Abigail Breslin joins Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County”

July 20, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Abigail Breslin will play Julia Roberts’ daughter in “August: Osage County”, according to Deadline. Meryl Streep plays the family matriarch and Juliette Lewis has also joined the cast (replacing Andrea Riseborough) of the big screen adaptation of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play.

Letts’ play follows one dysfunctional family in Oklahoma over the course of several weeks one summer as they come together in the wake of the father’s disappearance. Streep’s Violet is the pill-popping matriarch, while Roberts plays her oldest daughter Barbara, who’s separated from her husband. Lewis plays youngest daughter Karen, self-absorbed and willfully ignorant of the problems in her own life. Breslin’s Jean is 14 and already a pot-smoking rebel. John Wells will direct on location in Oklahoma this fall, and the rest of the large ensemble cast still needs to be assembled.

Breslin, one of the youngest Oscar nominees ever for her role in “Little Miss Sunshine” back in 2006, has had a somewhat patchy career since as she begins to traverse that awkward stage of transitioning from child to adult roles. She most recently appeared in Garry Marshall’s ensemble comedy “New Year’s Eve” and recently wrapped up a key supporting role in Gavin Hood’s adaptation of seminal sci-fi novel “Ender’s Game.” Indie flicks including horror “Final Girl” and comedy “Virgin Mary” are also on her horizon.

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.

“Glee” star Lea Michele may reprise Broadway role for “Spring Awakening” moive

February 9, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Before she became a household name on Fox series “Glee”, Lea Michele was a rising star on the Broadway stage after originating the female lead role of Wendla in hit musical “Spring Awakening.” Well, it should come as no surprise that as director McG gears up to adapt the musical for the big screen, he is keen to get Michele to reprise her role – schedule permitting.

He tells E! Online, “We’re talking to Lea Michele because she made the role of Wendla famous and we’ll see if that pans out and works with the timing of her schedule on [Glee]. I love Lea; we’ve talked about it. When I first got turned onto the show she was in it so it’s her voice that echoes in my heart. I really think she’s wonderful and we’ll see where it takes us.” Of course, now 26, Michele is a bit older than the 14 year old character she played when she was younger, but stranger castings have happened. The musical, based on the controversial 1892 play of the same name by Frank Wedekind, follows teenagers in 19th century Germany as they come of age and discover their sexuality and features music by Duncan Sheik.

Michele recently lost out on the role of Eponine in Tom Hooper’s big screen adaptation of musical “Les Miserables” and appeared in Gary Marshall’s ensemble rom-com “New Year’s Eve.” She will next be heard lending her voice to the titular character in animated Wizard of Oz film “Dorothy of Oz.”

Abigail Breslin and Carter Jenkins to star in sex comedy “Virgin Mary”

September 13, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Teen actress Abigail Breslin has signed on to star in Virgin Mary, a new sex comedy about two teenagers who vow to lose their virginity with each other if they have yet to, by the age of 18.

Also starring Carter Jenkins, the film looks set to be in the vein of ‘Sixteen Candles’, according to Variety. Directed by Beth Schacter, Breslin and Jenkins will be supported by Keke Palmer and Daryl Sabar. Filming is to begin early in 2012, perhaps ready for the fall festival season that year.

Breslin’s recent film choices are showing us that she is looking to move past her image as the pageant princess in the 2006 surprise hit indie film Little Miss Sunshine. In recent months Breslin has been cast as a killer in Stan Brooks’ A Class Project, a true story of two Canadian sisters who plot to kill their mother after tiring of her alcoholism and abusive boyfriends, and her name was in the running for the high profile role of Katniss in The Hunger Games (she lost out on this role to Jennifer Lawrence). Breslin recently wrapped filming on ensemble comedy New Years Eve, and is soon to start filming alongside Julianne Moore in vampire flick, Innocence.

For Jenkins, who is mostly a TV actor, roles in films such as Aliens in the Attic and the ensemble-led Valentines Day haven’t given him much chance to show range in his skills. An upcoming supporting role in Struck By Lightening alongside Ahsley Rickards and Chris Colfer may give him that opportunity, but this will be his first leading role.

Abigail Breslin wants to kill her mother in “A Class Project”

August 20, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting 1 Comment

Abigail Breslin, who starred in Little Miss Sunshine and Zombieland, has signed on to star in A Class Project to be directed by Stan Brooks. Adapted from the 2008 book “The Class Project: How To Kill a Mother: The True Story of Canada’s Infamous Bathtub Girls”, the film will tell the true tale of two Canadian sisters who, tired of their mother’s alcoholism and her abusive boyfriends, plot to kill her. The crime was not discovered for over a year.

Production is due to start next month, but there is still no word on which other young actress will star as Breslin’s sister.

