1.) Apparently Mary Elizabeth Winstead will be returning to her role as John McClane’s daughter, filming a short cameo for A Good Day to Die Hard. Ted Cross, an extra on the film, couldn’t hold his elation about working with his crush and broke the news on his blog. [Bleeding Cool]
On a side note, above is the first look at Winstead and Aaron Paul in Smashed, which Sony Classics has set for an October 12 release. The film has many talking about a potential Oscar nom for Winstead. You can get a full-sized look at the pic here.
2.) Despite incessantly flooding his fans’ Twitter feeds with casting ideas and pushing hard for the screenwriting gig, Bret Easton Ellis was left off the 50 Shades of Grey shortlist. The names being considered are Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love), Veena Sud (“The Killing”), Kelly Marcel (Disney’s upcoming Saving Mr. Banks) and Karen Croner (One True Thing). If by some miracle you haven’t heard of E.L. James‘ erotic novel, which has sold 40 million copies, it follows a torrid love affair between college student and a kinky twenty-something billionaire. [THR]
3.) Reese Witherspoon will star in the romantic comedy The Beard. Surprisingly, her character won’t be undergoing gender reassignment surgery, but serving as a cover-up girlfriend for one or more gay men. So this is perfect if you wanted to see what a feature-length version of an Easy A subplot might look like. [THR]
4.) Jonathan Rhys Meyers has joined the cast of Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the big-screen adaptation of Cassandra Clare‘s young adult fantasy novel from director Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid). Lily Collins (Mirror Mirror) stars as a descendant of some half-angel warriors, fighting the battle to protect the world from demons. Rhys Meyers will play an erratic comrade, looking to make the world pure at any cost. [Heat Vision]
5.) Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Appian Way has purchased the rights to Dennis Lehane‘s 1999 short story “Running Out of Dog.” The Southern noir centers on a love triangle formed when a Vietnam veteran returns home and reconnects with a childhood friend, whose husband’s wealthy family kept him from going to Vietnam. Lehane’s stuff (Shutter Island, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) is typically tailor-made for quality cinema, so this is certainly one to follow. [THR]
BONUS: Here’s a look at the teaser poster for Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty.
