Take this one with a grain of salt, but according to The Sun, Tom Cruise has already enlisted a few members of his posse for the upcoming remake of The Magnificent Seven. Matt Damon will portray Vin, Steve McQueen’s role, and “Tom will play Yul Brynner’s role as Chris. Morgan Freeman may be villain Calvera, while Kevin Costner could play Britt.” File this under “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Another round of actors make their way to the Atom Egoyan West Memphis Three film, Devil’s Knot. The film “follows private detective Ron Lax (Colin Firth), who took on the West Memphis Three case pro bono. He found DNA evidence linking Terry Hobbs (Alessandro Nivola), the stepfather of one of the three murdered boys, to material that was used to bind one of the young victims. That evidence helped convince a judge to release Misskelley Jr., Baldwin and Damien Echols last year after the trio submitted an Alford Plea, which allowed them to plead guilty in exchange for release from prison for time served.” Amy Ryan is in talks to play Lax’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Dane DeHaan will play a teen who had some history with the three murdered boys, Kris Polaha will play public defender Val Price, Collette Wolfe as Firth’s character’s assistant Glori Shettles and Justin Castor is in talks to play Jason Baldwin, one of the West Memphis 3.
Steven Soderbergh‘s Liberace bio-pic, Behind the Candelabra has added Scott Bakula as Liberace’s friend choreographer Bob Black. Also joining the ensemble are Rob Lowe, Cheyenne Jackson and Boyd Holbrook. “No word yet on Jackson’s role, but Lowe plays a plastic surgeon and Holbrook will take the role of one of Liberace’s young lovers.” Finally, film legend Debbie Reynolds has joined the cast as Frances Liberace, the singer’s “imposing but frail mother.”
2 Guns, the Baltasar Kormakur directed film based on the graphic novel by Steven Grant and Mat Santolouco has just enlisted Bill Paxton as a high ranking CIA operative. The film will star Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington and “follows a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who unwittingly investigate each other as each steals mob money.”
Shock Till You Drop has the plot synopsis for the sequel to this year’s The Woman in Black: “Seized by the government and converted into a military mental hospital during World War II, the sudden arrival of disturbed soldiers to Eel Marsh Harsh has awoken its darkest inhabitant. Eve, a beautiful young nurse, is sent to the house to care for the patients but soon realizes she must save them from more than their own demons. Despite Eve’s efforts to stop her, one by one they fall victim to the Woman in Black.”
Justin Bartha (the fourth wheel in the Hangover films) has joined the cast of CBGB. Bartha will play Stiv Bators, lead singer of the Dead Boys.
In an interview with IndieWire, Ethan Hawke will begin shooting the follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset this summer.
Mark and Jay Duplass will write and possibly direct a remake of the 1978 romantic comedy Same Time, Next Year which starred Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. The original film was directed by Robert Mulligan and written by Bernard Slade based on his stage play of the same name. In the film, Burstyn’s a housewife, Alda’s an accountant and “they meet by chance at a
romantic inn over a dinner. Even though they are married to others, they
have a one night stand and then they get together once a year to
rekindle the sparks. Over the course of time, the relationship becomes
complex as they develop an intimate relationship as they discuss what is
going on with their lives at home.” The Duplass Brothers have previously written and directed Jeff, Who Lives At Home, Cyrus, Baghead and The Puffy Chair.
John Madden will direct Charlize Theron in Murder Mystery, based on a screenplay by James Vanderbilt. According to THR, “Murder Mystery is described as “an affectionate deconstruction
of an Agatha Christie-style thriller” and concerns an American couple on
honeymoon who are implicated in a murder they witnessed.”
Paramount has purchased the upcoming YA book, The Diviners for producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Coming in September, The Diviners is the first in a four book series, “set in the 1920s and follows a group of young New Yorkers with
mysterious powers who play a dramatic role in a battle of good vs. evil
when a series of occult-based murders begin to terrify the city.”
