Here’s some of the latest developments on the casting front in Hollywood…
The first cast members for the upcoming prequel to The Thing have been announced. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton are set to star, with Winstead playing a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When a trapped organism is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Edgerton) to stop the rampage. It’s Winstead’s first starring studio vehicle, following success in the likes Final Destination 3, Death Proof and Die Hard 4.0. Matthijs Van Heijningen will direct this new take on The Thing, with shooting schedules to start on March 15th in Toronto. (Source: THR)
We reported a while ago on rumours that Sam Worthington was attached to a film called Texas Killing Fields. It’s now been confirmed that he will indeed star in the movie. However there’s a little confusion over the title, as Variety refers to it as Texas Killing Fields, while THR plumps for simply The Fields. Whatever it ends up being called, Worthington will play a Texas homicide detective who joins with a New York detective to investigate unsolved murders in the Texas bayous. It’s based on the true story of the Killing Field murders, where four bodies were found near the same stretch of road. Previous rumours suggested Bradley Cooper would play the other cop, although this hasn’t been confirmed. The movie will mark the feature directorial debut of Ami Canaan Mann, who is Michael Mann’s daughter. Shooting should begin in early April.
Lucy Punch, who seems to have become Hollywood’s favourite new Brit actress, has signed on to star in Bad Teacher, opposite Cameron Diaz. The film is about a foul-mouthed, conniving seventh-grade teacher (Diaz) who pursues a colleague after being dumped by her sugar daddy. The new romantic interest brings her into conflict with Amy Squirrel (Punch), the school’s model teacher. Punch can add the role to her upcoming appearances in Young Americans, Dinner For Schmucks, Earthbound and Woody Alle’ns You Will Mee A Tall Dark Stranger. She’s certainly popular at the moment, as it seems Hollywood feels it’s found one of its most craved after talents – a truly funny actress. (Source: THR)
Little known actress Shailene Woodley has been cast opposite George Clooney in The Descendants. The Alexander Payne directed film is the story of a wealthy landowner whose wife is in a coma and about to have her life support swtiched off, and so he takes his two daughters on a search for his wife’s lover in the hopes of keeping his family together and giving the other man a chance to say goodbye. (Source: Variety)