Jeremy Renner to “Kill the Messenger” in true life CIA conspiracy thriller

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

After a string of big budget studio blockbusters, Jeremy Renner is set to return to the darker and more serious films that made him a two-time Oscar nominee. Deadline reports Renner will star in “Kill the Messener”, a true life thriller that will be directed by Michael Cuesta this summer.

Renner will play Gary Webb in the film written by Peter Landesman. Webb was a San Jose Mercury News reporter during the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s, who published an expose detailing the link between the CIA and Contra rebels in Nicaragua in importing and selling cocaine on the streets of California. Rather than make his career, the expose elicited harsh criticisms which rendered Webb unable to find another job, sending him into a downward spiral that culminated in his suicide in 2004. The film seeks to validate Webb’s side of the story by proposing his findings were correct and he was the victim of a smear campaign in order to hide the CIA’s more morally ambiguous actions taken in the name of the greater good.

After critical success and Oscar nominations following supporting performances in “The Hurt Locker” and “The Town”, Renner moved into the mainstream in rapid succession by starring in “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”, “The Avengers”, “The Bourne Legacy” and the currently playing “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.” It’s become rather clear, however, he’s much better in more prestigious, intimate films that really showcase his acting. There are no more blockbusters on his plate for the foreseeable future (minus an “Avengers” sequel or two). Instead, he has dramas like James Gray’s “Lowlife” and David O. Russell’s untitled Abscam film (previously titled “American Bullshit”) coming down the pike.

Rebecca Hall to replace Jessica Chastain in “Iron Man 3″

May 8, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

As we all slowly try to get used to the fact that Jessica Chastain will not be joining the cast of “Iron Man 3″, here’s some news that might alleviate some of that disappointment. Variety reports British actress Rebecca Hall is now in talks for the role that Chastain had been circling opposite returning actors Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle, as well as fellow newbie Guy Pearce.

The film is said to be based on Warren Ellis’ “Extremis” storyline from the Marvel comics, and Hall may very well be playing Maya Hansen, a colleague of Pearce’s geneticist Aldrich Killian’s, with whom she develops the Extremis virus, which forces the human brain to rewire itself into something stronger. The scientists hope to send it to the US military, but it falls into the hands of terrorists instead and Hansen teams up with Stark to stop it. Shane Black begins directing the second sequel to 2008′s “Iron Man” and the first followup to “The Avengers” this month, with a release date already set for May 3, 2013.

This marks the highest profile get for Hall, who has earned raves for roles in awards contender dramas like “Frost/Nixon” and Ben Affleck’s “The Town” and was recently seen opposite Dominic West in ghost story “The Awakening.” She recently appeared in Sundance premiere and Weinstein Company pick-up “Lay the Favorite” and is currently wrapping up John Crowley’s untitled thriller opposite Eric Bana.

Rebecca Hall joins Eric Bana in untitled suspense thriller

February 2, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Rebecca Hall and Eric Bana are teaming up for a courtroom/relationship/terrorism suspense thriller, according to Deadline. From screenwriter Steven Knight and to be directed by John Crowley, Bana and Hall play ex-lovers who end up on the same defense team during a terrorism trial. The untitled film is set up at Focus Features and will begin filming in the UK in April. “Working Title and John Crowley have not only crafted a nail-biting thriller, but an emotional rollercoaster as well – one that speaks to the heart of the human condition in our time,” said Focus Features heads James Schamus and Andrew Karpen.

Hall was recently in Sundance promoting Stephen Frears’ “Lay the Favorite”, which was picked up by The Weinstein Company. After breaking out in “Frost/Nixon” she had another strong showing as the female lead in Ben Affleck’s “The Town.” With currently no future projects in production, she can be seen opposite Dominic West in ghost story “The Awakening”, released in Europe late last year.

Blake Lively and Channing Tatum get married for Steven Soderbergh’s “The Side Effects”

January 9, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum appear to be the newest bromance in Hollywood, as The Playlist reports the director-actor duo are now set to reunite for a third time in less than two years. Tatum will join “Gossip Girl” Blake Lively in “The Side Effects”, a psychological thriller that will also co-star Jude Law (another recent Soderbergh collaborator in “Contagion”).

Lively takes another step towards serious acting here as the lead, Emily Hawkins, who turns to prescription medication to cope with anxiety regarding her husband’s (Tatum) upcoming prison release. Law will play her new psychiatrist. There are also several more supporting roles to be cast, and we are betting more Soderbergh alums will pop up.

