directing the film about four Sudanese “Lost Boys” who were orphaned by and during the Second Sudanese Civil War in the 1980s. Thousands of young boys walked for thousands of miles across Africa and ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya five yearas later. In 2001, over 3,000 Lost Boys were allowed to resettle in the United States and this film will tell the story of four of them, with Oceng playing one of the quartet. Witherspoon plays a “brash American woman” who is assigned to help the boys.

Oceng has been working steadily in Britain for years, appearing in such films as romantic comedy “The Knot” and acclaimed drama “My Brother the Devil”, but “The Good Lie” should mark a major breakthrough in Hollywood for the actor. Stoll impressed as Ernest Hemingway in Woody Allen’s 2010 Oscar-nominatd “Midnight in Paris” and most recently appeared as tortured Congressman Peter Russo in Netflix series “House of Cards.” He recently premiered comedy “C.O.G.” at Sundance and has wrapped up shooting on Liam Neeson thriller “Non-Stop” and will next shoot ensemble family dramedy “This Is Where I Leave You” opposite Jason Bateman and Tina Fey.

Corey Stoll Joins Jason Bateman in “This Is Where I Leave You”

March 7, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

corey-stoll The newly revived family dramedy “This is Where I Leave You” continues moving full steam ahead and dare we say it, with an even better cast than the original? Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Jane Fonda are already on board and now Variety reports Corey Stoll has signed on as well to the adaptation of the Jonathan Tropper novel.

Shawn Levy took over directing duties for Adam Shankman (who remains as a producer) and is assembling a new cast around Bateman’s Judd, a sad sack kinda guy who recently lost his wife due to infidelity with his boss and whose father has just died. The father’s dying wish was for his surviving family to sit Shiva for the full seven days after his passing. This means all four siblings (Bateman’s Judd, Fey’s Wendy and Stoll’s Paul, plus much younger brother Philip, originally to be played by Zac Efron) plus their mother (Fonda) are trapped together for a week as all sorts of secrets are spilled and shenanigans go down. In addition, Judd deals with his soon-to-be-ex wife (likely to be played by Kathryn Hahn) and an old high school crush (Levy and Bateman are choosing between several too-young candidates).

Stoll, who stole our hearts with his spot-on Ernest Hemingway in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”, recently did it again with a tour de force performance as troubled Congressman Peter Russo in Netflix series “House of Cards.” He recently premiered comedy “C.O.G.” at Sundance and has wrapped up shooting on Liam Neeson thriller “Non-Stop” as well as indie “The Glass Chin.”

Nina Arianda joins Paul Newman’s final film “Lucky Them” with Toni Colette

January 31, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Tony Award winner Nina Arianda is continuing her big screen takeover, with Deadline reporting the budding movie star has joined the cast of “Lucky Them”, the final film legendary actor Paul Newman had been working on at the time of his death in 2008. Toni Colette leads the cast that also includes Thomas Haden Church, Oliver Platt, Ryan Eggold and Ahna O’Reilly.

Emily Wachtel and Huck Botko wrote the script and Botko is directing the film about a female rock journalist (Colette) who, on assignment, goes on a journey to track down her musician ex-boyfriend (Church). The semi-autobiographical story is described as a “late bloomers coming-of-age quirky romantic comedy” and will see Colette’s character living in New York and finding herself while most of her friends have already settled down. Arianda will play Colette’s best friend. Filming began last weekend in Seattle.

Arianda, a recent Tony winner for “Venus in Fur” on Broadway, recently landed a string of big screen projects, the most high profile of which being the role of Janis Joplin in Sean Durkin’s biopic of the late singer. Screen credits thus far include Sundance premieres “Higher Ground” and “Win Win”, and Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning “Midnight in Paris.”

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.

Tony winner Nina Arianda to play Janis Joplin in big screen biopic

July 10, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Recent Tony winner Nina Arianda has landed a big break on the big screen, and will play legendary folk singer Janis Joplin in a biopic to be directed by “Martha Marcy May Marlene” helmer Sean Durkin, according to Deadline.

The film, titled “Joplin”, will chronicle the final six months of the singer’s life, with flashbacks to earlier times, and Arianda will perform several of Joplin’s best-known songs. Filming is set to begin early next year. “I’ve never in my life seen an actress walk on a stage and convey the duality of vulnerability with overheated sexuality, which is what Janis was all about,” the film’s producer Peter Newman said of seeing Arianda on Broadway.

