“House of Cards” Star Kristen Connolly Joins Stephen King Adaptation “A Good Marriage”

May 2, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

kristen-connolly “House of Cards” actress Kristen Connolly has signed on to star opposite Joan Allen in an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2010 novella “A Good Marriage”, according to Deadline.

Connolly will play Allen’s daughter in the thriller King adapted for the big screen himself, which is about a woman who discovers that her husband of nearly 30 years is a serial killer. Peter Askin will direct.

Connolly plays the long-suffereing Congressional aide and girlfriend to Corey Stoll’s troubled Peter Russo on “House of Cards”, and she’s now reprising the role for the Netflix series’ second season. Connolly also played the lead in Joss Whedon’s “Cabin in the Woods” and appeared in Barry Levinson’s indie horror “The Bay.”

First bloody look at Chloe Moretz as the new “Carrie”

August 23, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images 1 Comment

Like it or not, a new “Carrie” is coming, and today EW has our first look at Chloe Moretz embodying the pivotal moment at the center of the Stephen King classic. Sissy Spacek played this character to acclaim and an Oscar nomination in Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation, so the pressure is on for Moretz to live up to horror icon status.

Director Kimberly Pierce had reportedly been set on Moretz taking on the role from quite early on, and while some have bemoaned that the 15-year old is too pretty, too confident to adequately portray the tortured misfit firestarter, we are pretty convinced by the agony of Moretz’s Carrie in this first official photo from the film. And they didn’t have many chances to get this important scene right, as Moretz tells EW, “We only have, like, four chances to get it right. Because that stuff stains your hair.”

Check out the full size image of Moretz below, and head over to EW for more, including the first look at Julianne Moore as Carrie’s religious fanatic mother.

Chloe Moretz chosen as the new “Carrie” in remake of Stephen King horror classic

March 27, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Chloe Moretz has shown a knack for playing complicated anti-heroes already at the tender age of 15, and now it looks like she may add another one to the list. Deadline reports MGM and director Kimberly Pierce have made an official offer to the young actress to star as the titular “Carrie” in their redo of the Stephen King novel/Brian DePalma horror film classic.

We heard just a couple of days ago that Moretz was one of the top front-runners for the role of Carrie White, an unpopular girl who reaches her limit and manifests telekinetic powers to torture and seek revenge on her bullying classmates after a particularly cruel trick involving pig blood at prom, but she still had competition from the likes of Haley Bennett, Dakota Fanning and Lily Collins. Deadline refutes those reports somewhat, saying Pierce and the studio have always had their eye on Moretz, though a meeting between the actress and the filmmakers didn’t take place until last weekend. Once it did, the job was hers. If her deal comes together (judging by her reaction to the release of the news, we have a feeling it will), the hunt will be on for her fanatically religious mother and supporting cast of high school classmates and tormentors. Shooting is expected to take place this year.

Moretz, who broke out in 2010 with the twofer “Kick-Ass” and “Let Me In”, recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated “Hugo” and will next be seen in Tim Burton’s horror comedy “Dark Shadows.”

Chloe Moretz and Haley Bennett lead the pack of “Carrie” remake candidates

March 24, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

Another day, another high profile horror remake. The hot topic this week is “Carrie”, the redo of the Brian DePalma classic that landed star Sissy Spacek an Oscar nomination and horror icon status in the title role. MGM is redoing it, and Vulture reports at the top of the list of candidates are Chloe Moretz and Haley Bennett, while others who have read for the part and may or may not still be in the conversation include such usual suspects as Emily Browning, Bella Heathcote, Lily Collins and Dakota Fanning. One girl who will definitely not be in the movie is “The Descendants” star Shailene Woodley, who was reportedly offered the part last week and said no.

Vulture also reports the new film, to be directed by Kimberly Pierce, will be more faithful to the original Stephen King novel – about an unpopular girl who reaches her limit and manifests telekinetic powers to torture and seek revenge on her bullying classmates after a particularly cruel trick involving pig blood at prom – than DePalma’s 1976 version. For the role of Carrie’s suffocating religious mother, Pierce is said to be eyeing the likes of Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore.

Moretz recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated “Hugo” and will next be seen in Tim Burton’s horror comedy “Dark Shadows.” Bennett is no stranger to horror having taken the title role in “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”, and will next shoot Terrence Malick’s “Lawless” opposite Christian Bale.

Lily Collins and Logan Lerman join indie family drama “Writers” with Jennifer Connelly and Greg Kinnear

March 6, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

Back in January Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly signed on to headline indie family drama “Writers”, playing exes and parents, and now it looks like their children may have been found. Variety reports that Lily Collins and Logan Lerman are the new additions to the cast, along with Nat Wolff, Liana Liberato and Kristen Bell and even a cameo from novelist Stephen King. “Writers”, indeed. Josh Boone wrote and will make his directorial debut on the film.

“Writers” is touted to be a “funny and touching tale of a fractured family trying to rediscover one another over the course of a tumultuous year.” Kinnear is the successful novelist and Connelly plays his ex-wife. Collins plays their college student daughter, studying writing herself, who is pursued by a fellow aspiring writer (Lerman). Connelly and Kinnear have another son, who is a teen, so Wolff may presumably play him. King will cameo as – who else? – himself, and no word on who the other new additions will be playing. Filming is set to begin on March 12 in North Carolina.

Collins will be seen later this month as Snow White in revisionist fairy tale “Mirror Mirror” opposite Armie Hammer and recently wrapped up shooting on indie dramedy “The English Teacher” opposite Michael Angarano and Julianne Moore. She’s also in talks to play Juliet in comedy “Rosaline” and will will test for the female lead in Akiva Goldsman’s sci fi epic “Winter’s Tale” next week as well. Lerman will soon be seen in the highly anticipated adaptation of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, and will return for “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters”, reprising his role from the original Greek myth teen novel adaptation.

“The Dark Tower” casting announcement coming this week

January 18, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting, General News Leave a comment

One of the biggest, most ambitious upcoming projects is Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s cross-platform adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel series “The Dark Tower”. The plan is for the story – a genre-bending historical/fantasy/western/sci-fi epic journey involving a gunslinger and his quest to find The Dark Tower, said to be the axis of all universes – to be told over the course of three movies and two seasons on television. That’s right, a franchise on both the big and small screens featuring the same (potentially A-list) cast, that will be years in the making. The story will begin with an epic blockbuster film, continue on a 6-8 episode season as a TV series, then another film, presumably during summer hiatus, followed by season 2 of the show, and conclude with one last epic feature film. Howard is already committed to directing the first film and the first season of the series.

The ambitious undertaking is partly inspired by Peter Jackson’s revolutionary adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings”, with all three epic blockbuster scale features shooting back-to-back: “What Peter did was a feat, cinematic history,” Howard told Deadline in December. “The approach we’re taking also stands on its own, but it’s driven by the material. I love both, and like what’s going on in TV. With this story, if you dedicated to one medium or another, there’s the horrible risk of cheating material. The scope and scale call for a big screen budget. But if you committed only to films, you’d deny the audience the intimacy and nuance of some of these characters and a lot of cool twists and turns that make for jaw-dropping, compelling television. We’ve put some real time and deep thought into this, and a lot of conversations and analysis from a business standpoint, to get people to believe in this and take this leap with us. I hope audiences respond to it in a way that compels us to keep going after the first year or two of work. It’s fresh territory for me, as a filmmaker.”

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