1.) Ben Affleck is reportedly in talks to star in Focus for Crazy, Stupid, Love. directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa who also wrote the script. Focus tells the story of a veteran con man who gets involved with a newcomer to the grifter business. They get involved romantically but that becomes perilous in a business where they lie and cheat for a living. The complications of the encounter haunt them when they meet up again in the future. [Deadline]
2.) Fans of Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip can get excited as Iconix Brand Group, Inc. in collaboration with Peanuts Worldwide, Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates that 20th Century Fox will release Peanuts, a feature film adaptation, on November 25, 2015 through 20th Century Fox along with the Ice Age team of animators at Blue Sky Studios. The Peanuts screenplay has been written and will be produced by Craig Schulz, son of Charles Schulz along with his own son, Bryan Schulz and Cornelius Uliano. Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! and Ice Age: Continental Drift co-director Steve Martino will helm the feature.
3.) I don’t think we’ve mentioned this before and I didn’t want to let it go by unnoticed for another day, but John Michael McDonagh, director of the overlooked The Guard and brother of In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths director Martin McDonagh, is at work on a new film in Ireland titled Calvary. Once again he’s working with Brendan Gleeson who stars as a good man intent on making the world a better place, he is continually shocked and saddened by the spiteful and confrontational inhabitants of his small country town. After being threatened during confession, he must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
The impressive supporting cast includes Chris O’Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Marie-Josée Croze, Isaach De Bankolé, Domhnall Gleeson and David Wilmot. It’s expected the film will hit theaters late next year.
4.) While Johnny Depp is no longer associated with the project, now Ralph Fiennes is, as he joins Owen Wilson, Jude Law, Angela Lansbury and Bill Murray in Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel, a European set comedy in which the main character, who’s a bit crazy, has a personal medium [mind reader] whose assistant is a teenager.
Fiennes is negotiating to play M. Gustave, the titular hotel’s perfectly composed concierge. A start date has not yet been announced. [Variety]
5.) Beyonce Knowles was set to star in Clint Eastwood‘s A Star is Born before her pregnancy delayed the start of production. Now word is she is no longer aboard the project with Eastwood reportedly eyeing jazz musician Esperanza Spalding to take her place. The film is a remake of the story-told-several-times over of a starry-eyed girl dreaming of being a star only to have to scrape out a living as a waitress until she finds a helping hand from a alcoholic movie idol. No male lead is attached though names such as Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Gerard Butler, Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp have all been rumored at one time or another and no start date is currently planned. [Variety]
