Jonathan Rhys Meyers is one of his generation’s more consistent and interesting actors, which makes the generally low profile of his career all the more frustrating. While good films are, certainly, in his repertoire (Match Point and Velvet Goldmine being the true standouts), he just hasn’t done anything that’s truly wide-reaching and, for better or for worse, “mainstream” — save for The Tudors, and that was on Showtime.

That’s changing with one quick stroke of the pen, as THR informs us the actor has taken what, to my ears, sounds like a big role in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Under the direction of Harald Zwart, Meyers will play Valentine Morgenstern, who we’ve been told is “a powerful but insane Shadowhunter looking to make the world pure at any cost.”

The story comes from Cassandra Clare‘s YA novels, in which Clary Fray (Lily Collins) joins a group called Shadowhunters, who are “half-angel warriors” secretly protect the world from demons; Meyers will, therefore, be taking some extreme measures to get ride of those evildoers. Plenty of potential for silliness lies in the position, but I’ll take him doing that in a big film over not doing it at all. With any luck, Mortal Instruments gets him some more well-deserved notices.

Jamie Campbell Bower Jemima West, Kevin Durand, Robert Maillet, Lena Headey, Jared Harris, Godfrey Gao, and CCH Pounder also star in the film, opening on August 23rd, 2013.

Some casting of a different sort has come in from Variety. There, it’s reported that Xavier Samuel (Anonymous, Eclipse) is being signed to co-lead Catherine Hardwicke‘s Plush, a job which will put him onscreen with Emily Browning and Cam Gigandet.

In this picture — co-written by Artie Nelson — the Sucker Punch actress will star as the psychic head of a rock band, Plush, who finds herself stifled in the wake of her brother’s passing; Samuel will factor into these proceedings as her new guitarist, for whom she “falls prey to the psychotic machinations of.” A bit of a rough start is not made much better when, meanwhile, Gigandet is set to appear as a “psychic psychologist who delves into the minds of patients and sees their memories in order to help them unleash past demons.” Oy, this sounds like a disaster.

Shooting on Plush will commence toward August’s end.

Is Meyers making a smart move by going with Instruments? Does Plush stand a chance of properly coming into focus?