1.) Brad touched on this next bit of news in a Star Wars: Episode VII-related article on Saturday, but I thought I’d mention it here in case you missed it: George Clooney has entered talks to star in Disney’s sci-fi tentpole 1952 for director Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol). Not a lot is known about the plot right now, but it is said to be a Close Encounters of the Third Kind-esque story about a man making contact with aliens on Earth. The script was penned by Damon Lindelof (Prometheus) and Jeff Jensen. [Variety]
2.) Bullhead helmer Michael Roskam is looking to team with Tom Hardy on Animal Rescue. The director’s chair opened up when Neil Burger (Limitless) left the project to direct the young adult adaptation Divergent for Summit. Dennis Lehane wrote the screenplay based on his own short story about a man who rescues a puppy from a garbage can, only to become the target of the dog’s abusive and mentally unstable former owner. The busy Roskam will juggle Animal Rescue with a few other things he’s working on, including the former Darren Aronofsky project The Tiger and the HBO pilot “Buda Bridge.” [Variety]
3.) Maria Bello has joined Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in the kidnapping thriller Prisoners, from Incendies director Denis Villeneuve. She’ll play the wife of Jackman’s character, a small-town carpenter who gets involved in the search for his missing daughter. Melissa Leo, Paul Dano and Viola Davis round out the cast, as Warner Bros is looking to begin production early next year for a September 2013 release. Sounds promising, no? [Deadline]
4.) With this year’s Hotel Transylvania sitting on a healthy $270 million worldwide on a budget of $85 million, Sony has begun development on Hotel Transylvania 2 and penciled it in for a September 2015 release. Sony will, however, have to replace the director, as Genndy Tartakovsky has already moved on to direct a Popeye movie for the studio, which is slated for a September 2014 release. [THR]
5.) I don’t usually cover television here, but I feel like I can make an exception when the news pertains to “The Newsroom.” The Aaron Sorkin-led HBO series has brought on Patton Oswalt and Rosemarie DeWitt for recurring roles in the show’s second season. Oswalt will play ACN’s new Vice President of Human Resources, while DeWitt will play a litigator defending the network in a wrongful-termination lawsuit. We’re still waiting on a return date for the series. [THR]
