Ariel Kleiman can count himself mighty lucky: as reported in ScreenDaily, his developing debut feature, Partisan, will be led by French lothario Vincent Cassel, the actor set to portray “a charismatic and troubled man called Gregori.” As scripted by the helmer and Sarah Cyngler, it’s a drama revolving around the means by which his character’s “deadly teachings” create antipathy in Alexander, an 11-year-old boy who is himself part of “a communal family within the world of [Gregori’s] lavish compound.”

Protagonist Pictures are producing Partisan, which Kleiman and Cassel will get down to filming in October.

Further down the line of European performers (no?), Variety report that Downton Abbey star Allen Leech has boarded The Imitation Game, a fact-based drama led by the impressive trio of Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, and Matthew Goode. Cast amidst this story of Alan Turing — a brilliant technician whose work in cracking the Axis forces’ “Enigma Code” was a huge boon in the effort to end World War II — Game‘s newest cast member will portray a Scottish spy hired by Soviets to take down the dangerous mind.

Morten Tyldum (Headhunters) will direct from an acclaimed Black List screenplay by Graham Moore, with Black Bear Pictures and Ampersand Pictures providing the backing.

Finally, also from ScreenDaily, is news that Jessica Alba has come aboard Kyle Newman‘s Barely Lethal, a teenage assassin-centered film — scripted by first-time feature writer John D’Arco — that follows Megan (Hailee Steinfeld), who fakes her death to live a normal teenage life after years of killing. But an old co-worker, to be played by the recently cast actress, hunts her down — all while, somewhere, Samuel L. Jackson enters the equation. Should you be wondering about the last note, ask yourself: why wouldn’t he be in this kind of film?

RKO Pictures are backing the title, because we live in 1937, and Newman — making his first feature since Fanboys — will begin rolling cameras this coming October.

Which project sounds most promising, and which addition are you happiest to hear of?

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