Keira Knightley replaces Scarlett Johansson, joins Mark Ruffalo and Hailee Steinfeld in “Can a Song Save Your Life?”

May 17, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Sorry “Avengers” fans, a Hulk/Blak Widow reunion will have to wait. Keira Knightley has replaced Scarlett Johansson in “Can a Song Save Your Life?”, according to Screen Daily, and will be joining Mark Ruffalo and Hailee Steinfeld in the music-centric relationship drama.

Knightley will play a young aspiring singer who moves to New York with big dreams but inevitably ends up down her luck after being dumped by her boyfriend. Ruffalo is a down-on-his-luck music producer who discovers her singing in a bar and the two begin to aid each other in turning their lives around. Steinfeld will play Ruffalo’s daughter. John Carney, who directed the Oscar-winning “Once”, will be behind the camera.

Knightley recently wrapped up playing the titular Russian literary icon “Anna Karenina”, her third collaboration with director Joe Wright, who directed her to Oscar nominations for both “Atonement” and “Pride and Prejudice” previously. She will next be seen stretching her comedic muscles a bit opposite Steve Carell in this summer’s apocalyptic comedy “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World.”

Keira Knightley may be Nicholas Sparks’ newest heroine, in talks for “Safe Haven”

March 14, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

After two Oscar nominations and a string of small independent films, is Keira Knightley looking to go mainstream? All signs point to yes as Twitch Film reports the British actress is in early talks to star in “Safe Haven”, the newest film adaptation of a novel by weepy romance novelist Nicholas Sparks.

If her deal closes, Knightley would 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, 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. Sparks isn’t exactly breaking any ground, here. In more good news, the film will be directed by Lasse Hallstrom, who brought us the previous Sparks masterpiece, “Dear John”, and the so bad it might as well be a Sparks property “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.” Shooting is set to begin in May, so Knightley or whoever else will be cast soon.

Knightley recently wrapped up comedy “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World” opposite Steve Carell and is now in production on her third team-up with “Atonement” and “Pride & Prejudice” director Joe Wright, “Anna Karenina”, in which she plays the title role. She was seen as Sabine in David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” late last year.

Don’t Britta this! “Community” star Gillian Jacobs joins Steve Carell in “Burt Wonderstone”

February 16, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Of all the TV casts, the energetic, charismatic comedians populating the Greendale library study room on NBC’s “Community” have always seemed the most brimming with big screen potential, so we love to hear of the cast landing movie roles, with Joel McHale and Alison Brie already each popping up in various recent and upcoming features. Now following in their footsteps is Gillian Jacobs, who THR reports is joining the cast of magician comedy “Burt Wonderstone” which stars Steve Carell and Jimy Carrey as rival magicians and boasts a cast that also includes Brad Garrett, James Gandolfini, Olivia Wilde and Steve Buscemi.

In the Don Scardino directed comedy, Carell stars as the title character, a traditional Las Vegas magician who is left abandoned by longtime partner (Buscemi), is upstaged by a hip street magician played by Carrey and must rediscover his love of magic. Wilde will play Burt’s love interest, his former assistant who now works for Carrey’s character, while Jacobs will play a woman who meets Wonderstone at one of his shows and hooks up with him. Filming is already underway in Las Vegas.

“Burt Wonderstone” will be a bit of a reunion for Jacobs and Carell, who will soon be seen together in apocalyptic comedy “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World.” Jacobs was recently shortlisted for the female lead in Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator” but ultimately lost out to Anna Faris.

Watch: Kiera Knightley and Steve Carell go “Seeking A Friend At The End of The World”

February 10, 2012 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Videos Leave a comment

In a role unlike perhaps anything else we’ve seen her in, British actress and Oscar nominee Kiera Knightley joined Steve Carell in the apocalyptic comedy “Seeking A Friend At The End of The World”, and Yahoo have today revealed the first trailer.

After it is announced that an asteroid is set to hit Earth in three weeks, the duo embark on a journey to find Carell’s lost love. Also starring Patton Oswalt, Melanie Lynskey and Rob Cordry, this first trailer strikes the right balance between comedy, hope, despair, and asks the ultimate question – just what would you do if you knew the end of the world was in three weeks’ time?

