Let’s start with some Marvel-ous announcements, shall we? David Dastmalchian is the latest cast member participating in Ant-Man, which already includes Paul Rudd, Corey Stoll, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Pena, and Patrick Wilson. Dastmalchian has previously appeared in Prisoners, but most notably was featured as one of the Joker’s (aka Heath Ledger’s) evil henchmen in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.
Also happening in the universe of Marvel is Avengers: Age of Ultron, with an exciting addition to its cast. The inimitable Andy Serkis, who was the best part (by far) of The Lord of the Rings trilogy as Gollum, has signed on to play an unspecified role. It remains to be seen whether he will be performing via motion capture as he did for Gollum (as well as Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes franchise and Peter Jackson’s King Kong).
#PLL’s Hanna, aka Ashley Benson, will appear in Sony’s highly anticipated Pixels, based on the incredible sci-fi YouTube short by director Patrick Jean. The film, directed by Chris Columbus and starring Adam Sandler, Brian Cox, Michelle Monaghan, Josh Gad, and Peter Dinklage, is currently in production in Toronto. Benson will portray a sexy warrior from a fictional arcade game.
Talk about an awesome cast. Twilight’s Kellan Lutz, Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin, and Orange is the New Black’s Taryn Manning have all signed on to Michael Almereyda’s biopic Experimenter, based on the controversial work of social psychologist Stanley Milgram, whose experiments led subjects to believe they were harming others via electric shocks, resulting in troubling data about how people submit to authority. Romeo Must Die’s Edoardo Ballerini and ER’s Anthony Edwards are also attached.
Happy Endings’ and Parenthood’s Zachary Knighton has joined Mickey Rourke in Ashby, about a high school student and a retired CIA assassin with only a few months to live. The project also features YA faves Nat Wolff, Emma Roberts, and Sarah Silverman.
In Development
In the genre of Greek myths (are you ready for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as Hercules this month?), Homer’s Odyssey is getting big screen treatment, with Russian Stalingrad director Fedor Bondarchuk attached to direct.
Speaking of video games, the old-school stealth action video game Thief is coming to the big screen. The games chart the course of acerbic antihero Garrett, a trained thief who lives in an unnamed City that is controlled by three competing factions: the chaotic Pagans; the order-obsessed Hammerites; and the Keepers, who try to maintain the balance (sounds like Divergent!).
Disney is moving forward with Enchanted 2, even though the wonderful Amy Adams has yet to confirm her involvement. Shrek 2’s David N. Weiss and J. David Stem are the latest writers attached.