Moving from Peter Parker to Captain America’s milieu, Tobey Maguire joins Steven Soderbergh’s post-WWII romance The Good German, currently starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.
Category: Casting
Gimme a V.
A thespian-terrorist connection? The upcoming film version of Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta receives an infusion of grade-A British talent, including Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, and Sinead Cusack. (They join James Purefoy, Natalie Portman, and Stephen Rea.)
Opus Dei & the Octopus.
First up on Benedict XVI’s agenda: Smiting down the forthcoming Da Vinci Code film, which, along with Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, and Jean Reno, now also includes Alfred Molina and Sir Ian McKellen as “Bishop Arigarosa” and “Sir Teabing” respectively. I haven’t read the book, so I have no idea if this is good casting or not…but adding quality like Molina and McKellen can’t be a bad thing.
Mean Machine.
Word is ex-footballer Vinnie Jones, also of Lock Stock and Snatch, may suit up as one of the X3 villains, namely Juggernaut. That’s a right good fit, innit?
A Change in the Masthead.
A noteworthy turnover at The Daily Planet today — Hugh Laurie is out (due to his prior commitment to FOX’s House) and Frank Langella is in as Perry White for Bryan Singer’s Superman. Ok, that works.
Mahjong of the Dead.
By way of Quiddity, it’s everyone’s favorite parlor game, PeggJongg! I’m with the folks who think Simon Pegg (of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead) might make for a decent Rorschach in The Watchmen, but, after trying to beat this a few times, I gotta say, it might be awhile before I feel like seeing his face again. Update: Speak of the devil, Pegg talks Rorschach. Update 2: Even more Peggness — the man of the hour will team up with Brendan Fraser and Woody Harrelson for Three Bad Men.
Destiny’s Bob.
By way of my sis, Beyonce Knowles is on the short list to play Bob Dylan (or at least one of his seven incarnations) in Todd Haynes’ forthcoming I’m not there: Suppositions On A Film Concerning Dylan. Yeah, I can see it.
Renovating Southfork.
“You suck! Dallas rules!” It’s Bill Haverchuck‘s dream come true — Apparently, marketing geniuses are putting together a feature film version of Dallas, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Pamela Ewing and — possibly — Brad Pitt as Bobby. Hmmm. If this goes ahead, I’ll bet dollars-to-donuts Billy Bob Thornton ends up being J.R.
Spider in a Bottle.
Sideways sidekick Thomas Haden Church is cast as one of the villains in the next Spidey, although they haven’t announced which one yet. My guess is The Sandman.
Have your cake and eat it too.
Big doings for the cast and crew of Layer Cake, a Guy Ritchie-like London crime film coming out this summer. Its director, Matthew Vaughn, will take Bryan Singer’s place in the X3 director’s chair, and its star, Daniel Craig, is apparently on the short list for the new Bond (along with Nip/Tuck‘s Julian McMahon.) Of those two, I’d go with Craig.