1.) What we’ve got here is our first look at Harrison Ford and Hugo‘s Asa Butterfield in Ender’s Game. Summit has slated the film for a November 2013 release. The film is based on the first book in a series of sci-fi novels by Orson Scott Card, which was actually released in 1985. Directed by Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the futuristic tale centers on an unusually gifted child (Butterfield) who is trained to lead an army against an alien invasion. [EW]
2.) Kristen Wiig is being targeted for a role in Anchorman: The Legend Continues as a love interest for Steve Carell‘s Brick Tamland. The script is still being written, but Ron Burgundy and company look to continue their adventures next fall with the film slated for an October 2013 release. [The Wrap]
3.) Insurance commercial icon Dennis Haysbert will replace the late Michael Clarke Duncan as Manute in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Duncan, who played the role in the original 2005 movie, passed away in September at the age of 54. One storyline in the film will center on Clive Owen‘s Dwight and a sort of classic film noir set-up with a femme fatale named Ava. Manute will be the right-hand man of Ava’s husband. Ava hasn’t been cast yet, though the role is said to have been written with Angeline Jolie in mind. Salma Hayek, Rose McGowan and Rachel Weisz are among the other names that have been discussed in regards to the role. [THR]
4.) Disney is moving ahead with a follow-up to 2010’s Tron: Legacy, hiring Jesse Wigutow to write a new draft of the script. Wigutow, who wrote the 2003 Michael/Kirk Douglas dramedy It Runs in the Family, is also working with Disney on Hunger Games director Gary Ross‘s Peter and the Starcatchers, which aims to give a backstory to Peter Pan. [THR]
5.) Warner Bros. has acquired a pitch for a thriller called Boston Strangler with Casey Affleck circling one of the lead roles. He’d play one of the detectives searching for the murderer that terrorized the Boston area during the 1960s. The script is said to carry a tone similar to that of Se7en and Zodiac, though no director is attached at this time. And while the source makes no mention of the 1968 film of the same name that starred Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda and George Kennedy, my keen investigative instincts (or is it pure logic?) tell me this is the same story. [Deadline]
