Here is the special thread completely devoted to all film casting and development updates. Please feel free to comment and add the lastest information for September, 2009.
Keanu Reeves' time for 'Crime' Malcolm Venville directs Buffalo-based rom-com
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Keanu Reeves will star in and produce "Henry's Crime," a Malcolm Venville-directed romantic comedy that will begin production in November in Buffalo.
The project is poised to become the first picture in production for Company Films, the banner Reeves runs with Stephen Hamel.
Reeves and Hamel will produce with Lemore Syvan. Scott Fischer, who put up development money for the project, will be executive producer through his First Star Films banner.
The picture will be financed through private equity. No distribution has yet been set for the film.
In the Capraesque romantic comedy scripted by Sacha Gervasi, Reeves will play a bighearted man who is falsely accused of robbing a bank in Buffalo.
Reeves most recently starred in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and plays a supporting role in the Rebecca Miller-directed "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee," which stars Robin Wright Penn. "Henry's Crime" is Reeves' first comedy since 2003's "Something's Gotta Give."
Company Films separately has a deal at Morgan Creek for "Passengers," a film that Reeves will star in, with script by Jon Spaihts.
Venville most recently directed "44 Inch Chest," the film scripted by "Sexy Beast" writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto and with an ensemble cast that includes Ray Winstone and Tom Wilkinson.
Gervasi most recently produced and directed "Anvil! The Story of Anvil."
De Mornay to star in 'Mother' Actress to topline remake of 1980 horror film
By DAVE MCNARY
Rebecca De Mornay will be the mother from hell, toplining the remake of cult 1980 horror pic "Mother's Day," with shooting to start next week in Winnipeg.
Role harks back to De Mornay's turn as a devious nanny in "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle." Castmates include Jamie King, Shawn Ashmore, Briana Evigan and Deborah Ann Woll.
Producers include Genre Co.'s Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten and Rat Entertainment's Brett Ratner and Jay Stern. LightTower Entertainment is financing; Curt Leopardo, Jessie Rusu and Jon Zucker exec produce. Shara Kay is co-producing.
Darren Lynn Bousman is helming from Scott Milam's script, which follows a family of villains, led by a sadistic mother, who return to their former home and terrorize the new owners and their guests. The filmmakers are aiming for a release in April, timed to take advantage of Mother's Day on May 9.
Thesps enter Alcon's 'Lottery' Duo cast in Ice Cube, Bow Wow comedy
By DAVE MCNARY
Brandon T. Jackson ("Tropic Thunder") and Natari Naughton ("Fame") have been cast alongside Bow Wow and Ice Cube in Alcon Entertainment's "Lottery Ticket."
Alcon's financing and producing the urban comedy with musicvid helmer Erik White will make his feature directorial debut on the project, set to begin lensing in Atlanta in October. Film will be released next August via Alcon's output deal with Warner Bros.
Alcon toppers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove will produce along with Evolution partners Mark Burg and Oren Koules and Matt Alvarez of Ice Cube's production company, Cube Vision.
Jackson and Naughton will star as friends of Bow Wow's character who help him get through a weekend in the projects battling opportunistic neighbors while holding a winning lottery ticket.
Jackson was named one of Variety's "10 Comics to Watch" last year, starred with Bow Wow in "Roll Bounce" and will be seen next in "Percy Jackson" and "Tooth Fairy."
Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz cast in James Mangold film
By Jay A. Fernandez
Marc Blucas has been cast in James Mangold's untitled Wichita project opposite Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Maggie Grace.
Fox is producing the spy thriller about an upbeat Midwestern woman (Diaz) who goes on a blind date with a man (Cruise) who turns out to be a federal agent. She gets pulled into a violent worldwide journey to pro¬tect a powerful battery that holds the key to an infinite power source.
Blucas will play the woman's fireman ex-boyfriend, who is still smitten with her and becomes confused by the agent's overtures of friendship.
Mangold's partner Cathy Konrad is producing with Todd Garner, Steve Pink and Joe Roth. Shooting is scheduled to begin next month in Boston.
Blucas, repped by Paradigm and Industry Entertainment, next appears in Rodrigo Garcia's "Mother and Child," which premieres this month at the Toronto International Film Festival. He recently appeared in "Stay Cool" and "The Jane Austen Book Club."
Rashida Jones and Chris Messina are getting monogamous.
The emerging stars will topline "Monogamy," an indie romantic comedy that marks the scripted-feature debut of "Murderball" co-director Dana Adam Shapiro.
