With its release less than a year away, The Weinstein Company and Walden Media are right on the verge of launching The Giver, with THR getting a pair of stories that provide substantial news on its ensemble. Following acquisitions of Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgård, and Brenton Thwaites — the lattermost taking lead — Phillip Noyce‘s picture has added Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift, a pairing that would strongly suggest one production team’s been paying special attention to tabloid headlines these past six months.
Which isn’t to suggest they won’t have “real roles.” Holmes, as taken from Lois Lowry‘s novel — a text most are familiar with: dystopian future, Giver of Memories, Receiver of Memories, corruption, rebellion, etc. — has been tapped to portray the central character’s mother; however, no indication exists as to what role Swift might take. (This writer’s memory of the book is less-than-great, admittedly, so guesses are not in store.) Above all else, expect her to record an original song, à la The Hunger Games, mostly about remembering the real world and some such business.
The Giver will open on August 15, 2014.
A few smaller projects have added to their ranks; the one we’re most immediately curious about, here, is Mojave. Writer William Monahan will make his sophomore debut on the picture, with a curious logline wherein a depressed artist, walking through the desert, encounters “a doppelganger-like antagonist” — listed as “a brilliant, homicidal drifter” — who takes him into “a vortex of criminality and violence.” Walton Goggins (Django Unchained, Lincoln) has just joined the cast — headlined by Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund (once Jason Clarke), and Louise Bourgoin — with an undisclosed part. With production now underway, one might expect details to become clearer in a short matter of time.
On a completely different note, Rob Riggle has been given some rather unusual opportunities with Dumb and Dumber To. The Farrelly brothers-helmed sequel made a splash when Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey got back into costume, that duo now said to be reunited for a road trip “to find Harry’s long-lost daughter to donate a kidney for a transplant.” Along the way, Harry and Lloyd meet twins — noted, by THR, to be “a handyman named Travis and his unstable brother, Captain Lippencott” — played by Riggle, leaving yours truly intensely curious as to how such a part will be convincingly evoked onscreen. Then again, “convincingly” might not be their biggest concern.
As hard as it may be to grasp, Dumb and Dumber To hits theaters next summer.
And, in a final bit of news, THR also inform us that Aaron Eckhart and Rosario Dawson are getting into the Blumhouse Productions game — a “game” that’s thus far included Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, and The Purge; from this, you can figure out the cut of their jib — with Incarnate, an exorcism thriller directed by Brad Peyton (Journey 2) and scripted by Ronnie Christensen. The picture — likely shot on a low budget, likely with a release date right around the corner — concerns “an unconventional exorcist with the ability to tap into the subconscious of the possessed who meets his match when a 9-year-old boy is possessed by a demon from his past” — and, for some reason, we can’t know who Dawson is playing, details on her role “being tightly guarded.” I’m sure the internet will just go wild in digging for that information.
Do any of the project listed here inspire confidence, based on what’s been noted?