Tag: Casting (61-70 of 607)

Jun 2 2011 05:10 PM ET

Martin Scorsese to tackle Richard Burton, Liz Taylor romance: Who would you cast?

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Image Credit: Keystone-France/Getty Images

Entertainment Weekly has confirmed a Deadline report that Paramount has optioned Furious Love, Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger’s recent book about the torrid and tempestuous romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as a potential directorial project for Martin Scorsese. This is a biopic where casting is everything. While it would nearly be impossible for the starring couple to equal the celebrity of Liz and Richard, they’ll need to be famous enough themselves to convey the magnitude of their onscreen counterparts. Thus, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are logical suggestions, especially since Jolie is preparing to play the Taylor role in a remake of the infamous Cleopatra, where the couple, then married to other people, first sparked an interest in each other. But Cleopatra remake and previous famous marriages aside, I don’t think Brangelina are the best fit. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 2 2011 11:35 AM ET

Bradley Cooper to costar in cop-and-robber drama with Ryan Gosling

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Image Credit: Away/PR Photos

After the critical success of Limitless (and the box office success of The Hangover Part II), Bradley Cooper is taking another serious turn in The Place Beyond the Pines. Variety reports Cooper has closed his deal to star as a rookie cop tailing a pro motorcycle rider (Ryan Gosling) who starts robbing banks to support his newborn son. The film will reunite Gosling with his Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance, who also cowrote the script. My thoughts:

• I’m all for Cooper showing range, and critics, including EW’s Owen Gleiberman, agreed that Limitless proved he was a movie star. But selfishly, I’m hoping that Cianfrance doesn’t “ugly him up” like he did Gosling for the part of Blue Valentine they didn’t show you in the trailer. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 1 2011 03:30 PM ET

Who has the game and the grit to play Jackie Robinson?

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Image Credit: AP Images

Think Will Smith as Muhammad Ali. Think Denzel Washington as Malcolm X. That’s the burden (and the opportunity) that will be placed on the shoulders of the actor who eventually takes the field as Jackie Robinson. Legendary Pictures and former Disney exec Dick Cook announced today that they’ve made a deal with the Robinson estate and are finally positioned to bring the story of modern baseball’s first African-American player to the screen after years of attempted projects from Spike Lee, Ken Burns, and Robert Redford, who is not involved with this most recent incarnation.

Brian Helgeland is writing and directing, but who has the physicality, the intensity, and the innate dignity to play Robinson — who was 28 years old when he finally played his first major league game? READ FULL STORY »

Jun 1 2011 03:05 PM ET

Who should play '70s daredevil Evel Knievel?

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Image Credit: Everett Collection

With his red, white, and blue jumpsuit, hell-raising antics, and legacy of crash-and-burn stunts that more often than not resulted in fireballs, broken bones, and extended stays in the ICU, Evel Knievel was the kind of larger-than-life American icon whose life was tailor-made for the big screen. Well, the latest word out of Tinseltown is that stuntman-turned-writer/director Ric Roman Waugh has optioned Leigh Montville’s recent bio The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel: American Showman, Daredevil, and Legend and plans to turn it into a film — a film which I hope has as little in common with 1977′s atrocious Viva Knievel! as humanly possible.

Now comes the question of who should play the hard-living hero who notoriously tried — and failed — to soar across Snake River Canyon? Waugh has said that he hopes to attract an actor who’s a man’s man (think Steve McQueen, not Zac Efron). READ FULL STORY »

May 31 2011 05:29 PM ET

Isaiah Mustafa (you know, the Old Spice Guy) really, really wants to play Luke Cage

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Let’s be honest here, Isaiah Mustafa is the Old Spice Guy. But, the handsome, literal horse back-riding spokesman wants the world — and the folks over at Marvel, especially — to know him as Luke Cage.

Mustafa, who has been campaigning to nab the big screen adaptation of the ’70s comic book superhero, recently released a mini-trailer of himself as a plea to play the fan-favorite character. (EW reached out to Marvel regarding Mustafa’s video bid, but they did not respond.)  Check out the trailer below: READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2011 02:40 PM ET

Lenny Kravitz cast as Cinna in 'Hunger Games': Surprised? In a good way?