Described by filmmakers as a "cautionary tale about sex, photography and fear of marriage," the film will center on a young couple's relationship and its trials. Shapiro wrote the script with Evan Wiener.
The movie is expected to unspool on the fest circuit in early 2010.
Shapiro is producing with Jeff Mandel, who also produced "Murderball," as well as Randy Manis, the former ThinkFilm exec who helped release and exec-produced the doc. Tom Heller ("Precious") is also producing. Production on "Monogamy" started this summer in New York.
Shapiro earned acclaim for "Murderball," his story of wheelchair-bound athletes training to compete in the summer Olympics; the pic, which he directed with Henry Alex Rubin, won several prizes at the Sundance Film Festival and was also nominated for the best documentary Oscar.
The Untitled Entertainment-repped hyphenate is also attached to adapt and direct an adaptation of his novel "Every Boy" for Plan B Entertainment and is on board to write "Holler," a racial drama that's set up at Screen Gems. The ICM-repped Wiener co-wrote "Wild Child" with helmer Larry Clark, and is also set to stage his play "The Eichmann Disguise" in New York.
The UTA-repped Jones most recently starred opposite Paul Rudd in bromantic comedy "I Love You, Man" and will star in divorce dramedy "Celeste and Jesse Forever," which she co-wrote with Will McCormack and recently sold to Overture.
The WME-repped Messina has had a number of character turns on the big and small screen, including shows such as "Six Feet Under" and pics like culinary comedy "Julie & Julia." He's next set to star in "Greenberg," Noah Baumbach's drama toplined by Ben Stiller.
Shohreh Aghdashloo and Marcia Gay Harden have battled for an Oscar and are up against each other at this month's Primetime Emmys. Now they'll go head-to-head again in the indie drama "The No Game."
Sherry Horman is directing the coming-of-age piece, which follows an 18-year old Jewish woman who finds out her biological mother is Palestinian. The search for her identity takes her to an aunt (Aghdashloo) in Brooklyn, where their immediate bonding causes problems with her adoptive mother (Harden, who is in negotiations).
Shooting begins next month in New York; lensing in Israel also is on tap.
David Abramowitz and Elizabeth Fein wrote the screenplay; Doris Kirch produces.
Aghdashloo and Harden were Oscar-nominated in 2004 for their respective work in "House of Sand and Fog" and "Mystic River," and they're nominated for Emmys this year for "House of Saddam" and "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler."
Aghdashloo, who stars in "The Stoning of Soraya M," is repped by CAA and Tamara Houston. Harden, who won a recent Tony for "God of Carnage" and next appears in "Whip It!" is repped by CAA and Framework Entertainment.
Jon Favreau roped into 'Aliens' 'Cowboys' may corral 'Iron' pair
By MICHAEL FLEMING
"Iron Man 2" is in the can, and now director Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. want to play "Cowboys and Aliens."
Favreau is circling to direct the long-gestating DreamWorks/Universal project, which has had Downey attached since last summer. Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are producing with Steven Spielberg, Platinum Studios CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
A summer production start is eyed. DreamWorks and U will co-finance. Paramount Pictures could opt in as distributor through the exit agreement Stacey Snider and Spielberg made when they moved DreamWorks out of Par.
Kurtzman and Orci are rewriting the script with "Lost" exec producer Damon Lindelof. The trio penned "Star Trek 2."
Story is set in the Old West, where cowboys and Native Americans battle in Arizona -- until a spaceship crashes and a new enemy equipped with superior technology emerges. "Cowboys and Aliens" is based on the Platinum Studios Comics graphic novel written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley.
That graphic novel was published in 2006, but Hollywood has been hot for the high-concept project since "Cowboys and Aliens" was first acquired by Universal and DreamWorks in 1997. That sale was made based on a one-sheet of a cowboy and a spaceship, with Steve Oedekerk aboard to write and direct. The project subsequently moved to Columbia Pictures and Escape Artists, and then back to U and DreamWorks, and the script has been through at least seven writers or writing teams.
Favreau and Downey will work together again on "Iron Man 3," which will likely be distributed by Paramount Pictures in its multipicture deal with Marvel Entertainment despite Marvel's $4 billion acquisition by Disney.
Stephen Frears to direct 'Tamara' U.K. helmer boards live-action adaptation
By ALI JAAFAR
British helmer Stephen Frears has officially signed on to direct a live-action feature adaptation of Posy Simmonds' acclaimed graphic novel "Tamara Drewe."
Brit thesp Gemma Arterton will play Drewe, a sexy flirt who returns to her small country village and stirs up dark passions among the locals.
Also boarding the cast are Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam, Luke Evans, Bill Camp and Tamsin Greig.
