Even two weeks into what looks like it will be a long writers’ strike, Hollywood is still plowing ahead with a spate of new projects with well-known faces attached. Hey, some of them have surely already been written, but others don’t even have a title yet. But no matter what stage of development they’re in, a whole bunch of series and films announced a whole bunch of new castings. So, without further ado...
Nicolas Cage is officially returning for a Lords Of War sequel, this time with Bill Skarsgård in tow. Skarsgård will play Anton, the son of noted gunrunner Yuri Orlov (Cage). As anti-”It’s not my dream, dad, it’s your dream” as they come, Anton apparently tries to one-up his dad at every turn, even trying to slide in on his love interest. Seems like a whole lot of mess (hopefully, the hot kind). [Hattie Lindert]
Speaking of hot mess: Emma Roberts has just signed on to star in a comedy with that title, set to launch at the Cannes Market next week. In Hot Mess—the feature directorial debut of Katie Locke O’Brien—Roberts plays Laurel Mack, a woman relegated back to her hometown after a disastrous turn on a popular dating show. [Hattie Lindert]
After Warm Bodies and the Scream franchise, respectively, Nicholas Hoult and Melissa Barerra are more than equipped for their next endeavor: The One, an “erotic nightmare” set on a reality dating series. (Sounds like… a reality dating series.) Riley Keough is set to produce. [Hattie Lindert]
Rosario Dawson and The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Tony Revolori are joining voice forces for a new animated Western, Ghosts Of Ruin, set to premiere in August via Gala Film. The series is reportedly set in the “near-future tech dystopia of San Francisco” where virtual reality gaming has become a lot more immersive: Revolori voices Lee, a newer gamer thrust into a tournament after someone backs out, while Dawson voices Prism, a pro gamer dead set on being the world’s best. [Hattie Lindert]
Mike Flanagan having something new in the works is always cause for celebration, but his latest slated project carries especially hefty intrigue: Flanagan has recruited Mark Hamill and Tom Hiddleston to star in an upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Life Of Chuck,” a short story from King’s 2020 anthology If It Bleeds. It’s hard to decide which pairing is more intriguing, Hamill and Hiddleston or King and Flanagan; luckily, audiences won’t have to choose. [Hattie Lindert]
Maria Bakalova may finally be getting the badass espionage role she deserves in Birdseye, a new film from Armistice screenwriters Aloe and T.M. Hayes. The film–inspired by the book Sexpionage: The Exploitation of Sex by Soviet Intelligence by David Lewis–follows a Russian spy working for Vladimir Putin overseas in Washington, D.C. Everything is all hunky-dory until, in what this writer will call the “reverse-Past Lives,” her childhood love is sent to the U.S.A. with strict instructions to find her, and kill her. Can’t they just grab coffee first? [Hattie Lindert]
Finally taking her rightful place in the rom-com renaissance, Katherine Heigl is set to star alongside John Travolta in That’s Amore, a comedy following two perennially single people attempting to date each other. From the nature of their literal meet-cute–bumping into each other on the street!—to the implied family drama B-plot, this film seems prepared to hit all the classic screwball romance notes. [Hattie Lindert]
Scott Mescudi, a.k.a. Kid Cudi, is on a roll when it comes to casting announcements. In addition to Sam Levinson’s Hell Naw, the Sonic The Hedgehog spin-off Knuckles, the Trolls sequel Trolls Band Together, and John Woo’s Silent Night, Mescudi will also join Jessica Biel and Xochitl Gomez in Ursa Major, according to Deadline. Mescudi plays Blair, “part of an enemy faction that crash-lands on the same planet” as the mother-daughter duo of Biel and Gomez. Jonathan and Josh Baker (Kin) direct from a script by Patrick Somerville, Colleen O’Brien, and Katie French. [Mary Kate Carr]
In more Stephen King adaptation news, Theo James has joined the upcoming film adaptation of King’s short story The Monkey, produced by horror veteran James Wan and M3GAN’s Michael Clear, Joker’s Jason Cloth, and Babylon’s Dave Caplan. Ostensibly James will be taking on two roles: the story follows twins Hal and Bill as they grapple with the mysterious deadly consequences of finding their father’s old monkey toy in an attic. [Hattie Lindert]
It’s been a big week for Beetlejuice 2 casting news: Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, and Monica Bellucci have joined the cast alongside returning heavyweights Winona Ryder and Michael Keeton. Ortega, who had previously been “circling” the role, will add to her surly teen roster by portraying the daughter of Ryder’s OG Beetlejuice character Lydia; Tim Burton is returning to direct. [Hattie Lindert]
Matilda: The Musical star Alisha Weir is taking her little-bit-naughty je ne sais quoi to the big screen, joining Melissa Barrera in an upcoming creature feature helmed by Scream VI directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film still doesn’t have a title. [Hattie Lindert]
Pedro Pascal has a new project in the works with Barbarian director Zach Cregger: Weapons, a horror epic that’s been described as tonally similar to Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film Magnolia. Although plot and character details are still firmly under wraps, a fall start to filming is very much on the table, per The Hollywood Reporter. [Hattie Lindert]
In the new psychological horror film Self Portrait, Zoë Kravitz and Thomasin McKenzie play grieving artists living in a warehouse who end up going head-to-head with a haunting force while also trying to navigate their own intense relationship. The film is set in 1990s Brooklyn (but didn’t the plot description already sort of indicate that?) [Hattie Lindert]
Elizabeth Banks and John C. Reilly seem like a good duo to lead a goofy comedy, but Dreamquil is actually a timely thriller, per Deadline. From director Alex Prager, Banks plays a dissatisfied wife, Carol, who goes on an A.I.-based wellness retreat and is replaced at home by a mechanical clone who assists her husband (Reilly). But when Carol returns, she comes into conflict with “Carol-Too” who refuses to step aside. (Sounds a bit like Smart House for a new generation!) [Mary Kate Carr]
Shailene Woodley will play The Price Of Salt author Patricia Highsmith in a new film that eschews straight biopic for a horror movie bent, Deadline reports. Cara Delevingne and Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) will play two of Highsmith’s lovers who supposedly served as muses as she wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley. Alexandra Pechman is set to direct The Murderous Miss Highsmith, which will explore Highsmith’s relationships as well as her “fascination for gruesome murders.” [Mary Kate Carr]
Believe it or not, Frankie Muniz’s upcoming role in the thriller Renner doesn’t find him playing Rennervations maestro Jeremy Renner. Instead, Muniz plays a different Renner, a computer genius who tries to woo his neighbor Jamie (Violett Beane) with the help of an AI he invented, to less than middling success. How timely! [Hattie Lindert]