Rosamund Pike joins Ben Affleck in 'Gone Girl'

The wait is over. Two weeks after announcing that Ben Affleck would play the male lead in Gone Girl, casting for the female lead was announced. Rosamund Pike, who has been seen with Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher, as well as the upcoming feature The World's End and the 2009 indie An Education, has won the coveted part. The juicy role requires the character to make quite a transformation--but I won't
go any further. In the book, the story is first told through the perspective of the husband (Affleck), then moves to the perspective of the wife (Pike). Her character goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary, and her husband becomes the number-one suspect. They each see each other through completely different lenses, which hopefully these talented actors will be able to convey.

Now that the casting is in place, production is set to start in September. Author Gillian Flynn, a former TV writer for Entertainment Weekly, adapted the screenplay of her novel, which was her third published thriller. What promises to set this adaptation apart, however, is having David Fincher as a director. His 2007 crime thriller Zodiac remains one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, and there will be plenty of opportunities for him to apply those touches in Gone Girl. My one concern when it comes to the box office is that the book hinges on its twist ending--and for the millions who have read the book, that twist is forever spoiled. Fincher's version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, another literary adaptation, underperformed despite being impeccably made. That movie, however, had a double death-knell. Not only had many people already read the trilogy, spoiling part of the mystery, they were so excited to see a movie of the books, they had already gone out and seen the entire trilogy of the Swedish-language adaptation, which had a dramatically successful run at the U.S. box office. At least in this case, Fincher will be the first to adapt the work. If this is anything like Zodiac, or its cousins Se7en and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, audiences will be in for a treat.

'Spider-Man' franchise eyes more fresh-faced actresses to play romantic leads

The Spider-Man franchise appears to have a type for Peter Parker's leading lady. From Kirsten Dunst to Emma Stone and Shailene Woodley, the role opposite Spider-Man has been a sign that an actress is on the verge of making it. These actresses are also the kind who tend to favor dramas, comedies--anything but action fare. In the early-aughts franchise, Kirsten Dunst played Mary Jane. Before that role, her work spanned fare ranging from Interview with a Vampire to teen comedies like Bring It On to indie flicks like The Virgin Suicides. But she had never had an action role before--or since. Bryce Dallas Howard joined the franchise in its third installment, with a similar smattering of credits. She did one more action movie, Terminator Salavation, but is more known for roles in The Village and The Help. The relaunch of The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012
introduced  as Gwen Stacy actress Emma Stone, who had a similar background to Dunst. Stone had done teen comedies, like Easy A and The House Bunny, critical favorite The Help, and Zombieland. She was just a little light on the indies.

Now casting is underway for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and it appears the spot of Mary Jane is going to yet another young actress with plenty of momentum: Shailene Woodley, who has charmed teens and their parents in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (because TV is the new film anyway) and snapped up some indie roles in The Descendants and recent Sundance selection The Spectacular Now. It's safe to say Woodley is on her way to being a big star.

Apparently The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is breaking with form, however, because not only will Woodley and Stone (probably on her way out) appear in the sequel, there's a third role for a female. The latest news is that Felicity Jones (indie actress of Like Crazy) will join the cast, with Paul Giamatti also in talks to join as a villain, Rhino. Jones, Stone, and Woodley make quite the trifecta of actresses. However, the fact that the deals haven't been finalized yet may be cause for doubt.

Variety also reports today that people have the right to be suspicious of preliminary casting announcements. In this day and age, studio execs pay attention to the reaction in social media to potential casting announcements. A chorus of "yay" or "nay" may be enough to clinch one casting, while making another one fall through. Looking through tweets reporting the announcement, I didn't see any polarized reactions. I expect something like the trailer--long after casting has finished--is more likely to elicit a tweet from a fan proclaiming that a person is completely right or wrong for a role. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set to release next May, and hopefully Jones' role won't remain a secret until then.

 

Today in casting: Rebel Wilson, Beyoncé, and Ralph Fiennes

Best news first. Rebel Wilson, who had a bit part as Kristen Wiig's eccentric Brit roommate in Bridesmaids, followed up by more prominent roles in Bachelorette and Pitch Perfect, has landed a project with Universal. The "Untitled Rebel Wilson Comedy" is based on an idea she came up
with. Wilson will star, produce, and write the script. With Judd Apatow and now Kristen Wiig in its stable, Universal has become comedy-centered in recent years. The studio is also distributing Identity Thief, another comedy starring a Bridesmaids vet, Melissa McCarthy. Add in Wilson, and Universal has quite the lineup of comedians.

