Category: Casting

Leo Rex.

Looks like Spielberg and Neeson’s Lincoln may have started a welcome trend. Trading in the aviator glasses for pince-nez, Leonardo di Caprio will apparently star as TR in Martin Scorsese’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, based on the Edmund Morris biography. Hmm…I can see that, provided the film doesn’t carry too far into the presidential years. Bully for him.

Steelers’ Reels / Capt. Cromwell.

Another Superbowl has come and gone (Congrats to the Steelers, some of the calls notwithstanding), and — while I personallly preferred the FedEx cavemen and Hummer monsters — some new movie ads were scattered throughout the game, including new looks at V for Vendetta, MI:III, Poseidon, and Pirates of the Caribbean. (And, also in movie news, the increasingly over-stuffed Spiderman 3 picks up another marquee name with James Cromwell as Capt. Stacy, Gwen’s father.)

Welcome to Coen Country.

Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones look set to enter No Country for Old Men for the Coen Brothers, from a book by Cormac McCarthy. “Set in West Texas in 1980, the story is about a young Vietnam vet who stumbles over the remnants of a drug deal gone bad. He’s hunted by two extremely vicious assassins who want the money back.” My, that’s a Coenesque plot line. (Hail Caesar!, their other current project, is apparently expected to start shooting soon.)

Phoenix Force Five.

The cast for Order of the Phoenix is announced, with Helen McCrory as Bellatrix Lestrange, Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks, Kathryn Hunter as Mrs. Figg, and newcomer Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. (Previously announced were George Harris and Imelda Staunton.) I have no sense of any of these actors, but they all seem to look the part.

Being Kingsley.

Joining Imelda Staunton for Year 5 at Hogwarts, veteran actor George Harris will play Kingsley Shacklebolt in the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (set to begin filming next month.) You may recognize him as Capt. Katanga in Raiders of the Lost Ark, or, more recently, as Morty in Layer Cake.

Princes kept the view.

With The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe still raking it in, the next Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, moves forward. Apparently, all four Pevensies are on board and shooting will begin this autumn. “If we don’t make it now we’ll never be able to, because [the kids]’ll be too old.” (Via WebGoddess.)

The Night Gwen Stacy…Returned?

Curiouser and curiouser…The Village‘s Bryce Dallas Howard joins Spiderman 3 as none other than Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s doomed childhood sweetheart. I find this somewhat strange, since they’d basically turned Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson into Gwen Stacy in the first film (#6). (Plus, they’ve switched hair-colors, but ah well.)