Tatum hit it off with Soderbergh after working with him on actioner “Haywire”, releasing this week, and the two reunited to develop “Magic Mike”, this summer’s male stripper buddy comedy that was inspired by Tatum’s own experiences as a male stripper when he was just starting out. Tatum will also soon be seen in the Nicholas Sparks-esque “The Vow” opposite Rachel McAdams. Lively, star of The CW’s “Gossip Girl”, now in its fifth season, picked an unfortunate superhero flick as her big breakout (“The Green Lantern” opposite Ryan Reynolds), but has impressed in more serious film roles like “The Town.” She’ll next be seen in Oliver Stone’s highly anticipated “Savages” opposite Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson.

First images for Sundance out-of-competition flick “Lay The Favorite” with Rebecca Hall

December 12, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Images Leave a comment

Stephen Frear’s adaptation Lay The Favourite is gearing up for a premiere at next year’s Sundance Film Festival, and thanks to the Sundance Institite, we’ve got some great new images of Rebecca Hall.

Based on Beth Raymer’s memoir of the same name, the films follows Raymer (Hall) as she becomes involved with older men who have found a way to beat the odds in Vegas sports, The film also stars Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Hall has had a great few years, with rave reviews for performances in The Town as well as Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and is ending 2011 with a best actress nomination from BIFA for her role in The Awakening.

UPDATED: Blake Lively passes on “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”

September 23, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

UPDATE: Another one bites the dust. Lively, too, has officially passed on the chance to slay zombies as Lizzie Bennett.

Emma Stone won’t be a twisted version of Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett, but could Blake Lively? Twitch reports that director Craig Gillespie has met with the blonde beauty and has offered her the role in his “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, but there is no read one way or another whether Lively is inclined to accept. After all, plenty of other young actresses have been offered the part, but for one reason or another, they have all thus far said no. At this point, any actress offered the role must be asking herself why so many people have turned it down, and weigh how she feels about being number 6 or 7 on the production’s wish list.

Seth Grahame-Smith adapted the screenplay from his own novel of the same name, which faithfully retells the courtship between Jane Austen’s famous lovers Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, but with one major twist: the idyllic Victorian setting of their courtship is overrun with blood-sucking, brain-eating undead zombies. And with both Elizabeth and Darcy well trained in the art of combat, their iconic verbal sparring sometimes descends into inflicting actual physical violence on each other.

The project has been going through musical chairs not only with directors – David O. Russell was originally tapped, followed by Mike White, who also dropped out, paving the way for Gillespie – but also with castings, with Natalie Portman as the original Lizzie, followed by talks with Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Mia Wasikowska. Portman still remains part of the project as a producer. On Darcy’s side, the likes of James McAvoy and Bradley Cooper were considered at one point.

Lively, longtime star of The CW’s “Gossip Girl”, now in its fifth season, has been successfully aligning herself neck and neck with some of film’s hottest actresses, landing a breakout role in Ben Affleck’s 2010 “The Town” and subsequently showing up on one shortlist after another, sometimes landing the role (Oliver Stone’s highly sought after “Savages”), sometimes not (David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook”). She was most recently seen in gritty drama “Hick” opposite Chloe Moretz and Eddie Redmayne, though the indie flick may have trouble finding distribution after it debuted to horrific reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival.

If you ask us, Gillespie already has the perfect zombie-killing Elizabeth Bennett in his “Fright Night” actress Imogen Poots. But who knows? Perhaps she, along with the likes of Stone, Portman, Wasikowska and Hathaway, has too said no. Will Lively follow or has Lionsgate found their Lizzie at last?

Jeremy Renner is the “King of Heists” in new bank robbery thriller

September 21, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Things didn’t work out so well the first time Jeremy Renner tried to rob a bank, in Ben Affleck’s 2010 critically acclaimed “The Town”, but hey, at least he got an Oscar nomination out of it. Now he’ll take another crack at it and just may pull if off this time, as Deadline reports the busiest actor in Hollywood is attached to star in “King of Heists”, a 19th century thriller that’s based on one of the most famous and successful bank robberies in US history. Renner will also act as a producer on the project.

Renner will play George Leslie, an architect turned criminal mastermind who took the New York scene by storm in 1878 when he and his crew pulled off a successful robbery of more than $3 million from Manhattan Savings Institution. Masquerading with his teenage wife as a high society couple, Leslie spent months studying makes and models of every bank vault in the United States, and invented a device he called the “Little Joker” which could record bank vault combinations when placed inside the lock. For a ten year period between 1874-1884, it’s believed Leslie and his crew were responsible for over 80% (over 100 robberies carried out) of all bank robberies in the US.

After receiving back to back Oscar nominations, for Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” and then Affleck’s “The Town”, Renner really is the most wanted man in Hollywood – in the best way possible. After the upcoming “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”, which is intended as a passing of the torch for the franchise from Tom Cruise to Renner, he also completed work on fairy tale reinvention “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunter” opposite Gemma Arterton (releasing March 2012) and originated the role of Hawkeye in Joss Whedon’s all-star superhero team-up “The Avengers” (releasing May 2012). He is now starting work on his third franchise, headlining Tony Gilroy’s spy spinoff “The Bourne Legacy.”

Watch: first trailer for British ghost film “The Awakening” starring Rebecca Hall

September 15, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Videos Leave a comment

Just last week we revealed new stills from British film The Awakening, and today Britain’s Guardian website has exclusively unveiled the first trailer.

Starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, and directed by Nick Murphy, the film follows Florence Cathcart (Hall), an author and paranormal sceptic who is hired by the headmaster of a boys’ boarding school (West) to investigate reports of a haunting. Also featuring Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton, this first trailer leaves us suitably terrified, but also wondering if we haven’t seen this storyline before – hauntings in old houses in the middle-of-nowhere-Britain is hardly something new.

Still, Hall is a fantastic actress, with strong performances in awards favourites such as The Town and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and with The Awakening showing at London Film Festvial this October, before wide release on November 11th, we’re hoping this will do well over the Hallowe’en season.

“Monsters” breakout star Scoot McNairy joins Ben Affleck’s “Argo”

August 4, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Okay, so he may not have ended up in “Prometheus” or “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” after all, but Scoot McNairy, breakout star of Gareth Edwards’ low-budget “Monsters”, seems to be making an impression on Hollywood nevertheless. Variety is reporting that McNairy has joined the impressive ensemble cast of Ben Affleck’s follow-up to “The Town”, political thriller “Argo”.

Based on Joshuah Bearman’s April 2007 Wired magazine article “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran,” “Argo” is a retelling of true events that surround a CIA operative team smuggled out American diplomats being held hostage by pretending they were a Hollywood movie crew. Affleck is also leading the cast that includes Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Alan Arkin. To add a dash of realism (and no doubt readying some fun anecdotes for junket season), Affleck plans on having the cast members who will be playing hostages live in a a “safe house” for two weeks prior to filming to experience what their real life counterparts actually went through.

After starring in “Monsters”, which was made for under $500,000 but has made over $3 million worldwide, McNairy recently wrapped a lead role in the highly anticipated “Cogan’s Trade”, Andrew Dominik’s gambling heist actioner which pits his character against the likes of Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo and Sam Rockwell.

Blake Lively front-runner for Oliver Stone’s “Savages”; also sought for Sam Raimi’s “Oz”

April 11, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Blake Lively is a hot commodity in Hollywood once again since she’s on hiatus from her “Gossip Girl” commitments for the summer. Variety reports today that not only is she Oliver Stone’s first choice to take the female lead in “Savages” (vacated by Jennifer Lawrence, who opted to take “The Hunger Games” instead), she is also hot on the trail of another high profile role, that of the good witch Glinda in Sam Raimi’s “Oz: The Great and Powerful”.

In “Savages”, Lively would play Ophelia, the wild-child girlfriend shared by two pot dealing best friends, to be played by Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch. O gets kidnapped for ransom, and the boys must scheme up a complicated plan to get her back and hold onto their drugs and money. Benicio Del Toro will play a drug cartel enforcer and Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman are in talks for roles as well. For the role of O, other actresses in contention include Olivia Wilde, Teresa Palmer and Abbie Cornish.

“Oz: The Great and Powerful” stars James Franco as a modernized version of the Great Wizard, a snake oil salesman who flees an angry mob in his hot air balloon and lands in the land of Oz, which is controlled by three powerful witches, Glinda the Good, Evanorah, the Wicked Witch of the East, and Theodora, the conflicted younger sister of Evanorah who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. Mila Kunis is already on board for the latter role.

“Savages” has a planned June start date, and reports indicate the filming schedule of “Oz” would make it difficult for Lively to take on both roles, though it’s important to point out she has not received an official offer for either film yet. Lively, who broke out in Ben Affleck’s “The Town” – even racking up awards and nominations from various critics groups – is currently filming gritty indie drama “Hick” opposite Chloe Moretz and Eddie Redmayne, and will have to return to New York City to film the next season of “Gossip Girl” by mid to late summer. She will next be seen in this summer’s “Green Lantern” opposite Ryan Reynolds.

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