Shared Darkness

Indie production American Express, which one presumes will either have to change its title or secure a most unusual sponsorship, has secured an attachment commitment from Charlize Theron, per the Wrap. Plot details for the film, to be helmed by The Square director Nash Edgerton, are still under wraps, but the filmmakers will be seeking funding at the forthcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Filming will commence on director Zachary Sluser’s The Driftless Area next week in Vancouver, and per Screen Daily, Frank Langella has joined Anton Yelchin and Zooey Deschanel in the movie, about a young romance threatened by a crook and his bag of loot. (Presumably Langella plays the former, and not the actual bag of loot.) John Hawkes, Alia Shawkat and Ciaran Hinds round out the key cast of the indie production, packaged by Unified Pictures and Bron Studios.

Noted documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, whose Paradise Lost movies delved into the West Memphis Three case and were integral in eventually helping to overturn those verdicts, is set to tackle his first scripted true crime tale in the form of Facing the Wind. And, per the Wrap, Alessandro Nivola, Evan Rachel Wood, Vera Farmiga, Rita Wilson and Jennifer Beals have all signed on for the film, penned by Richard Stratton. Shooting will commence later this year in and around New York City; Fabrication Films will begin shopping the project to international buyers at the Cannes Film Festival later this month.

Director Daniel Barnz has nailed down the cast for his indie film Cake, based on screenwriter Patrick Tobin’s 2013 Black List-tabbed script, according to the Wrap. Joining Jennifer Aniston will be Sam Worthington, Anna Kendrick, Chris Messina, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman and Marianne Jean-Baptiste, among others. The story centers on a woman (Aniston) who becomes gripped by the suicide of another woman (Kendrick) from her chronic pain support group, and develops a relationship with said woman’s husband (Worthington)… presumably not centered around a shared hatred of Ugg boots (though hey, you never know). Filming will commence next month.

Per the Wrap, Sienna Miller is in talks to join Clint Eastwood‘s American Sniper, opposite Bradley Cooper, who is slated to star as the title character — a Navy SEAL who has the most confirmed kills in U.S. military history. Shooting is set to commence next month.

Genesis Rodriguez and Topher Grace have signed on to the supernatural thriller Home, per the Wrap. The film, to be helmed by The Last House on the Left director Dennis Iliadis and distributed by Universal, centers on a young man who inherits a mansion from his deceased parents, and starts to suspect that it’s haunted after a series of strange and disturbing events… including his discovery of the existence of property taxes. That last part may or may not be true, I’m not sure.

After having success with the New Line comedies Horrible Bosses and We’re the Millers, Jennifer Aniston is looking to turn a hat trick with the studio, according to the Wrap, by grabbing a lead role in Beth McCarthy-Miller’s adaptation of Mean Girls author Rosalind Wiseman’s book about competitive parenting in the suburbs. Tentatively titled Mean Moms, the film is being produced through Offspring Entertainment; it has yet to be officially green lit, but if Aniston, who is currently in talks, closes a deal, it would seem likely to be fast-tracked.

Matthew McConaughey, who’s surely shaken off the handle of clinically proven mildness, has signed on for his first starring role since garnering awards and acclaim for Dallas Buyer’s Club, per the Hollywood Reporter and other outlets. The actor will star opposite Ken Watanabe in Sea of Trees, a drama to be directed by Gus Van Sant. The film, penned by Chris Sparling, centers on a pair of suicidal men who embark on a reflective journey together — one that presumably doesn’t involve much mulling over why movies are unable to trust actors with beverage cups filled with actual liquid.

Emma Watson and Ethan Hawke have signed on for Alejandro Amenábar’s Regression, per press release today from the Weinstein Company. The film, whose storyline is currently being kept under wraps, is based on an original screenplay from the Chilean-born multi-hyphenate, and will mark a return for Amenábar to the thriller genre, where he previously had great success with the Nicole Kidman-starring The Others, which grossed over $200 million worldwide.

“I am passionate about Alejandro and his work, and am so happy to be collaborating with him,” said Watson in the statement. “I’m really excited by the challenge my character presents to me as an actress… I can’t wait to begin.” The film will shoot later this year, and be released by the Weinstein Company-Dimension in 2015.

Per Screen Daily and other outlets, Nikki Reed has signed on to Email, a horror thriller that sounds a good bit like Pulse and The Grudge. Directed by Kelvin Tong, the movie centers on a young journalist who travels to Singpore to investigate the circumstances her sister’s mysterious death, and then stumbles upon a string of killers involving a cursed email. Production will commence in May.

Per Screen Daily, among other outlets, Kristen Stewart has signed on to join Alec Baldwin and Kate Bosworth in Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore as a renowned professor of neuroscience who discovers she’s suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Quinceañera co-directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer will helm the adaptation of Lisa Genova’s acclaimed novel, with production due to get underway in New York City in early March.

Per the Wrap and other outlets, Harrison Ford has signed on to join Blake Lively and Ellen Burstyn in The Age of Adaline, a romantic drama centering on a girl in her 20s who stops aging following a near-fatal accident. Filming will commence in March, with Lionsgate handling domestic distribution.

Director Sarah Siegel-Magness has found Castro’s Daughter, according to the Wrap. Maria Full of Grace Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno will star in the title role of Crash writer Bobby Moresco’s historical drama, as the exiled love child of a 1950s affair between socialite Natalia Revuelta and Fidel Castro, prior to the Cuban dictator seizing control of the government. Producers for Mankind Entertainment and Smokewood Entertainment Group are touting the movie, which will shoot on location in Puerto Rico, as “Evita meets Argo,” since it’s told from the perspective of a woman who flees her homeland and eventually overcomes her father’s grip on her life through self-determination. No word yet on where Ben Affleck’s finely groomed facial hair fits in with all this, however.

