We’ll start things off today with an update on Oliver Stone’s next project, an adaptation of the Don Winslow novel Savages. Deadline reports the director is in talks with Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) to play the two Laguna-based pot growers who get mixed up with a Mexican cartel and kidnap a female friend. The site also hears that Stone is looking at Salma Hayek to play the cartel matriarch. Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) was once attached to play O, the kidnapped girl, but she left the project when she landed the lead in The Hunger Games. Olivia Wilde is one of the names being thrown around as a replacement.
Speaking of Aaron Johnson, he’s also in talks, along with Jude Law, to join Keira Knightley in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina. The pic reunites Knightley with her Atonement and Pride and Prejudice director in yet another period piece, based on the Leo Tolstoy novel about a woman stuck in a loveless marriage who struggles with her attraction to a soldier. Variety‘s sources wouldn’t confirm which actor would play which role.
Bloody Disgusting reports Derek Mears, who played Jason in the Friday the 13th remake, Peter Stormare (Fargo) and Thomas Mann (It’s Kind of a Funny Story) have joined the cast of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. The 3D film will be directed by Dead Snow‘s Tommy Wirkola and stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the titular siblings, who have now evolved into bounty hunters who pursue witches. Will this fare better than Red Riding Hood?
Matthew Fox will play an assassin known as the “Butcher of Sligo,” who kills for both money and thrills in I, Alex Cross. He kills the wife of detective Alex Cross (Tyler Perry), igniting the one-on-one battle that The Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen will tackle in this reboot of the popular James Patterson franchise. I was far more interested in the project last August when David Twohy (A Perfect Getaway, Pitch Black) was set to direct Idris Elba (The Losers, “The Wire”) in the lead role.
Looking to take advantage of the renewed interest in Westerns fueled by True Grit and Rango, Variety reports Val Kilmer will star as an aging Wyatt Earp in The First Ride of Wyatt Earp. The indie finds Earp sitting down with a reporter to reflect on the ride that made him a legend, while a young ensemble of relative unknowns fill in the flashbacks of when the young marshall rounded up a posse to track down the outlaw who mistakenly murdered the woman he loved. Strangely enough, Kilmer co-starred as Doc Holliday in 1993’s Tombstone, in which Kurt Russell played Wyatt Earp.
EW reports Taylor Swift has joined the cast of The Lorax, Universal’s 3D adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book about preserving the environment. Those previously attached to contribute vocal work include Danny Devito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Betty White and Rob Riggle.
Fox Searchlight is courting David O. Russell (The Fighter) to direct a feature about Russ Meyer, the B-movie filmmaker responsible for movies like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Deadline reports part of the deal involves getting rights to the Jimmy McDonough book “Bog Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film”. Sounds like a good idea, almost like a sleazier version of the great Ed Wood. And the sleazier, the better in my book.
And finally (speaking of sleazy), The Wrap reports Billy Bob Thornton has entered negotiations for a sequel to Bad Santa. “Everyone loves the character and Billy Bob’s excited to be in talks with us,” a Weinstein Company spokesperson told the site. The deal sounds imminent, but we’ll have to wait and see if Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World) will return as director.
