Casting Bits: JCVD In Sci-Fi Thriller ‘UFO;’ Danny Glover In ‘Mentryville;’ Sullivan Stapleton In ‘Gangster Squad’
Here’s a massive post-weekend catchup casting roundup, with a headlining turn from Jean-Claude van Damme. How can you resist the Muscles From Brussels? Answer: you can’t. Just give in to his suave, over-confident appeal. After the break you’ll find details about:
Kicking off withUFO, the story here (perTHR) is that the writer/director,Dominic Burns, gotJean-Claude Van Dammeto take a part in the film by emailing the actor’s wife. That works? Evidently so! He’ll be “a retired military advisor,” but we don’t know how big the part actually is. The film is about “five friends who wake up on a seemingly normal morning to find the power’s out, there’s no mobile phone reception and the radio can tune nothing but static. Two nights later with little more information a city-sized UFO appears above the town as tension and fear of attack grips the five.”
UFOis shooting now withBianca Bree,Sean Brosnan, andSimon Phillipsplaying a few of the five main characters.
The other sci-fi thriller for the day isMentryville, which now boastsDanny GloverandTaylor Handley.Varietysays the film is set in “an off grid pharmaceutical testing facility [which is] hiring a renowned scientist to create a vaccine for a lethal airborne virus. Complications arise when Handley’s character and group of friends go to help clean out the house of his hoarding grandmother and save her from eviction.”
Danny Glover is the renowned scientist.Margo Harshman,Beverley Mitchell,Tiffany Hines,Ryan Pinkston,Leebo Freeman,Fiona Hale, andC.S. Leeare also in the cast;Jason R. Dudek(Legacy) wrote and will direct later this month in LA.
Ruben Fleischer’s ’40s-set LA noir filmGangster Squadalready has quite the cast:Josh Brolin,Ryan Gosling,Sean Penn,Emma Stone,Giovanni RibisiandAnthony Mackie. NowSullivan Stapleton, fromAnimal Kingdom, is in talks to join the film; he would be “a childhood friend of Gosling’s dapper cop, a man who grew up to become a mob enforcer but later acts as a police informant.” [THR]
Then there is the new film, as yet unnamed, fromDrake Doremus, the director of Sundance faveLike Crazy. The film already hasGuy Pearce,Amy RyanandFelicity Jonesin the cast; nowNico TortorellaandMackenzie Davis have joined as well.
The film is about “a high school teacher (Pearce) who is tempted to cheat on his wife (Ryan) with one of his students (Jones).” Mackenzie Davis will be the daughter of Pearce and Ryan; Nico Tortorella will be “Aaron, a popular jock on the swim team who has a reputation for sleeping with girls and treating them poorly.” [Variety]
Finally, let’s shoehorn in some casting forWhat to Expect When You’re Expecting, which is now shooting down the street from me in Decatur, GA.Cameron Diaz,Jennifer Lopez,Anna Kendrick,Chris Rock,Matthew Morrison,Chace CrawfordandBrooklyn Deckerare the core cast for the romcom about four couples preparing for adulthood.Genesis Rodriguezwas added not long ago, as the roommate of Anna Kendrick’s character, andKim Fieldswill be “a social worker who helps out a couple with an adoption.” So you’ll see at least a few of those faces when you pause on this movie for five minutes on cable at 2am and try to figure out what it is, before moving on to reruns of the Kevin SorboHerculesseries.
Kirk Jonesis directing from a script byShauna Cross. [VarietyandTHR]
