Our first casting in today’s round-up is a brief one. After Edgar Wright assembled Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Michael Pena and Evangeline Lilly for his upcoming Marvel blockbuster Ant-Man, we’ve got another name to add to the batch. Deadline reports Patrick Wilson is in talks to join in an unknown role. Already having some comic book experience with Watchmen, it’ll be nice to see him change up the pace after a stretch of horror films. Production kicks off this April for a 2015 summer release.
Next up, coming off last year’s The Past, Berenice Bejo has landed another leading role. Variety reports the she’s set to head to Italy for the psychological thriller After The Storm. Directed by Safy Nebbou (The Other Dumas), the source material comes from Arthur Dreyfus’ novel Belle famille and follows The Artist star as a mother who is struggling with the death of her young son. After instinctively hiding his body, the police launch an investigation, causing her trauma due to her own denial of the vents. Also starring Laurent Lafitte, Gregory Gadebois, and Sergio Castellitto production is expected to kick off this year for the film described in the vein of Incendies.
After going from a taxi cab driver to an Oscar nominee, Captain Phillips star Barkhad Abdi has landed his first film role following his break-out performance in the Paul Greengrass-directed thriller. The Hollywood Reporter lets us know he’ll be taking a part in The Place That Hits The Sun, from director Jim O’Hanlon. The period drama follows South African marathon runner Willie Mtolo and his relationship with Ray de Vries, “a Caucasian bar owner, whose unlikely friendship transcended apartheid South Africa.”
Coming off their horror comedy Cooties, Rainn Wilson will once again take part in a project from Elijah Wood‘s SpectreVision banner. The Wrap reports that The Office star will join The Boy, also including David Morse, Mike Vogel, Zuleikha Robinson and Bill Sage. Coming from director Craig MacNeill (Henley), the film is aiming to kick off a trilogy which looks at the upbringing of a serial killer to-be, with later films following the character at age as a teenager, then as a mass murderer. This one stars Jared Breeze as the kid, with Wilson playing a stranger that fascinates him. Check out the source for more details on casting and expect to see this ready for a festival premiere later this year.
Staying in the horror genre, Kevin Bacon is the latest actor to join a Blumhouse production, THR reports. He’ll star with Radha Mitchell in the micro-budget feature 6 Miranda Drive, which comes from Wolf Creek director Greg Mclean. This one follows them as a family who “unwittingly brings a fear-feeding supernatural force with them when they return from a Grand Canyon vacation.” Sounds like some bloody fun and considering how fast these are wrapped up, we imagine we could see it by early next year.
Lastly, we have a casting update on Warren Beatty‘s currently-in-production Howard Hughes film. With Lily Collins portraying the woman with whom Hughes shared a relationship during his later years, Alden Ehrenreich as her more stable love interest, himself an assistant to the legendary film producer and aviator, as well as Annette Bening, and Matthew Broderick in other roles, Showbiz reports on another. She doesn’t make many films, but the legendary Candice Bergen has taken a role as Hughes’ secretary. With production already underway, I imagine we’ll see this by next year.
Which of the above films are you most looking forward to?