Simmonds' novel, itself a collection of comicstrips she first published in U.K. newspaper the Guardian, is a modern reimagining of Thomas Hardy's classic novel "Far From the Madding Crowd." Moira Buffini has adapted the script.
Ruby Films and BBC Films are producing the project, along with West End Films, which is handling international sales.
Ruby Films co-topper Alison Owen receives a producer credit along with Tracey Seaward ("The Queen"); Paul Trijbits, Scott Rudin, Sharon Harel and BBC Films' Christine Langan all draw exec producer credits.
Project has also received development and production coin from the U.K. Film Council's Development and Premiere funds.
Lensing begins Sept. 21 on location in the U.K. and at Pinewood Studios.
"I've loved Posy Simmonds' work for a long time," Frears said.
Frears had been circling a number of projects, including Fox Searchlight's "The Descendants," before committing to direct "Tamara Drewe." (Alexander Payne recently signed on for "The Descendants.") Pic will be Frears' first feature since Michelle Pfeiffer starrer "Cheri."
Tilda Swinton is on the Lido wearing a double hat: as star and producer of Italo helmer Luca Guadagnino's "I Am Love," a Milan-set social melodrama that takes their longstanding collaboration to a higher level.
"I Am Love," which screened in Horizons, follows Swinton's work on Guadagnino's "The Protagonists" and "The Love Factory." The two now have high hopes for a Hollywood remake of 1958 Warner Bros. hit "Auntie Mame."
"Luca and I have known each other for a very long time and we have a very compatible vision," Swinton said. "We both like the idea of a pure cinema born out of a classical history of cinema; but truly modern."
To be even more specific, Swinton said she and Guadagnino always described "I Am Love," in which she plays a Russian woman married into a wealthy Milanese industrial dynasty, as "(Luchino) Visconti on acid."
As for her character in "Love," which Swinton plays speaking Russian-accented Italian, she said playing a high-society Milanese dame wasn't that difficult.
"My sense about that world is that it's fake for everybody. It is a pose for everyone. So, it's really a lot like being an actress."
Guadagnino now aspires to break out of Italy and become a Hollywood helmer.
"My great ambition is to get closer to the movies I really like, which are the great Hollywood movies from the past, the present and the future," he said
"To work with someone like Tilda can give you that perspective without being banal," he added.
Guadagnino said he and Swinton aspire to remake "Auntie Mame" as a "rock-n-roll, super funny, super mainstream movie."
They would set their "Mame," which is about a boy growing up as ward of his dead father's eccentric sister, in the present-day.
"This is an SOS for Warner Bros. to give us the rights for this remake, which only Tilda could do justice to," he added.
Guadagnino also said plans are on track for his First Sun shingle to produce the long-in-gestation remake of Dario Argento's 1977 cult hit "Suspiria." It will be helmed by David Gordon Green with a 2010 shooting date.
For Your Grammy Consideration: Kristin Chenoweth - in all eligible categories
Halle Berry eyes 'Tide' ride Actress in advanced talks to star in action-thriller
By SHARON SWART
Halle Berry is in advanced talks to star in action-thriller "Dark Tide" for helmer Clark Johnson ("S.W.A.T.").
"Twilight" producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will shepherd "Dark" via their Temple Hill banner.
Social Capital Films is arranging financing for the $15 million-$20 million pic. Company's Martin Shore and Christopher Tuffin produce along with Tax Credit Finance's Matthew Chausse and Plum Pictures' Celine Rattray.
Project, penned by Amy Sorlie, concerns a diving instructor who returns to the deep after a near-fatal incident with a Great White shark. "Dark" is set to lense in South Africa later this year.
The Steel Co.'s John Baca exec produces, as does lit manager Sukee Chew, who helped develop the script.
R&B singer-songwriter Ne-Yo, along with Ramon Rodriguez, Taylor Handley and Cory Hardrict, are suiting up for "Battle: Los Angeles," the sci-fi war flick that Jonathan Liebesman is directing for Columbia.
Jadin Gould, Bryce Cass and Joey King also have joined the cast, which includes Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan and Michael Pena.
Ne-Yo, who just booked the gig to write and sing the closing song for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog," will plays a corporal in the platoon.
Rodriguez, Handley and Hardrict are members of the platoon fighting the invading aliens. Cass, Gould and King are kids trapped in a community center.
The studio is taking advantage of Louisiana's incentives, with shooting beginning this week in Shreveport. Neal Moritz is producing.
"Battle" will be WME-repped Ne-Yo's highest-profile gig and one that takes him out of the music realm. His credits include "Stomp the Yard" and "Save the Last Dance 2."