“Seeking A Friend At The End of The World” is set for release on June 22nd 2012.

“Young Adult” breakout star Patton Oswalt joins Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

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

Longtime comedian and award season breakout star Patton Oswalt is enjoying something of a higher profile in Hollywood following a tremendous role opposite Charlize Theron in Jason Reitman’s divisive dark comedy “Young Adult.” And what comes with a higher profile? Higher profile roles, of course! Variety reports Oswalt has joined the cast of Ben Stiller’s remake of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, also starring Kristen Wiig, who had something of a breakout year herself after co-writing and starring in “Bridesmaids.”

Stiller is directing and also starring in the remake of the 1974 comedy, which was based on a 1939 short story that appeared in The New Yorker. Stiller plays the title character, a timid LIFE Magazine employee who develops pictures of other people having adventures. When an important negative goes missing, he gets to play hero and maybe get the girl (Wiig). Oswalt plays Todd, an eHarmony counselor who helps Mitty set up a dating profile and Shirley MacLaine is also on board as Mitty’s mom. Filming begins in April.

Oswalt, a longtime series regular on Kevin James sitcom “The King of Queens”, came close to Oscar this year when he played the sarcastic foil to Theron’s hot mess in “Young Adult” (he was just honored for that performance with a Virtuosos Award last weekend at the Santa Barbara Film Festival). He can be seen opposite Steve Carell and Keira Knightley in this summer’s apocalyptic comedy “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World” and with Anton Yelchin and Willem Defoe in “Odd Thomas.”

Watch out, Dakota Fanning; Keira Knightley to star in rival Effie Gray biopic “Untouched”

November 7, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Sorry, Dakota Fanning, you’re not the only Effie Gray in town anymore. While Fanning and castmates Tom Sturridge, Emma Thompson and Greg Wise are already deep into filming on “Effie”, which Thompson also wrote, it appears the world simply needs more Effie. Thompson on Hollywood reports Keira Knightley is in negotiations to play the famed “artists’ muse” in a second biopic of Gray, to be directed by Brazilian director Andrucha Waddington.

Unlike other cases in which similarly themed projects take vastly different approaches, or in the case of biopics, focus on different periods in the life of its subject, “Untouched” will apparently tread very similar territory to “Effie”, as it too will revolve around Gray’s unconsummated marriage to older novelist John Ruskin and subsequent running away with his young protege, the painter John Everett Millais. While Knightley is a gifted actress, and especially apt at historical dramas, we can’t help but feel she is a bit older than the role calls for. Fanning is the exact age as Gray was when she married Ruskin, while Knightley is nearly ten years older. Casting is currently taking place for the other key characters in “Untoched.”

The ever busy, twice Oscar nominated Knightley recently wrapped up comedy “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World” opposite Steve Carell and is now in production on her third team-up with Joe Wright, “Anna Karenina”, in which she plays the title role (now there’s a historical drama that suits her!). She can currently be seen as Sabine in David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” and reportedly has an offer for an unspecified role in “Akira” opposite Garrett Hedlund.

Gillian Jacobs joins “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World”

May 17, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Following in the footsteps of “Community” co-stars jump-starting big screen careers, Gillian Jacobs has joined the cast of “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World”, according to THR. Steve Carell and Keira Knightley play a duo embarking on a journey to find Carell’s lost love at the onset of the apocalypse as a comet plummets towards the earth.

Jacobs plays a waitress high on Ecstasy who meets Carell and Knightley on their journey. The dark comedy also stars William Petersen, Adam Brody, Rob Corddry and Derek Luke and began filming in Los Angeles this week under the direction of Lorene Scafaria, who is making her directorial feature on the project from her own screenplay.

Recently shortlisted for the female lead in Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator” (Anna Faris eventually landed the role), Jacobs is most known for playing the quirky Britta Perry on NBC’s hilarious and underrated “Community”, and has a couple of indie pictures, “Let Go” and “Sin Bin”, recently completed and awaiting release.

seeking a friend at the end of the world