Woody Allen‘s latest casting choices for his next project are certainly interesting. Joining the auteur to film in San Francisco (for the first time since 1969’s Take The Money And Run) are Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Michael Emerson, Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard, Max Casella and Alden Ehrenreich. Somewhere, Carrot Top thinks he has a chance.
Disney Channel regular Ashley Tisdale will star in the upcoming spoof, Scary Movie 5 from Dimension Films and director Malcolm Lee. The studio promises to address all of the unanswered questions from Scary Movie 4.
Logan Lerman and Douglas Booth will co-star alongside Russell Crowe and possibly Jennifer Connelly in director Darren Aronofsky‘s Biblical epic, Noah. The actors would play Noah’s sons, Ham (Lerman) and Shem (Booth). Still to be cast are Noah’s nemesis and Ham’s love interest.
Director Steve McQueen continues to add some impressive actors to the cast of his follow-up to Shame, Twelve Years a Slave. Paul Giamatti and Sarah Paulson will join Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scoot McNairy, Ruth Negga and Garret Dillahunt. “Ejiofor stars as the book’s author, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery. Paulson will play Fassbender’s jealous wife, while Giamatti will play Freeman, who takes possession of the slaves upon their arrival in New Orleans.”
The film rights to The Paladin Trilogy, a new young adult book series from Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost, has been acquired by Reliance Entertainment and Kintop Pictures. “The series centers on Will West, who has muted his unusual abilities both in the classroom and on the playing fields to avoid attention. But his cover is blown when he scores off the charts on a nationwide exam, and the resulting danger from a host of mysterious forces send him on the run into a complex world of secret societies and supernatural conflicts.” The first book will be released this September.
Chris Columbus will write and direct an adaptation of John Grisham‘s Calico Joe through his 1492 Pictures. The novel is set in the world of Major League Baseball and centers on baseball player Joe Castle and his father. Grisham will executive produce with 1492 partners Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe.
CBGB continues to add to it’s cast, this time adding Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop, Johnny Galecki as music manager Terry Ork and Mickey Sumner as Patti Smith. Also joining the cast are Steven Schub as Dee Dee Ramone, Evan Alex Cole as Richard Hell, Peter Vack as Legs McNeil and Kerry Bische as Mary Harron. They’ll be joining a cast that includes Alan Rickman, Malin Akerman, Rupert Grint, Stana Katic, Joel David Moore, Estelle Harris and Julian Acosta.
Edward Zwick‘s The Great Wall already has, Henry Cavill starring “in an adventure film about British warriors traveling through 15th Century China and happen upon the hurried construction of the massive wall. As night falls, the warriors realize that the haste in building the wall isn’t just to keep out the Mongols. There is something inhuman and more dangerous.” Joining Cavill will either be Alexander Skarsgard or Benjamin Walker. Vampire or vampire hunter set to star with Superman. Sounds like fun.
The Raid: Redemption director Gareth Evans will earn seven figures to write and direct his first English language action drama with two male leads. He’s also developing Breaking The Bank at Universal, about the biggest heist in
history in England which was masterminded by former UFC fighter “Lightning” Lee
Murray. Oh, yeah, there’s also a remake of The Raid in development.
Wayne Kramer will reteam with Running Scared star Paul Walker for his upcoming film, Pawn Shop Chronicles, “a dark comedy about a man searching for his abducted wife, a
couple of white-supremacist meth heads and a sad sack Elvis
impersonator all linked through items sold or found in a small Southern
town’s local pawn shop.” Joining Walker will be Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Elijah Wood, Vincent D’Onofrio, Pell James, Thomas Jane, Lukas Haas, Chi McBride, Ashlee Simpson, Kevin Rankin, DJ Qualls, Michael Cudlitz and Norman Reedus.