Ramon Rodriguez, repped by UTA and the Collective, has appeared in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "The Taking of Pelham 123."
Handley, who returns for an arc on NBC's "Southland," is repped by Paradigm and manager Booh Schut. He also starred in Kevin Williamson's "Hidden Palms." Hardrict, repped by APA and the Burstein Co., appeared in "Gran Torino."
Cass, Gould and King are repped by Coast to Coast Talent. Cass is additionally repped by Emerald Talent Group, while Gould is also repped by Landis-Simon.
Anton Yelchin swims with 'Beaver' 'Star Trek' star to play Gibson, Foster's son
By DAVE MCNARY
Anton Yelchin ("Star Trek") is co-starring with Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster in indie dark comedy "The Beaver," with Foster directing and Anonymous Content's Steve Golin and Keith Redmon producing.
Yelchin will portray the son of Gibson's and Foster's characters. Gibson's playing a depressed man who finds solace in wearing a beaver hand-puppet; Foster will play his wife, whom the son lobbies to get a divorce.
The script, written by Kyle Killen, topped the Blacklist in December. Foster came on to the project first and brought it to Gibson, with whom she co-starred in 1994's "Maverick."
Jennifer Lawrence has also been cast.
Summit Entertainment picked up "The Beaver" last month and plans for a fourth quarter 2010 or early 2011 release. It will also have rights in most foreign markets.
In the currently filming sequel to "Sex and the City," Kim Catrall's Samantha will eye a new hunk in the form of Max Ryan.
The English-born actor is stepping into the role of Rikard, an European architect who crosses paths with Samantha.
The actor most recently appeared in Paul W.S. Anderson's "Death Race." His credits also include the Polish feature "Skorumpowani," the horror film "Three" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," in which he appeared as Dante.
Writer/director Michael Patrick King is reprising his roles on "Sex and the City 2," which Warners' New Line label has begun shooting in New York with the first film's quartet of Sarah Jessica Parker, Catrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon returning.
King, Parker and John P. Melfi are producing.
Ryan is repped by Kritzer Levine Wilkins Griffin Entertainment and Stone Manners.
Jeff Bridges in talks for 'True Grit' Role would reunite 'Lebowski' star with Coens
By MICHAEL FLEMING
In what is shaping up as a "Big Lebowski" reunion, Jeff Bridges is in discussions with Paramount to star in Joel and Ethan Coen's redo of "True Grit." Bridges would play the role that won John Wayne an Oscar for the 1969 original.
Bridges last worked with the Coens when he turned in a heralded performance as Jeffrey "the Dude" Lebowski in the 1998 cult fave.
The picture, which also reunites the Coens with their "No Country for Old Men" producing partner Scott Rudin, has been redrafted by the brothers to be more faithful to the Charles Portis novel on which the original film was based.
Story centers on a 14-year-old girl who tags along with an aging U.S. marshal, Rooster Cogburn, and another lawman to track the outlaw who killed her father. The original told the story from Cogburn's point of view, but the new version will work from the viewpoint of the girl.
The Coens premiere "A Serious Man" at the Toronto Film Festival. Bridges most recently starred in "The Men Who Stare at Goats" and reprised in "Tron Legacy."
'Han****' sequel in the works Smith, Theron, Bateman set to reunite with Berg
By MARC GRASER
Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman are gearing up to reunite for the sequel to Columbia Pictures' "Han****," with Peter Berg set to helm the action-comedy.
Berg disclosed the news at the Toronto Film Festival where he said, "Everybody's going to come back for a sequel."
The director has been working with TV scribes Adam Fierro ("24," "Dexter") and Glen Mazzara ("The Shield") to pen the script. Fierro was a producer on "The Shield."
While plot details are being kept under wraps, Berg has said Smith and Theron will once again play immortal gods, who lose their powers when in each other's presence. The two must pair up to deal with a third entity. The actioner is expected to explore the 3,000-year-old world they're from, which was only hinted at in the first film.
Bateman would return as the PR exec who transforms the image of Smith's boozy superhero.
Sony has yet to set a release date for the pic, and the studio stressed that no official talent deals had yet been signed, given that the script is not yet complete. But with "Han****" having earned $624 million at the worldwide box office, the studio has been eager to get a sequel up and running -- and it would be a tough pic to make without its original stars.
Rainn Wilson to get 'Super' for Gunn Ellen Page, Liv Tyler to co-star in superhero film
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and Liv Tyler are set to star in "Super," a comedy that takes aim at the superhero genre. James Gunn wrote and will direct, with production set for December.
