The cast of Jungle Book: ORIGINS keeps on growing. Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, Eddie Marsan, Naomie Harris, Peter Mullan, Rohan Chand and Tom Hollander have all joined the fun, with director Andy Serkis (aka Gollum) set to appear as well. Rohan will play Mowgli, while Christian will play Bagheer, a panther, and Serkis will play Baloo, a bear, who save the boy from tiger Shere Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch). Blanchett will voice Mowgli’s friend Kaa, a python. Mullan, Harris, and Marsan will play the wolves Akela, Nisha, and Vihaan, respectively, who end up raising Mowgli. Hollander is set to play Tabaqui, a jackal henchman.
More Marvel casting news: John Slattery, Bobby Cannavale, Abby Ryder Forston, Wood Harris, Gregg Turkington and Tip Harris are all joining Paul Rudd on Ant-Man. Details are still under wraps, but many of these actors will be reprising their prior Marvel roles, strengthening the brand’s crossover appeal within this cinematic universe.
The Hunger Games’ and American Beauty’s Wes Bentley will join the cast of We Are Your Friends, a drama following a young DJ (Zac Efron) as he works on his first hit track. Bentley has been cast as James, a rich alcoholic DJ who befriends Efron’s Cole.
Dearly departed Twisted’s Avan Jogia joins Michael, already featuring James Franco, Emma Roberts and Zachary Quinto. Based on a New York Times Magazine article, the true life drama focuses on a gay man who is taunted so much it drives him to the brink of insanity, and he becomes an anti-gay Christian pastor. Jogia has been cast as Will, a young man Michael (Franco) falls in love with.
IN DEVELOPMENT
Harry Potter fans rejoice—especially if you liked the last 4 films of the franchise. The director of those films, David Yates, is in talks to return to that same universe for J.K. Rowling’s much anticipated spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Get excited!
Brilliant YA novel The Knife of Never Letting Go will be getting big screen treatment, but under its series title: Chaos Walking. Hollywood wizard Charlie Kaufman penned the first draft of the script and development is now continuing. The story follows a young boy living in a town of only men after a strange disease killed off all the women.
Another YA novel soon to see the silver screen is Pete Hautman’s Mr. Was, which is being produced by Ridley Scott. The novel centers on young Jack Lund, whose alcoholic father kills his mother. When Jack discovers a doorway that takes him decades into the past, he decides to use it in order to prevent his mother’s death–but as time goes by, he finds his task becoming more and more complicated and dangerous.
Finally, who said the vampire craze was over? TFIOS director Josh Boone is in talks to direct Universal’s The Vampire Lestat, based on the beloved Anne Rice novel which recounts the life story of Lestat, an impoverished French nobleman turned 1980s vampire rock star. The character was introduced in Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, who was later immortalized by Tom Cruise in the 1994 movie.