Deadline reports Michael Ealy (Takers) has been tapped by Screen Gems to play the male lead opposite Kate Beckinsale in Underworld 3D. He’ll play a police detective who teams up with Beckinsale, who returns to the franchise after sitting out Rise of the Lychans. The movie is currently filming in Vancouver.
As Brad mentioned yesterday, Josh Hutcherson expressed interest to Entertainment Weekly about playing the role of Peeta in Lionsgate’s adaptation of The Hunger Games. He joins Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) as those vying for the role as the love interest for (presumably) Winter’s Bone‘s Jennifer Lawrence, who is said to be “all but signed” for the lead role of Katniss Everdeen. I haven’t read the books, but I liked Hutcherson in The Kids Are All Right. Is he a good fit for the role?
Co-star Abbie Cornish spilled the beans to MTV regarding the role Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes, will play in the W.E., which director Madonna wrapped production on in October. Lourdes plays the younger version of the Cornish’s character in the film. The film follows a dual storyline akin to Julie & Julia, with one featuring Cornish as a modern woman obsessed with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and another focusing on the royal couple itself. Word has it the film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival, which begins August 31.
Logan Marshall-Green (Devil) is the latest name added to the cast of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Deadline reports he’ll play a crewman on the space ship and the love interest for the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Noomi Rapace. Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Idris Elba have also signed on for roles, with shooting set to begin this month. Is everyone else as excited about this one as I am?
Another day, another heist pic to report on. This one stars Brendan Fraser in the comedic Whole Lotta Sole, directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda). The film follows a young man robbing a fish shop in order to pay off a gambling debt, and Fraser will play a shopkeeper on the run from his gangster father-in-law. It carries a $5.5 million budget and will shoot in Northern Ireland, according to Variety.
Variety reports Hayley Atwell, the voluptuous British beauty I loved in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream and one of the stars of Captain America: The First Avenger, has joined the cast of I, Anna alongside Gabriel Byrne and Charlotte Rampling. She’ll play the daughter of Rampling’s character in the debut feature from writer/director Barnaby Southcombe, a noir thriller told from the point of view of a femme fatale who falls for the detective in charge of a murder case. Shooting wrapped last weekend.
Speaking of Captain America, Derek Luke, who started out as a promising young actor in movies like Antoine Fisher and Friday Night Lights but has since fallen by the wayside, has finally had his little-talked-about role in the film revealed. Blackfilm confirmed he’ll play Gabe Jones, an original member of the elite Howling Commandos combat squad of World War II. Jones is also known for carrying his trumpet into battle and is one of the close confidantes to Nick Fury.
Sony has picked up Agent OX, based on a spec script from Daniel Kunka, who penned the Earth-shattering actioner 12 Rounds. The story follows a human spy living on an alien planet who must stop an invasion of Earth.
Over at 20th Century Fox, producer/director McG (director of Terminator: Salvation) has acquired his own large-scale sci-fi picture. Plot details were not revealed, but Deadline reports David Callaham (The Expendables, Doom) has been hired to pen the script.
And finally, J.K. Simmons revealed in an interview with Coming Soon that he’ll serve as the narrator in Jason Reitman’s Young Adult. The film stars Charlize Theron as the ghostwriter of young adult novels who reconnects with her high school acquaintances in hopes of finding inspiration. Simmons has appeared in all of Reitman’s films, perhaps most memorably as Juno‘s father. He’ll next appear in The Music Never Stopped, a film I saw the week it premiered at Sundance and can say is well worth checking out. That one opens in limited theaters this Friday.