Pic will be produced by Ted Hope, through his Gotham-based This Is That banner.
Wilson, who last worked with Page in "Juno," plays an average guy who takes on the pseudo-superhero alter ego of the Crimson Bolt, after watching his wife (Tyler) fall under the spell of a charming drug dealer. Lacking super powers, he compensates by swinging a trusty wrench.
Gunn scripted "Dawn of the Dead" and two "Scooby-Doo" films, and made his feature directing debut with the 2006 comic horror film "Slither."
The picture was packaged by UTA and HanWay Films is selling international territories.
HanWay CEO Tim Haslam adds "Super" to a Toronto fest slate that includes the Paul Bettany-Jennifer Connelly starrer "Creation," the Scott Hicks-directed "The Boys Are Back" with Clive Owen and the Michael Caine starrer "Harry Brown."
Hope is partnered in This Is That with Anne Carey. The company most recently produced the Greg Mottola-directed "Adventureland," and are in production on the Anton Corbijn-directed untitled project about Italy, which stars George Clooney.
Josh Hartnett aims for 'Gunslinger' Williams to produce Nahon revenge tale
By ALI JAAFAR
LONDON -- Josh Hartnett has signed on to star in "Gunslinger," a revenge-driven tale set in the near future in the snowy wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America.
Hartnett will play a man who, along with his brother, sets out to kill the gang who killed their parents. Chris Nahon ("Blood: The Last Vampire") is directing, with Mark Williams and 2B Pictures' Albert Martinez Martin producing.
"This story takes a unique and startling look at what might happen when the lawlessness of the Old West returns ... but with better weapons," Williams said.
Pic will be the fifth collaboration between Williams and 2B Pictures.
Latter was launched last year by U.K.-based Future Film Group to produce indie features. The shingle's most recent production, Simon Fellows' "Malice in Wonderland," has been selected for the Sitges Film Festival, while Jordan Scott's directorial debut "Cracks," starring Eva Green, receives its world preem in Toronto today.
SC Films is handling international sales on "Gunslinger." Lensing is set to begin in Canada early next year.
Sam Trammell gets into 'Details' 'True Blood' star to join with Maguire, Linney
By DAVE MCNARY
"True Blood" co-star Sam Trammell will be featured in indie comedy "The Details," with Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Laura Linney.
Written and directed by Jacob Estes, the film centers on modern relationships and a couple's disagreement over how to handle a raccoon infestation. Mark Gordon, Bryan Zuriff and Hagai Shaham are producing.
Trammell's a Broadway veteran, earning a Tony nom for "Ah, Wilderness!" Film credits include "Undermind," "Aliens vs. Predator -- Requiem" and "Autumn in New York."
Alessandro Nivola, Elisabeth Shue, Abigail Breslin join drama
By Jay A. Fernandez
"He's in love with rock 'n' roll, whoahh!"
Alessandro Nivola, Elisabeth Shue and Abigail Breslin have been cast in the indie drama "Janie Jones," along with Frank Whaley, Brittany Snow, Peter Stormare and Joel David Moore.
Breslin will play the title role, a young girl abandoned by her drug-addicted, former-groupie mother (Shue) at a concert and surprises the fading rock singer who's performing (Nivola) with news that she is his daughter.
The film is written and will be directed by David M. Rosenthal ("See This Movie"), who based the story on his similar experience. Keith Kjarval of Unified Pictures and Eric Bassett of David Lynch's Absurda are producing and splitting the international sales duties.
The film starts shooting this week in Iowa.
There was, in fact, a notorious Janie Jones in 1960s-'70s London who made waves as a pop star and famous madam. The Clash subsequently memorialized her in the first song on their 1977 debut album.
Nivola, who is repped by WME and Management 360, notably played a rock star in Lisa Cholodenko's "Laurel Canyon." He also has appeared in "Junebug," "Face/Off" and "Best Laid Plans." He next appears in Sony Pictures Classics' "Coco Before Chanel," set for release Sept. 25.
Shue, repped by CAA and Management 360, recently appeared in "Hamlet 2" and "Gracie," which she also produced. She next stars in Dimension Films' "Piranha 3-D," which swims into theaters in April.
Breslin, repped by ICM and Envision Management, most recently appeared in "My Sister's Keeper" and "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl." She next appears in the Columbia horror-comedy "Zombieland," set for release Oct. 2.
Unified and Absurda recently collaborated on the psychological thriller "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done," from director Werner Herzog and producer Lynch. That film screened last week at the Venice and Telluride film festivals and will screen Wednesday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
