Coming off the modest hit Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, Cider House Rules), is headed into two differect directions for his next project. First up, he has the Nicholas Sparks adaptation Safe Haven, with a cast member recently added to the ensemble. After playing the son to Gerard Butler in the upcoming comedy Playing for Keeps and dealing with some walkers on The Walking Dead, Noah Lomax will be playing the part of Josh Duhamel‘s son in the upcoming romantic thriller. [Variety]

You may remember that Keira Knightley was once circling the project oddly enough, but has since passed the role onto Footloose star Julianne Hough. Based on the Sparks novel, the story follows Katie (Hough), a woman with a foreboding past, which leads her to Southport, North Carolina “where her bond with a widower (Duhamel) and his children forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.” How I Met Your Mother star Cobie Smulders has also joined the cast as an unidentified “neighbor” of sorts.

It’s nice to see that they’ve brought a worthwhile director to one of Sparks‘ adaptations, as Hallstrom will be providing his talents. Hopefully this one will be a little bit better than the last Sparks adaptation he did (Dear John). Dana Stevens and Les Bohem have provided the film’s script; and as if he hasn’t caused enough pain in Hollywood, Sparks will also be producing with Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh, Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey.

Hallstrom is also switching gears and has a Swedish thriller in the bag, titled The Hypnotist, for which the first international trailer has been released. The crime drama looks to be full of some dark twists and turns, based off a popular book series in the same country where The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series reigns. Check out the look below.

Synopsis:

In the middle of a dark December night, psychiatrist Erik Maria Bark is woken by a telephone call from a hospital in Stockholm. Detective Inspector Joona Linna asks for his immediate help in treating an unconscious patient suffering from acute trauma.

He hopes that Erik will be able to communicate with the young boy through hypnosis, enabling the police to question him. They hope to find out who so brutally murdered his parents and younger sister, in order to track down and save his older sister before it is too late.

But it has been ten years since Erik last practised hypnosis, and he has promised never to do it again. Painful memories from that time make their presence felt, contributing to his decision not to help the police.

When Erik finally allows himself to be persuaded, it is as if the floodgates have been opened to a torrent of unforeseen happenings. Without warning this violent and inexplicable course of events impacts with full force on Erik’s life. His son disappears, and to have a chance of saving his life, Erik has to confront himself with the past, with the times when his research-work was laid in ruins and his marriage seemed on the verge of collapsing.

Safe Haven will hit just in time for Valentine’s Day next year, arriving on February 8th, while The Hypnotist lands internationally this fall with no US release date in site.

Does this new casting news for Haven make you more apt to seeing the movie? What do you think of the trailer?

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