Arianda made her big screen debut in 2011, in supporting roles in Sundance films “Win Win” and “Higher Ground” and had a more memorable performance as Michael Sheen’s wife in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”, but “Joplin” will mark her first leading role on film. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress last month for her performance in “Venus in Fur.”

Bradley Cooper may head to Copenhagen for Woody Allen’s next

March 29, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

He’s conquered Paris and Rome, now Woody Allen may be heading to Copenhagen, according to Deadline. And Bradley Cooper may be going with him. The trade reports Allen is readying his next movie to follow up “To Rome With Love”, and is eyeing the capital city of Denmark as the setting, Cate Blanchett for the female lead, as well as Cooper for one of the supporting ensemble roles.

Allen took Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams to France for “Midnight in Paris”, for which he won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar just last month, then immediately headed to Rome with Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Greta Gerwig and more in tow. Plot details remain scarce even for “Rome” so there’s even less to go on for the alleged Copenhagen film, but if “Paris” and what we’ve seen thus far of “Rome” is anything to go by, it’ll revolve around interconnecting groups of people traveling to and residing in the iconic city, and doing a little falling in and out of love along the way.

Cooper, a prolific supporting actor in comedies before breaking out in “The Hangover”, will next be seen in David O. Russell’s “The Silver Linings Playbook” and will soon reunite with co-star Jennifer Lawrence for drama “Serena.”

First Look: Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page and Alison Pill in stills from Woody Allen’s “To Rome With Love”

March 22, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images 1 Comment

After the massive critical and commercial success of “Midnight in Paris”, all eyes are on Woody Allen’s next stop on his globe-trotting tour of filmmaking. The recently renamed “To Rome with Love” (which you may have been familiar with under the titles “Bop Decameron” and “Nero Fiddled”) takes Americans – including Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Greta Gerwig, Alec Baldwin and “Paris” alum Alison Pill – to Italy this time, and now we have our first look at the characters and relationships, thanks to CinemaBlend and The Playlist.

Like “Midnight in Paris”, plot details are vague, but will somehow revolve around interweaving groups of people in Rome, tourists, residents, families, lovers – perhaps with some time traveling? We can only hope. From the images, we can discern that Baldwin and Eisenberg are probably father and son, while Eisenberg and Page seem to be taking over for Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams as the young visiting couple, and Pill may be finding romance with the locals.

“To Rome With Love” opens on June 22nd. See the first stills below.

Lea Seydoux out of Michael Gondry’s “The Foam Of Days”, newcomer Charlotte Le Bon in

March 11, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

It’s fair to say that despite placing Lea Seydoux on our 20 Faces to Watch feature late in 2010, Seydoux has not broken out in the way that Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara and Chris Hemsworth have.

The French actress was in last year’s hit “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and Woody Allen’s Oscar winning “Midnight in Paris”, but despite excellent performances in both, neither particularly got her name out there in the same way as Paula Patton or Corey Stoll respectively.

News from The Playlist that Seydoux has now dropped out of Michel Gondry’s upcoming “The Foam Of Days” due to scheduling conflicts adds to the sense that 2012 might not be her year either.

Still, it’s good news for another little known actress, as the same report indicates that Charlotte Le Bon has replaced Seydoux in the role. Le Bon will be joining Audrey Tautou, Romain Duris, Gad Elmaleh and Omar Sy “in the story that follows Colin, the wealthy inventor of olfactory-musical-instrument the “pianocktail”. He marries Chloe, but unfortunately, she falls ill during their honeymoon thanks to a water lily that enters her lung, and the only way to treat the ailment is to surround her with flowers — and the expense soon drains his funds.”

Le Bon has only one film credit to her name, the action-adventure film “Astérix et Obélix: Au Service de Sa Majesté” which will be released in Europe later in the year.

For Seydoux though, 2012 will remain a busy year. She premiered her film “Farewell, My Queen” at the Berlin Film Festival where it received mixed reviews, and she will continue the year filming several productions, including a new version of “Beauty & The Beast” with Vincent Cassell (“Black Swan”) and a romantic film “Grand Central” with Tahar Rahim (of the Oscar nominated “A Prophet“.)

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