casting (367 posts)

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Well, this sounds hot.

Johnny Depp is in talks to star with Angelina Jolie in The Tourist, a remake of a French thriller in which Depp would play an American abroad who gets swept up in an Interpol agent's web of intrigue as she tracks down a fugitive who used to be her lover, according to Variety.

And we feel sorry for any guy who incurs Jolie's wrath.

Sam Worthington, the Australian star of James Cameron's upcoming 3-D spectacle, Avatar, had been slated to play the titular tourist, but recently dropped out, along with director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who helmed the Oscar-winning The Lives of Others.

This isn't The Tourist's first casting shakeup, either. Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron were originally set to give chase in the lead roles before scheduling snafus got in the way.

We don't know about you, but we're liking the sound, not to mention the look, of this switcheroo.

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Miguel Villagran/Getty Images

Call it a buddy tragedy.

Fresh off comedy with The Ugly Truth and the upcoming The Break-up with Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler has agreed to star in Ralph Fiennes' adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

As you may remember from the SparkNotes, the play follows the exploits of a prideful Roman war hero (Fiennes) who turns against his own people with the aid of his former foe, to be played by Butler.

Bloodshed and iambic pentameter ensue. (Spoiler alert: Shakespeare's tragedies generally don't end well for the leads.)

According to the trade, Fiennes' first foray into film directing will update the 1608 play into a contemporary setting, though presumably with the original language more or less intact.

Because if you mess with Shakespeare's poetry, that would be a real tragedy.

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Who else will be making movies you want to see? We tell you!

Luca Ghidoni/Getty Images

George Clooney is making a Sideways move. The creator of Sideways, meanwhile, is making a George Clooney move.

The star is teaming up with Sideways' Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne for The Descendants, a no doubt Academy-baiting dramedy due out in 2010.

Per Variety, the film (Payne's first since 2004's wine-soaked statue collector) will follow a wealthy landowner who, in attempt to keep his family together, picks up sticks with his two daughters on a quest to find his wife's new lover.

The hard part will be getting the audience to believe anyone would leave Clooney in the first place.

Cameras roll this February in Hawaii (it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it).

Meanwhile, honing his craft in a much less idyllic locale is Owen Wilson, who's looking to reprise his dog-day success of Marley & Me by voicing the titular canine Marmaduke in Fox's live-action/CGI adaptation of the long-running comic strip.

The film, which also features the pipes of Fergie, Steve Coogan, George Lopez, Damon and Marlon Wayans, is due out next June.

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KMM-Pare-Merino/X17online.com

Katie Holmes is The Romantics lead.

Mrs. Tom Cruise will temporarily cease being joined at the hip hands with her hubby to replace fellow raven-haired thesp Liv Tyler in the increasingly star-studded indie flick. (Tyler left the film for undisclosed reasons and no, we don't know what they are.)

Per Variety, the movie centers around eight college friends who reunite for the wedding of coed pal Anna Paquin. Holmes plays the maid-of-honor who also happens to have had a romantic past with the groom (Josh Duhamel). Malin Akerman, Elijah Wood, Adam Brody and Jeremy Strong also star.

The Romantics, which in a bit of creative contracting Holmes will also boss people around on executive produce, starts shooting this week in New York City.

Now all they need is a killer soundtrack and we're looking at The Big Chill: The Next Generation.

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Katie's not the only star who's signed on the dotted line recently. Check out Hollywood's other employed movers and shakers in our Casting Couch gallery.

Columbia Pictures

Agent J and Agent K could soon be back on the beat.

Sony Pictures is beginning to assemble the pieces for Men in Black 3, per the Hollywood Reporter, already lining up director Barry Sonnenfeld and screenwriter Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) to dream up a close-encounter scenario reuniting stars franchise stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

The original Men in Black (1997) was a critical and commercial hit, grossing $589 million worldwide and spawning a 2002 sequel that tallied $441 million.

If everything stays on target, Men in Black 3 will start shooting in 2010.

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20th Century Fox

Do they make the grade?

In the upcoming big-screen reboot of The A-Team, it's not just the old van that's getting upgraded.

Playing falsely accused Iraq war vets on the run, Bradley Cooper and Liam Neeson join forces with District 9's Sharlto Copley and mixed martial artist Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who takes on the role originally played by the one and only Mr. T.

We planned to pity the fool who tried to replace Mr. T, before realizing Rampage could probably unleash a death kick through the Internet. So let's just say we think he's gonna win an Oscar and leave it at that. Make that three Oscars and a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Gulp.