Next up, Beyoncé. The singer and actress was supposed to star in director Clint Eastwood's remake of A Star is Born, but she's officially dropped out. Without a clear start date for the movie, the actress was having too many scheduling difficulties. Her replacement may be the little-known (at least compared to Beyoncé) jazz singer Esperanza Spalding. The woman can sing, so that's one thing. The movie will definitely read differently if there is a superstar in the role versus an unknown, but I love rise-to-fame stories regardless.

Finally, Ralph Fiennes will play a concierge in writer/director Wes Anderson's latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anderson lived in France during the production of Fantastic Mr. Fox, so perhaps he found the inspiration for the Europe-set film there. Anderson players Bill Murray and Owen Wilson have already signed on, along with a newbie, Jude Law. Anderson's charming Moonrise Kingdom was one of this summer's indie movie successes, indicating the writer/director is back on track and pleasing his fanbase and beyond.

Rooney Mara cast in Steven Soderbergh's 'Side Effects'

Didn't director Steven Soderbergh say he was retiring? In March he announced he was done with it all, but then in September he backtracked and said something about a sabbatical. I'm not exactly sure when that would take place. Soderbergh's one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood. Contagion came out in September, and Haywire in January--both to critical success. He has yet another film completed, Magic Mike, and now he's cast Rooney Mara in his next project, Side Effects.

Mara will play the wife of a man who is about to be released from prison. She's taking large amounts of depression and anxiety pills to cope with her feelings surrounding his release. There's also going to be a bit of a love triangle between Mara's character, her husband, and her doctor. Mara actually replaces Blake Lively, who IMDB suggests was a second choice to begin with. I'm curious how this role will tweak Mara's star image. After playing a regular college girl in The Social Network, Mara's looks went to extremes for her role as the Swedish punk hacker in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The look has been maintained for her publicity tours. She's currently on the cover of Vanity Fair's Young Hollywood with a vampy look--a severe bob, dark lipstick, and piercing expression. I'm not sure what look she'll go for with Side Effects, but it probably will be more natural. That's a good thing. I won't miss seeing her without those weird blunt-cut, jet-black bangs.

Channing Tatum, Jude Law, and Catherine Zeta-Jones round out the cast. That means that Tatum must be the prisoner, and Law the doctor. I really can't imagine it any other way. Soderbergh's frequent collaborator, Scott Z. Burns, wrote the screenplay and will produce. Knowing Soderbergh's lightning-fast schedule, the drama will shoot this year and release the next. Maybe all that talk of retiring fired Soderbergh up, because after the uneven The Informant! he's had a couple of winners, Contagion and Haywire, at least in my book.

As for Mara, IMDB's currently ranking her #1 on its StarMeter. She's just been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress. She may be one of my favorite up-and-comers. Her lead in Side Effeccts will certainly be the first of many roles she'll be cast in as she cashes in on her success.

Casting 'The Hunger Games': Please pick Jennifer Lawrence!

By Sarah Sluis

Jennifer Lawrence knocked it out of the park in Winter's Bone, my favorite kind of film: the little indie that could. The unknown actress landed an Academy Award nomination for her breakout performance. Like her fellow nominee Hailee Steinfeld, who was nominated for True Grit in the Supporting Actress category, she looks almost unrecognizable on the red carpet, given that they both appeared onscreen in fairly plain-Jane getups.

At the Oscars Lawrence showed up in a bombshell red dress, and her hair color has gone from dirty blonde to really blonde, almost as if she wants to create a physical separation from her character in Winter's Bone. Her next marquee role will be Mystique in X-Men: First Class, a big, action, summer popcorn movie. But there's also a chance for her to combine action with sci-fi in the adaptation of the bestselling young adult book The Hunger Games.

Though I haven't yet read The Hunger Games, the books have an amazing premise, combining the omniscience of a futuristic state with gladiator sports. The story centers on a girl selected to participate in fight-to-the-death games broadcast on national television in a post-U.S. country. It's like a reality-television inspired 1984, with action scenes to boot. Steinfeld is also up for the role, and according to THR, casting will depend on whether they want to skew the role older or younger. Since the star would most likely be locked into a trilogy, provided the movie performs well, I can see the logic for going younger. But I really see Lawrence, not Steinfeld, in this role. I may be biased based on the kind of heroines they played in last year's films, but the feeling sticks. Lawrence played a character that had a loose, natural feel, and was quiet and determined. In Coen Brothers' style, Steinfeld was stiff, fast-talking, and slightly unlikable. Lionsgate plans to release the movie in March 2012, so a casting decision will have to be made fast during a time when both of these Oscar nominees are weighing a flood of offers.

