1.) In what must be a dream scenario for director Stephen Gaghan (Syriana), Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington are circling the two lead roles in his next project. The Lionsgate crime thriller Candy Store is said to feature meaty roles for its two main characters. It follows a deep-cover operative who aims to start a new life as a Brooklyn beat cop, only to discover the global organization he was dedicated to fighting is also operating in his new backyard. Jamie Foxx is also said to be interested in one of the roles. [THR]
2.) The cast is starting to roll in for director James Franco‘s adaptation of William Faulkner‘s As I Lay Dying. The ensemble includes Danny McBride, Tim Blake Nelson, Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus), Jim Parrack (“True Blood”) and Ahna O’Reilly (The Help). Franco has worked with all of these actors in prior projects, but I guess there’s nothing with wanting to work with your friends. It has also been said that Franco will take a small on-screen role. While the ambitious adaptation might seem like art house fare (the novel uses a more than a dozen narrators), the film is being backed by Avi Lerman‘s Millennium Films, the company behind the Expendables franchise. [Showbiz 411]
3.) Summit is eager to fill the void soon to be left by the end of the Twilight saga, so they’re pushing their adaptation of the dystopian teen novel Divergent into production as a challenger to Lionsgate’s hugely successful Hunger Games franchise. They picked up the property before the book even hit shelves and they’ve offered the director’s chair to Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist). The story follows a girl named Beatrice, who lives in a futuristic society where citizens are divided into factions based on particular virtues (honesty, intelligence, peacefulness, bravery, or selflessness) at the age of 16. Which will she choose? Decisions, decisions. A sequel called Insurgent was published in May and trilogy will be rounded out with the third book due in the fall. [Variety]
4.) Neil Burger had been the latest director attached to direct Sony’s long-gestating Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, but that Divergent news likely means he’s off the project. Nevertheless, the project is moving forward as the National Treasure duo of Marianne and Cormac Wibberley have been hired to rewrite the video game adaptation. I haven’t played the game, or any video game since the Playstation One’s heyday for that matter (I guess there are three of them now?), but it certainly looks and sounds well within the Wibberleys’ comfort zone of ripping off Indiana Jones. [Variety]
5.) I hate to end the week with such sad news, but that’s part of the job so here we go: Chuck Norris revealed on the red carpet at the premiere of The Expendables 2 that he won’t be back for the action franchise’s third film. I know it’s devastating, but hopefully you can all pull yourselves back together and enjoy the weekend. [Access Hollywood]
