1.) Word is Beasts of the Southern Wild star and Oscar nominee, Quvenzhané Wallis, is up for the lead role in Sony’s upcoming remake of Annie with Will Gluck (Easy A) set to direct. The film will serve as a remake of the Broadway musical based upon the popular comic strip and featuring songs with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin and a book by Thomas Meehan.
The show originally penned on April 21, 1977, and immediately became a hit, winning seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In 1982, Columbia Pictures released a film adaptation directed by John Huston and starring Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Tim Curry, and Aileen Quinn as Annie. Wallis would replace the once attached Willow Smith, daughter of producer Will Smith. [EW]
2.) Ryan Gosling is busy putting together his directorial debut, How To Catch a Monster. He’s already cast Christina Hendricks, Eva Mendes, Matt Smith and Ben Mendelsohn and now Saoirse Ronan will join the cast. The film is set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city, and follows a single mother of two as she is swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Filming because in Detroit in May. [THR]
3.) Little known actor Douglas Booth will have a coming out party in Darren Aronofsky‘s Noah where he plays Shem, one of Noah’s sons, and now he’s lined up a role in Andy and Lana Wachowski‘s Jupiter Ascending alongside Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne and Sean Bean. The story centers on a recent Russian immigrant (Kunis) who is busily scrubbing toilets for a living. Unbeknownst to her, she actually possesses the same perfect genetic makeup as the Queen of the Universe and is therefore a threat to her otherwise immortal rule. [Variety]
4.) Peter Bogdanovich (Last Picture Show) is getting back in the director’s chair to helm She’s Funny that Way and he’s got Jennifer Aniston, Eugene Levy, Cybil Shepherd, Kathryn Hahn, Jason Schwartzman and Brie Lawson to star alongside Owen Wilson.
Wilson plays a married Broadway director who falls for a prostitute-turned-actress and works to help her advance her career. Aniston stars as a therapist with a mother in rehab. Bogdanovich penned the screenplay with Louise Stratten. Shooting begins in June in New York. [Deadline]
5.) Clive Owen is set to star in writer/director Richard Levine‘s Blue Angel adapted from Francine Prose’s novel in which Swenson (Owen), a professor in a New England creative writing program, has gone years since publishing a novel. It’s been even longer since any of his students have shown promise. Enter Angela Argo, a pierced, tattooed student with a rare talent for writing. Angela is just the thing Swenson needs. And, better yet, she wants his help. But, as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. [THR]