Even death won’t stop Ashley Greene from attempting to control Anton Yelchin in Joe Dante’s new film, Burying the Ex, according to the Wrap. Based on a screenplay by Alan Trezza, the film follows a newly single twentysomething guy whose romantic life becomes even more complicated when his ex-girlfriend rises from the dead after a freak accident, and starts trying to disrupt his burgeoning relationship with a new girl (Alexandra Daddario). Nicolas Chartier’s Voltage Pictures has come aboard to finance and co-produce the movie alongside Scooty Woop Entertainment; production commences Monday, in Los Angeles.

For his directorial debut, Arbitrage producer Robert Salerno has found his leading man, according to the Wrap. Aaron Eckhart will star in the psychological thriller Fade Out, as a screenwriter recovering from a nervous breakdown with his wife in the tropics when dark events in his new script start happening in real life — all of which sounds sort of like Secret Window if it was remimagined by Michael Cristofer (which it was, actually, in an original screenplay). Filming is set to commence in mid-February in Puerto Rico; U.S. theatrical rights remain to be determined.

Per Mike Fleming over at Deadline, Sienna Miller has inked to star opposite Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn in the evocatively titled Mississippi Grind, the latest effort from Half Nelson filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The story centers on a down-on-his-luck poker player who teams with a younger, charismatic card sharp on a road trip throughout the South. Shooting starts in January, on location in New Orleans. Depending on how things shake out, one could expect it on the festival circuit later in 2014, or at Sundance the following year.

A film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Cell has been kicking around for over six years, with Eli Roth at one point set to direct, based on a screenplay by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Now, per a press release today from Benaroya Pictures, it’s The Door in the Floor and Paranormal Activity 2 director Tod Williams who’s set to helm the story about a mysterious cell phone pulse that spreads a deadly virus, and Samuel L. Jackson has agreed to join John Cusack, his erstwhile co-star on another King adaptation, 1408, in starring. Filming on Cell will commence early next year, from a script penned by The Last House on the Left scribe Adam Alleca and King himself.

Per Jeff Sneider over at the Wrap, while a formal deal is not yet in place, Will Smith is in the process of reboarding 20th Century Fox’s Selling Time, a supernatural thriller, scripted by Dan McDermott, about a man given a chance to relive the worst day of his life in exchange for seven years off his life expectancy. No word yet on what part Jaden Smith will play, or whether moviegoers can somehow collectively submit to 24 hours of ritual humiliation in exchange for seven years of reduced professional output on his part.

According to the Wrap, Alice Eve has signed on to join Chris Evans in the Captain America star’s directorial debut, 1:30 Train. Based on a script from Ron Bass or perhaps one of his assistants, the Before Sunrise-sounding indie tells the story of two strangers who meet in a train station and share a night of romantic adventures before they must part ways.

According to the Wrap, Olga Kurylenko has inked to join Russell Crowe in his directorial debut, The Water Diviner. A drama set against the backdrop of World War I, the movie follows an Australian father who travels to Turkey in an effort to locate his three sons, after they go missing during the battle of Gallipoli. Andrew Mason and Troy Lum will produce for Hopscotch Features. Principal photography begins this December, in Crowe’s native Australia.

Per the Wrap, Inside Job director Charles Ferguson — after backing out of his planned Hillary Clinton documentary, torpedoed equally by right and left — will next investigate the technologies, economics and politics shaping the debate over climate change. A broad-spectrum look at the issue, Our Energy Future will shoot over the next year-plus, with an eye on an autumn 2015 release.

Production has begun on The Hundred-Foot Journey, starring Oscar-winner Helen Mirren and directed by Lasse Hallström. An actual adaptation of Richard Morais’ bestselling novel rather than just merely the made-up title of a Lasse Hallström movie, the film stars Manish Dayal as a culinary ingénue who, along with his family, is displaced from his native India, settles in a quaint village in the south of France, and opens up an Indian restaurant. As the chilly proprietress of a Michelin-starred, classical French restaurant, Mirren’s character then gets all pissy, and culture clash ensues. So… yeah, pretty much a classic Lasse Hallström movie. If you especially loved The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, save the release date; it’s August 8, 2014, from Disney and DreamWorks.

Diane Bell’s indie thriller Shiva & May has found its leading ladies, according to the Wrap. Zosia Mamet and Jessica Biel will star in the film — the latter as a yoga instructor who finds herself behaving in ways she never imagined in order to protect her newly discovered sister, a sex worker with an unsavory boyfriend. The most unsettling news, however, may be that Harry Hamlin has agreed to a “kinky cameo.” Jonathan Schwartz and Andrea Sperling are producing the movie through their Super Crispy banner, which also had a hand in James Ponsoldt’s Smashed and Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy. Shooting is underway in Los Angeles; expect a 2014 top-tier festival premiere.

Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton — co-directors of Little Miss Sunshine and, most recently, Ruby Sparks — have inked for their next project, according to the Wrap. An adaptation of Tim Madigan’s memoir I’m Proud of You, the film chronicles the life changes that occur when a jaded and distracted husband and father meets television’s Mister Rogers.

It already has a release date, and now Jurassic World may have one of its leads, as Jeff Sneider at the Wrap is reporting that Bryce Dallas Howard is in negotiations to headline the fourth film in the rampaging-dinosaurs Jurassic Park franchise.