1.) WWE wrestler Dave Bautista has made appearances in The Man with the Iron Fists and Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, but he’ll get more attention than ever before in his newly confirmed role as Drax the Destroyer in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Drax is a human resurrected as a green warrior for the sole purpose of killing Thanos (the villain in the final-scene tease of The Avengers). His powers include flight, super-strength and energy blasts. Bautista will next be seen opposite Vin Diesel in Riddick in September. [THR]
2.) Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop, “The Killing”) is in negotiations to star opposite Tom Hardy in Child 44, a Soviet-era thriller following a member of the Soviet police (Hardy) who, while investigating a series of child murders, finds himself the target of his own government’s suspicions. Kinnaman would play Hardy’s ambitious and murderous nemesis. Noomi Rapace co-stars as Hardy’s chameleon-like wife. Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) is directing the script from Richard Price based on the Tom Rob Smith novel. [THR]
3.) Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard, Jack Reacher) has joined the cast of Neil Burger‘s new film, Divergent, a young adult, Hunger Games-like teen-on-teen violence setting, following 16-year-old Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley). Courtney will play Eric who is a leader of the Dauntless faction. Kate Winslet co-stars. [Variety]
4.) Vincent D’Onofrio has signed on to star opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the dramedy The Judge to be directed by David Dobkin at Warner Bros. The story centers on a successful attorney (Downey) who returns to his hometown for his mother’s funeral only to discover his estranged father (Robert Duvall), the town’s judge, is the murder suspect. D’Onofrio will play Downey’s elder brother. [THR]
5.) Lana and Andy Wachowski‘s new film, Jupiter Ascending, has been confirmed with a July 25, 2014 release date. The film stars Channing Tatum, Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, Douglas Booth and Tuppence Middleton and centers on a recent Russian immigrant (Kunis) who is busily scrubbing toilets for a living. Unbeknownst to her, she actually possesses the same perfect genetic makeup as the Queen of the Universe and is therefore a threat to her otherwise immortal rule.
Additionally, Grudge Match, the upcoming boxing dramedy starring Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro has moved from November 15 of this year to a telling January 10, 2014 release.
