Today’s casting notes are mildly interesting, but nothing spectacular so why not a quick rundown of what’s what?
First off “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm has joined the cast of Zack Snyder’s action fantasy Sucker Punch joining Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish and Carla Gugino in the 1950s-set tale of a girl (Browning) confined to a mental institution by her stepfather, who intends to have her lobotomized in five days. She and her friends enter an alternate reality where they begin planning an escape. Hamm’s character details are unknown, but his character’s name is High Roller. [THR]
Rosario Dawson has joined the turbulent production of Tony Scott’s Unstoppable alongside Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. The film stars Washington as a veteran engineer who jumps into a locomotive with a young conductor (Pine) to stop an unmanned runaway train loaded with toxic cargo. [Variety]
Neil LaBute (Lakeview Terrace) is set to rite and direct an adaptation of “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” Charles Willeford’s crime novel set in the world of modern art. Willeford’s novel, set in Palm Beach, centers on a corrupt art critic’s attempts to finagle an interview with a legendary but reclusive French painter. [Variety]
Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On, The Grudge) will direct a thriller about a haunted song that Phoenix Pictures will produce. Chris Philpott penned the script, based on an idea by producer Taka Ichise and Shimizu, about a haunted song that drives its listeners to suicide. Project does not yet have a title. [Variety]
Warner Bros. has signed Douglas McGrath (Infamous) to direct an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks bestseller “The Lucky One,” which centers on a Marine who survives three tours in Iraq. He attributes his good fortune to a photograph he carried of a woman he has never met, and he sets out to meet his good-luck charm when he returns to North Carolina. McGrath will also rewrite Will Fetters’ script. [Variety]
Jaime King joins Shawn Ashmore, Briana Evigan, Alexa Vega and Matt O’Leary in Darren Lynn Bousman’s Mother’s Day remake of Charles Kaufman’s 1980 Troma cult classic. Scott Milam penned the screenplay described as a psychological thriller in which a wicked family returns to the house where they grew up to terrorize the new owners and their guests. King will play the woman of the house, a wife who has lost her child and is isolating herself from her husband. Ashmore and Evigan will play guests at the house. O’Leary (“CSI”) is one of Mother’s sons, joining the already cast Deborah Ann Woll as members of the family. [THR]
