Word is George Clooney is set to reunite with the Coens for Burn After Reading, which is presumably their next film after Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. “Production Weekly says the Coen Bros. script is loosely based on the novel ‘Burn Before Reading: Presidents, CIA Directors, and Secret Intelligence,’ by Admiral Stansfield Turner, who served as director of the CIA from 1977 to 1981. The contemporary East Coast caper is about a CIA agent who is writing a book and he loses the disc. Clooney wouldn’t play the agent, but instead a killer.” Well, ok then. But what happened to Hail Caesar! (or, for that matter, Clooney directing the Coens’ Suburbicon)?
Category: Casting
Bullock v. McClane.
So, as it turns out, Wright was wrong: Instead, Deadwood‘s Tim Olyphant is cast as the villain in Die Hard 4 — still called (sigh) Live Free or Die Hard — along with Mary Elizabeth Winstead of Sky High as Bruce Willis’ daughter, all grown up.
Very Bad Men.
Some big-time action franchises verge closer to their villains: Syriana‘s Jeffrey Wright may face up against a DC-based John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard (a.k.a. Die Hard 4), while United 93/Bourne 2 director Paul Greengrass looks to enlist The Science of Sleep‘s Gael Garcia Bernal as the Big Bad of The Bourne Ultimatum, a film which also recently procured David Strathairn.
A Scanner Starkly.
Method casting? Robert Downey Jr. signs up as troubled alcoholic billionaire Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, for director Jon Favreau.
Asriel. Lord Asriel.
Casting on Chris Weitz’s version of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass continues, with new Bond Daniel Craig joining Nicole Kidman and Eva Green as Lord Asriel, Lyra’s uncle.
Who Two | BSG Three.
Sci-Fi announces they’ll be airing Season 2 of Doctor Who, with David Tennant (a.k.a. Barty Crouch Jr. of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) as the Gallifreyan in question, sooner than expected: it begins Sept. 29. And in related news, the TV teaser for Battlestar Galactica Season 3 is up at YouTube…if you’ve never seen the show, please don’t hold that lame Nickleback-ish song in the background against it.
Terry Does Dick | Prison Break.
Speaking of Philip K. Dick, word on the street is the one and only Terry Gilliam will be heading The Owl in Daylight, a biopic of the author set to star Paul Giamatti in the lead. And, speaking of paranoid sci-fi-ish surveillance thrillers, Christopher Nolan looks set to board The Prisoner, as in a film version of the classic BBC series, after he finishes the Dark Knight.
The Joke’s on Heath.
It’s official (and Latino Review is 2-for-2): Heath Ledger will be suiting up as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s sequel to Batman Begins, now called The Dark Knight. Ok, I can dig it…now, who’s Harvey Dent?
Heading for Compass.
Chris Weitz’s film version of The Golden Compass closes in on its Mrs. Coulter: Nicole Kidman.
Comic, Comic, Comic, Comic, Comic, Chameleon.
As most of y’all likely already know, this past weekend was Comic-Con 2006 in San Diego, which means an exceedingly large amount of news in the fanboy department. To wit:
