1.) Word is Philip Seymour Hoffman has signed on to star as Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Heavensbee is the replacement Gamemaker after Seneca Crane (Wes Bently) is executed at the end of The Hunger Games. Hoffman is one of the few new faces to join the cast along with Jena Malone who recently landed the role of Johanna Mason. The last major role still to be cast is Finnick Odair as filming will be getting underway this fall for a November 22, 2013 release. [Lionsgate]
2.) Speaking of Philip Seymour Hoffman, he stars in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s upcoming film The Master which has long been said to be inspired by Scientology as Hoffman plays a character who creates a belief system, which catches on with other lost souls. Word is famed celebrity Scientologist, Tom Cruise is upset the comparisons ultimately end up suggesting L. Ron Hubbard, author and founder of the Church of Scientology, made the whole thing up. [New York Daily News]
3.) Get ready for the ultimate in gimmicky movie theater entertainment. CJ Group of South Korea hopes to furnish nearly 200 U.S. movie theaters with equipment that will deliver a full 4-D experience. This new “experience” will include “back ticklers” and moving seats as spaceships crash and things explode along with tiny nozzles that spray water, mist, bubbles, air and odors from a collection of 1,000 scents, such as rose garden, coffee, women’s perfume, burning rubber and gunpowder. Mmmmm, can’t wait to get a strong whiff of burning rubber while I watch my latest movie and am sprayed in the face with water. [Los Angeles Times]
4.) *SPOILER ALERT* There’s a new rumor regarding the villain (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) in Star Trek 2, which was at once thought to be confirmed as Khan, but now is said to be Gary Mitchell, a character from the original television series that appeared in the episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Mitchell was a former friend of Captain Kirk’s, who gains telepathic and telekinetic, godlike powers. [SFX via The Playlist]
5.) Anthony Hopkins has joined the cast of Darren Aronofsky‘s Noah and will play Methuselah, the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He died at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood. Aronofsky made the announcement himself on Twitter posting, “I’m honored to be working with the great Sir Anthony Hopkins. We just added him to the stellar cast of #Noah; #methuselahlives.” Hopkins joins Russell Crowe, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Ray Winstone and Jennifer Connelly. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on March 28, 2014.