Besides looking like they're being a bit literal with the remake—including everything from the Mohawk to Hannibal's cigars—our only beef is that Jessica Biel, who plays the officer tasked with catching these guys, ought to be in the photo, don't you think?

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NBC Photo: Paul Drinkwater

Caddyshack, Happy Gilmore…Missing Links?

Even if you don't spend all your time watching The Golf Channel, you still have to be pleased Steve Carell has decided to make a comedy set in the world of golf, according to The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business blog.

Why? Because as those other movies prove, golf can be really, really funny. (The Legend of Bagger Vance, notwithstanding).

Based on a novel by ESPN's Rick Reilly, Missing Links features a foursome who conspire to graduate from their shoddy municipal course—one in which an elevated train passes through—to play at a fancy shmancy local club nearby. Hijinks, we imagine, ensue.

Can't wait to see who accidentally gets hit in the groin first.

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Columbia Pictures, Miramax Pictures, United Artists

Matt Damon's family emergency appears to have found a happy resolution—and not a moment too soon. After the briefest of Damon dry spells, he's back to fulfilling all of our paparazzi-catching, movie-acquiring needs.

Wasting no time getting back in the saddle, the Oscar winner is in talks with Josh Brolin—who knows from both Academy Award nominations and westerns himself—to star in a reimagining of the iconic 1969 cowboy flick True Grit (which, incidentally, earned John Wayne his only Oscar).

According to Variety, the duo would star alongside Jeff Bridges in the Joel and Ethan Coen flick. Should discussions turn to done deals, it would mark a reunion for everyone but Damon; the brothers Coen previously toiled with Bridges the Dude on The Big Lebowski and clocked hours with Brolin on the Academy lovefest No Country for Old Men.

The remake would follow Damon and Bridges joining forces with a teenage girl to track down her father's killer; Brolin would play the bad guy. The testosterone-heavy flick is due out in late 2010.

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Mad Max Films; Columbia Pictures

Charlize Theron is ready to go beyond Thunderdome. Mel Gibson, not so much.

Multiple sources tell E! News that the Oscar-winning babe is director George Miller's pick to play the lead female role in the upcoming, Mel-less Mad Max 4.

When announcing he was beginning work on the sequel back in 2007, Miller admitted Gibson was too old for the antihero role of "Mad" Max Rockatansky and "I don't think he would be interested in being involved at all."

Instead, Miller is looking at little-know Brit Tom Hardy, whose credits Black Hawk Down and Band of Brothers, to play opposite Theron.

However, the Mad Max revamp is a long way from fruition, and Miller is being very secretive about the roles and plot. Actors auditioning for the film have only been given a letter for their character's name. The studio has yet to sign off on Miller's choices, and no formal offers have been made.

A leather-clad Charlize kicking butt on the Outback? You'd think that's a no-brainer.

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Anita Bugge/Getty Images

She always struck us as more of a Versace gal, but Angelina Jolie is taking a theatrical, if not sartorial, step toward Gucci, signing on to star in a drama chronicling the decadent highs and murderous lows of the fashion empire.

According to Variety, Jolie will be stretching her acting muscles as the femme fatale Patrizia Reggiano, the woman who sentenced to nearly three decades behind bars for plotting the 1995 murder of ex-husband Maurizio Gucci.

The film will be set in the design house's '70s and '80s heyday, when Maurizio emerged, in the wake of a vicious power struggle, to take over the family business. Prior to the show that would relaunch the brand (courtesy of designs from Tom Ford, incidentally), Maurizio was shot dead in front of his Milan home.

Talk about one day you're in and the next you're out.

No actor has signed on to play Jolie's ill-fated love in the film, which starts production next year, though Leonardo DiCaprio has been approached by director Ridley Scott.

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Angelina's not the only star who's signed on the dotted line. Check out Hollywood's other movers and shakers with a flip through our Casting Couch gallery.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Tony Awards

No, the comic actor isn't talking about his last couple of movie roles.

Will Ferrell has signed on to star in the indie film Everything Must Go, according to Variety. Go is being written and directed by Dan Rush, who has directed commercials before this, his first feature.

Based on a story by the late Raymond Carver, the film is about a man who loses his job and then finds his wife has kicked him out and tossed all his stuff on the front lawn.

His response? Yard sale.

Sounds promising, and we can only guess that a quality low-budget movie based on the work of a great American writer (who also provided the source material for Robert Altman's Short Cuts) might be the place for Ferrell to show off his considerable talents after Land of the Lost.

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