Here’s the latest casting news leaking out of Hollywood…
Poor old Barry Pepper. For about two minutes after Saving Private Ryan and The Green Mile it looked like he was gonna be a big star, and then came the disaster that was Battlefield Earth, and we’ve barely heard anything from him since. However the Coen Brothers don’t seem to be put off by his brush with John Tarvolta as a seven-foot tall alien, as they’ve cast him as ‘Lucky Ned Pepper in their True Grit remake. The notorious outlaw was played by Robert Duvall in the 1969 original. He’ll star opposite Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin in the film, which starts shooting very soon. (Source: Variety)
Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan have signed on to play the lead roles in Tom McCarthy’s comedy drama, Win Win, while Melanie Lynskey, Bobby Canavale and Jeffrey Tambor will co-star. Giamatti will play a struggling attorney who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach. However his life is thrown into turmoil when he becomes the legal guardian of a client whose grandson turns up on his doorstep. Filming starts next month in New York. (Source: Variety)
A couple of weeks ago, Precious director Lee Daniels said he’d signed Hugh Jackman for a role in his upcoming civil rights drama, Selma, however he didn’t say what the part would be. Now Jackman himself has revealed who he’ll play, saying he’ll be he’ll be Jim Clark, the racist, short-tempered Alabama sheriff whose violent arrests of civil-rights protesters got international attention during the 1960s Selma, Alabama demonstrations. (Source: Vulture)
Jackson Rathbone (Twilight, The Last Airbender) and Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) are set to headline the inde drama Truckstop. The film is about a man with cerebral palsy who takes care of his dying father while working at a truckstop, where he befriends a troubled young prostitute. Is it just me, or does that sound more like a parody of something designed to win Oscars than an actual film? Production is set to start in September. (Source: Variety)
A.J. Bowen, known for his horror-movie performances in such pics as Creepshow 3 and The House of the Devil, is starring with indie actors Amy Seimetz and Joe Swanberg in the horror-thriller, A Horrible Way to Die. The film centres on an escaped murderer (Bowen) in pursuit of his ex-girlfriend (Seimetz), who has fled to start a new life in a small town. Swanberg plays her budding boyfriend. (Source: THR)