Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl”) has been cast in the Clint Eastwood-directed drama J. Edgar, while Charlize Theron won’t be playing Helen Gandy as was previously reported. Instead, Theron has signed on for Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman.
Deadline says that Eastwood is now looking at Naomi Watts and Amy Adams as possibles for the Gandy role.
Westwick is joining Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer and Judi Dench about controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
Hoover was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modern innovations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.
Late in life, and after his death, Hoover became an increasingly controversial figure. His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI.