Breslin recently wrapped filming on the ensemble film New Year’s Eve and is currently in pre-production on Innocence, about a recently bereaved teenage girl (Breslin), who attends an elitist private school, which is also home to a nest of vampires. An adaptation of Jane Menelsohn’s novel, Hilary Brougher (“Stephanie Daley”) will direct and also feature Julianne Moore.

Jake T. Austin joins Joel Courtney in becoming iconic duo “Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn”

June 29, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Joel Courtney has found his partner in crime. The young “Super 8″ star, who was cast as Tom Sawyer in a new adaptation of the Mark Twain classic last week, will be joined by Disney Channel star Jake T. Austin as the even more mischievous Huck Finn, reports Variety. The new film, “Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn”, was written and will be directed by Jo Kaster.

Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” centers around a young boy growing up in a small town along the Mississippi River in the 19th Century. Among other shenanigans that include tricking other boys into whitewashing a fence for him, crushing on Becky Thatcher, playing along when the town thinks he’s died (even attending his own funeral), the A plot revolves around Tom and his best friend, Huck, the disadvantaged and neglected son of the town drunk, witnessing a murder and having to decide whether to save themselves or do the right thing and tell the truth when the wrong man is put on trial.

Austin is best known for his long-running role as the youngest sibling of Selena Gomez on the Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place.” The show has wrapped up its final season but a second feature length film is still in the works. He has also appeared on the big screen in “Hotel for Dogs” and is part of Gary Marshall’s large ensemble comedy “New Year’s Eve.”

“Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn” begins filming this August in – where else?! – Bulgaria.

Downgrade! Katherine Heigl replaces Halle Berry in “New Year’s Eve”

January 31, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Jon Bon Jovi is getting a major downgrade in the romance department for Gary Marshall‘s holiday-themed romantic comedy “New Year’s Eve”. Previously set to rekindle the flames with the beautiful and talented Halle Berry as her rock star ex, he will now have to do with the always unpleasant and recent box office bomb Katherine Heigl instead. Deadline reports that Berry dropped out and Heigl jumped in due to the true ensemble nature of the film, which would require very little time commitment for the new mom. No worries on that end, as she’ll be sharing the screen with a cast that already includes Robert De Niro, Sofia Vergara, Russell Peters, Hilary Swank, Ice Cube, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Seth Meyers, Jessica Biel and Til Schweiger.

Interweaving romantic escapades of New Yorkers are chronicled in Marshall’s follow-up to last year’s “Valentine’s Day”, with characters including a bitter, dying man lying in a hospital bed (De Niro), an executive secretary who feels stuck and decides to seize the day (Pfeiffer) and a set of broke, expecting parents who hope to win $25,000 by having the first baby of the new year (Meyers and Biel).

“New Year’s Eve” is set to begin filming soon for a December 9, 2011 release. Heigl stunk up the box office with her last two films “Killers” and “Life As We Know It”, but will attempt to regain some of her status as a bankable romantic comedy star with this summer’s “One for the Money”.

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”.

Seth Meyers RSVPs for Gary Marshall’s “New Years Eve”

January 24, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

“Saturday Night Live” head writer and Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers is the latest cast member added to Gary Marshall’s “New Years Eve”, reports THR. Singer Jon Bon Jovi will also join the already announced 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.

With the new casting report also comes some plot details, as Bon Jovi will play a rock star who shares a romantic history with Berry’s character and comes face to face with her at an NYE party. Meyers will play a broke dad who finds himself in a heated competition as he tries to coax his wife (Biel) into delivering the first baby of the year in order to win $25,000.

The film is set to be released on December 9, 2011 with no start date yet. Meyers seems to be making a foray into feature films as he also recently signed on to “I Don’t Know How She Does It”, with Sarah Jessica Parker, currently filming in NYC.

Sienna Miller travels to NYC for “New Year’s Eve”

January 6, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

We’re running out of puns here! British beauty Sienna Miller is the latest to join the large ensemble cast of Gary Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve”, the follow-up to the similarly holiday themed romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day”. Miller joins a cast that already includes Jessica Biel, Abigail Breslin, Lea Michele, Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron and Hilary Swank, according to Variety.

The film follows interweaving romantic tales of several New Yorkers over the course of one New Year’s Eve, and while Kutcher and Biel were in “Valentine’s Day”, they will be playing new characters as it’s not a sequel or a spin-off of the first film in any way. “New Year’s Eve” has no start date yet but will be released on December 9, 2011.

Miller, an It Girl on the verge several years ago, seemed to hit a stagnant note in her career and hasn’t been seen on screen since 2009′s “GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra”. She is currently filming Nick Cassavetes’ “Yellow” opposite Ben Foster.

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