King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) enlists backup from Faramir and Jimmy McNulty as David Wenham and Dominic West join the cast of 300 — based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae — along with Rodrigo Santoro of Love, Actually and Lena Headey of The Brothers Grimm. 300 Spartans against a million Persians? McNulty had best call up Omar for this one.
Tag: Casting
Tesla Men.
DC and Marvel are at it again…Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman are cast as the rival prestidigitators in Christopher Nolan’s version of The Prestige. But which is which?
First Batty, now Booth.
Beware the finger of death, Confederate conspirators. Former fugitive, scoundrel, and president Harrison Ford is slated to track down Lincoln’s assassin in the forthcoming film Manhunt. Ford will play Everett Conger, the retired cavalry officer who helped catch John Wilkes Booth at the Garrett farm, near Port Royal, Virginia, twelve days after Lincoln’s shooting.
Et Tu, Goodman?
George Clooney tells Vogue he’s reuniting with the Coens for Hail, Caesar!, the third in their “idiot trilogy,” about a 1920’s version of the Shakespeare play. Sounds like a toga party, Coen-style.
007 MIA.
“Broccoli liked ‘Layer Cake’ star Daniel Craig, 37, but Wilson didn’t. Broccoli also thought Australian star Hugh Jackman, 36, who in addition to playing Wolverine in ‘X-Men’ has appeared in Broadway musicals, wasn’t masculine enough. Colin Farrell, 29, was judged too much of a bad boy. Eric Bana, 37, star of ‘Troy’ and the upcoming ‘Munich,’ wasn’t good-looking enough. Ewan McGregor, 34, was too short.” The Hollywood Reporter examines in depth the current state of the new Bond search.
Tales of the South.
SNL alums Cheri Oteri and Amy Pohler fill out the cast for Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales, his followup to Donnie Darko (notwithstanding a writing cred on Domino.) Besides boasting a strange, Darko-ish website, Tales also features a cast that’s multiplying faster than transdimensional zombie bunnies, including the Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Miranda Richardson, John Larroquette, Jon Lovitz, Jill Ritchie, Will Sasso, Wood Harris, Bai Ling, and Wallace Shawn.
Gold Stryker.
Will Al Swearingen meet his match in Hannibal Lecter? Proving once again that quality character actors love them some Sioux country, Brian Cox joins Deadwood Season Three as “Jack Langrishe, an eccentric producer and theater owner who strives to introduce a modicum of culture to the mean streets of the South Dakota town.” (He’s likely the earlier rumored openly gay character in love with a male ingenue — Garret Dillahunt, perhaps?) (Also posted at Quiddity.) In other HBO news, memo to myself: The Wire Season 3 hits On Demand on Sept. 12, meaning I should probably pick up the service sometime before then.
I’ll be your mirror.
From White Witch to Gallic chanteuse, Tilda Swinton gets set to play Nico in a forthcoming biopic scripted by Blade Runner scribes David and Janet Peoples.
The New (Non)Mutants.
The X3 cast fills out with Michael “Tanner” Murphy, Bill “Predator” Duke, and Olivia Williams as Angel’s Dad, a White House politico, and Moira McTaggart respectively, as well as House of Sand and Fog‘s Shohreh Aghdashloo as Dr. Kavita Rao. Hmmm. I really like the Olivia Williams casting (even if she isn’t Scottish), but, in general, X3 is starting to sound more and more like an overstuffed rush job.
Crabgrass (and Martian) Frontiers.
Some trailers for movies I doubt I’ll see: Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni keep up with the Joneses via armed robbery in Fun with Dick and Jane, Eomer and The Rock wield BFGs in the totally unnecessary film version of Doom, and suburban housewife Julianne Moore pens her way to big bucks (much to the chagrin of man-of-the-house Woody Harrelson) in The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio. Ho-hum. Also in film news, Ellen Page is Kitty Pryde in X3, which sits better with me than the idea of Eli of Freaks & Geeks as Angel.