Leading men find their new weapon-toting roles

By Sarah Sluis

This week a whole slew of top male stars revealed their latest action/thriller roles. Besides their lethal weapons and testosterone-fueled characters, the hero-with-a-past and the one-last-job tropes appear to be particularly popular. Here's the round-up.

Mark Wahlberg has signed on to play a former alcohol smuggler. Hard times, along with a persuasive, devious friend, lead him back into the business. The movie will be a remake of Reykjavik-Rotterdan, a critically praised Icelandic film. Since the producers are changing the location of the action to a more American-friendly place, the title will likely change as well.

George Clooney just started filming The American, in which he will also play an assassin who has decided to hang up his silencer for good--after one last job. He starts acting as if he's already checked out as he waits for a final kill in a small town in Italy, befriending a local priest (does the assassin feel guilty for committing one of the deadly sins?) and romancing a local lady. These conspicuous acts of socialization, however, threaten his safety.

Ryan Reynolds may play a former Secret Service agent who left under disgrace in Motorcade. He gets his chance at redemption when he happens to be around when the U.S. President is kidnapped. Tom Cruise was reportedly eying the role before he decided to do Wichita. Jon Casser ("24") is now set to direct after Len Wiseman (Underworld series) left the project.

Adrien Brody will play the leader of a group of elite warriors in Predators,

a role he apparently lobbied hard for (If you doubt his leading-man credentials, remember how he comforted Naomi Watts in King Kong). Robert Rodriguez is directing. There's no sign of a tortured past, but how could they not write one in? Just look at Brody's mournful face!

Of all these movies, The American and Reykjavik-Rotterdam are the ones I'm most excited about. The American is produced by specialty studio Focus, indicating it isn't going for genre dreck, and George Clooney has a track record of choosing roles in the "action/war/thriller" genres that go way beyond--Three Kings, Ocean's 11, the upcoming Men Who Stare At Goats, Syriana, Out of Sight.

Reykjavik-Rotterdam obviously has something special going on in style or tone that has drawn local audiences. Unfortunately there's no U.S. distributor--yet--so we have to take their word for it. While many local projects fail in the remake, subtitled thrillers like Tell No One have a je ne sais quoi that seems to draw audiences.

TV stars flock to the big screen

By Sarah Sluis

Where better to draw supporting cast members from than some of the hottest televisions shows? Christina Hendricks, known as the voluptuous head secretary Joan Holloway in AMC's "Mad Men," signed on to Life as We Know It, a romance-drama that will start filming this fall. Katherine Heigl (who herself rose to fame through "Grey's Anatomy") will star with Josh Duhamel. The movie follows a romance that develops between Heigl and Duhamel when they are named caregivers of their friends' children when the couple dies in a car accident. Because Hendricks is playing the mutual best friend of Heigl and Duhamel, chances are she'll be playing the dead wife, which means we'll mainly be seeing her before or in flashbacks.

Blake Lively from "Gossip Girl" is joining actor/director Ben Affleck's production The Town. The crime thriller, an adaptation of the novel Prince of Thieves, will center on Affleck but has assembled a big supporting cast, including another actor from "Mad Men," Jon Hamm, a.k.a. Don Draper. Lively will play Affleck's ex-girlfriend, who is also the sister of a member of his gang (Jeremy Renner). The production also starts filming this fall, so both of these projects should appear on the silver screen sometime in 2010.

I remember seeing Blake Lively in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and thinking, this girl is jumping off the screen. Within the ensemble cast, which included already established stars like Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls") and America Ferrera (Real Women Have Curves), she stood out with effortless charisma. There was no doubt in my mind she was going to be cast in some big project. She made a few lackluster films, and has since achieved fame as the star of "Gossip Girls." I'm pleased that she has been cast in this role, as I suspect she has some deeper acting talent that's just waiting for the right role. Likewise, Christina Hendricks has worked almost exclusively--and regularly--in television for the past decade, including roles in niche favorites like "Firefly" and "Undressed." While both of these women are A-listers in (my) television world, these supporting roles could lead to a starring project that I'd happily buy a ticket to.