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Image Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

Much like the books they’re based on, the casting for The Hunger Games has already jolted its fans with some unexpected twists. While there had been some speculation that rocker Lenny Kravitz would step in the role of Katniss’ flashy, but friendly, stylist Cinna, most HG fans had hedged their bets on actor Cillian Murphy. But — and forgive me for this one, PopWatchers — Gary Ross and Co., opted to go Kravitz’s way instead.

I’m sure my initial reaction sounded not unlike a good portion of you (“Really?!?“), but then I remembered Kravtiz’s performance as a male nurse in 2009′s harrowing Precious. He was good. Actually, really, very good, for the short amount of time he was on screen. READ FULL STORY »

May 23 2011 02:35 PM ET

Matthew Modine officially cast in 'The Dark Knight Rises'

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Image Credit: Sylvain Gaboury/PR Photos

Christopher Nolan’s filmography is peppered with plenty of recurring motifs — murdered wives, flashbacks, frowny-faced men in fantastic suits — but one of the most enjoyable aspects of the director’s recent movies is his tendency to cast beloved ’80s actors in minor roles. So The Dark Knight featured Anthony Michael Hall as a vain newscaster and Eric Roberts as a smug mobster and Inception featured a gorgeously irate Tom Berenger. (You can even throw in David Bowie’s appearance in The Prestige, since the whole notion of “David Bowie, Actor” is so ’80s.) Nolan is continuing the trend with The Dark Knight Rises: EW has confirmed that Matthew Modine, star of Full Metal Jacket and Married to the Mob, has been cast in the upcoming Bat-threequel. A report in Variety said that Modine was playing a character named “Nixon,” but Modine’s reps couldn’t confirm that piece of information. (Given Nolan’s penchant for secrecy, I’m still not convinced that The Dark Knight Rises isn’t just a cover for the filming of Inception 2: The Dreaming.) READ FULL STORY »

May 19 2011 06:05 PM ET

MTV casts a hypothetical, live-action 'Daria' movie. Now I want them to make it for real

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Image Credit: MTV

I’m not quite sure why MTV chose yesterday, of all days, to reveal its dream cast for a theoretical live-action movie based on Daria — but I’m not complaining. On the whole, the network’s casting choices are inspired, especially when it comes to their leading lady: Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza, who knows a thing or two about playing smart, sarcastic, and deadpan, was basically born to play Daria. MTV’s picks for Daria’s parents, uptight Helen (Annnette Bening) and hot mess Jake (Will Ferrell), are also nothing short of perfect. And I had to restrain myself from clapping in joy when I read who they selected to play Mr. DeMartino, Daria’s stressed-out, bug-eyed history teacher: Christopher Walken. Can’t you just hear him bellowing “CHEESE LOGS” in a fit of rage?  READ FULL STORY »

May 18 2011 06:10 PM ET

Joel Edgerton joins 'Gatsby': Is he Leo's equal? -- EXCLUSIVE PHOTO

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Image Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Australian actor Joel Edgerton will play Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby, replacing Ben Affleck, who dropped out to direct Argo. A spokesperson for the 36-year-old actor confirmed the deal, and Luhrmann told Deadline that Edgerton “could credibly be (as F. Scott Fitzgerald describes him) ‘one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven,’ had five-star acting chops and in the big dramatic showdown scenes between Gatsby and Tom, [and could] hold the screen against Leonardo DiCaprio.” This exclusive photo of Edgerton shows the actor in character as he works with Luhrmann on the project.

Edgerton, who’s been excellent in some smaller films, brings an unsettling intensity to all his performances.  READ FULL STORY »

May 16 2011 06:55 PM ET

Would you watch 'Law & Order: SVU' without Mariska Hargitay? (What if Jennifer Love Hewitt replaced her?)

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Image Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic.com; Will Hart/ NBC

With Law & Order: Los Angeles officially rebooted into oblivion and Law & Order: Criminal Intent halfway through its final season, we are fast approaching a cultural moment that once seemed unthinkable: a TV landscape with only one Law & Order series still in production. But Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has always been the impervious panzer tank of the franchise; while its brethren vacillated through various cast changes, the SVU team has essentially held steady since the show debuted in 1999. (There were more cast shake-ups in one miserable season of LOLA than in over a decade of SVU.)

Not even the SVU juggernaut is immune to the ravages of time, though, and it looks like series star Mariska Hargitay will be stepping back from the series in its upcoming 13th season. READ FULL STORY »

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