The cast of Lovelace, one of two competing biopics about porn star and eventual anti-porn crusader Linda Lovelace, has added four actors and might be getting a high-profile fifth. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who co-directed Howl, have already got Amanda Seyfried to play Lovelace and Peter Sasgaard for the role of her husband and accused pimp and abuser Chuck Traynor.
Now they have roped in Hank Azaria, Bobby Cannavale, Chris Noth and Robert Patrick to play various roles, and may have Howl headliner James Franco onboard to play Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Read More »
.
Please Recommend /Film on Facebook
Posted on Friday, December 9th, 2011 by Angie Han
There’s still no word on who’ll be playing Éponine in Tom Hooper‘s Les Misérables, but the project has landed yet another well-known star to play her father. According to LondonNet, Sacha Baron Cohen is set to join Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Eddie Redmayne in the musical, in the role of the villainous inn owner Monsieur Thénardier. Helena Bonham Carter was said to be in talks to play Thénardier’s wife earlier this year, but it’s not clear whether she’s actually attached at this point.
Cohen did a bit of singing in his last big-screen musical, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and is slated to do still more as the lead of that Freddie Mercury biopic from producer Graham King. In terms of non-singing roles, Cohen recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, and already has three more movies scheduled to open next year — The Dictator, Madagascar 3, and Django Unchained. Get used to that face, because you’ll be seeing a lot of it in 2012.
Les Misérables opens December 7, 2012. [via The Playlist]
After the jump, a Disney gal decides it’s time to break into more mature territory, and Diablo Cody’s next project finds a mom for Julianne Hough.
Read More »
He’s played the Human Torch, and now Chris Evans will be in The Iceman. This is a movie about a different Iceman, though — one wholly unrelated to Marvel’s mutant supporting character.
There are two biopics brewing of Richard ‘The Iceman’ Kuklinski — one called The Ice Man: Confessions Of A Mafia Contract Killer, starring Mickey Rourke as the Iceman. Then there is this one, which features Michael Shannon as the hit man, and now boasts Chris Evans in a role once earmarked for James Franco. Read More »
From anyone but Harmony Korine, known for scripting Kids and directing Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, and Trash Humpers, the plot for Spring Breakers would sound like a wild piece of material. For Korine, it almost sounds like a family film. The story follows four late-teen girls who rob a restaurant in order to finance a spring break trip, and end up enlisted to kill the rival of their drug dealer.
Now Emma Roberts is in talks to play one of the four girls, and James Franco is attached to play the dealer. Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 by Angie Han
It feels like James Franco is attached to pretty much everything these days, but now there’s one less Franco project we have to look forward to. According to JustJared.com, the star has pulled out of The Iceman, a biopic of Mafia hitman Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski. Franco was lined up to play Robert “Mr. Softee” Pronge, the “mentor assassin” to Kuklinski (Michael Shannon); Ray Liotta and Maggie Gyllenhaal were also set to star in the picture, by director Ariel Vroman. However, with Franco gone, “it looks like this project might fall apart,” a source told the site.
Details of Franco’s exit have not been revealed, although the same source blames “key contractual issues that didn’t involve financial terms.” The rest of the cast sounds too interesting to waste, so I’m hoping the movie can still come together out even without Franco’s involvement. If not, well, there’s always The Ice Man, the competing project starring Mickey Rourke. [Cinema Blend]
After the jump, Franco’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes co-star Tom Felton gets to play a good guy for once, and Ruben Fleischer is still adding people to the cast of Gangster Squad.
Read More »
Posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2011 by Angie Han
If you’ve seen either version of Planet of the Apes, the overall outcome of Rupert Wyatt‘s Rise of the Planet of the Apes shouldn’t have come as a huge shock — the end result is spelled out right there in the title, after all. But there was one key element of the ending that nearly turned out very differently, until a very late reshoot shifted the fate of one of its major characters. And given that the film ultimately wound up grossing $409 million worldwide, essentially guaranteeing a sequel or two, it was probably a pretty wise move on the part of the filmmakers. Read more about the alternate ending after the jump. (Spoilers for Rise of the Planet of the Apes follow, obviously.)
Read More »
A couple weeks ago when talking about Jay and Seth Vs the Apocalypse, the feature version of a short film he took part in years ago, Seth Rogen said “It’s now much more than just Jay and Seth — there’s many other people vs. the apocalypse now. It’s gonna be crazy.” Now we know who a lot of those other people are. In addition to Rogen and Jay Baruchel — the title characters — Rogen says that quite a few of his frequent co-stars are now part of the movie. So expect to see Danny McBride, James Franco and more in the film. Read More »
Posted on Friday, September 16th, 2011 by Angie Han
You may recall that some months ago, James Franco was gunning for a job directing Blood Meridian, the acclaimed fifth novel by No Country for Old Men author Cormac McCarthy. Although that project never really materialized, Franco apparently hasn’t given up his dreams of tackling a McCarthy book. The actor/director/writer/producer has now shifted his attention to another novel by the writer, titled Child of God. More details after the jump.
Read More »
