Casting Bits: Kevin Durand In 'Cosmopolis;' Nico Tortorella In 'Odd Thomas;' Laetitia Casta In 'Arbitrage;' Jamie Kennedy In 'Good Deeds'

He began his career in comedy, but Kevin Durand is becoming a good, reliable tough guy character actor. He did well as The Blob in Wolverine, and made a good impression as Martin Keamy in Lost and as Little John in Robin Hood. He's got a role in the upcoming Real Steel, and now he's been cast in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis. He'll play the cheif security offer for Robert Pattinson's main character, a young billionaire who makes a bad business play and spends the movie dealing with the ramifications. Samantha Morton, Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti and Sarah Gadon are also in the cast. David Cronenberg wrote the script based on Don DeLillo's novel. [Variety]

After the break we've got new cast additions for Odd Thomas and Arbitrage, and Jamie Kennedy's consolation prize for not being in Scream 4 is apparently a gig with Tyler Perry.

The villain in Odd Thomas, the Stephen Sommers-directed adaptation of Dean Koontz's novel, is now likely to be played by Nico Tortorella. You can see him in Scream 4 this week, playing Trevor, the ex-boyfriend of Emma Thomas' character. He kinda gets short shrift in the film, as do several other actors, because he has to play into the whole Scream slasher mystery rather than actually having a character. So: don't judge him on that.

Odd Thomas has Anton Yelchin as the title character, a young cook who can commune with the dead. His girlfriend (Addison Timlin) and the local police chief (Willem Dafoe) know about his abilities. Nico Tortorella would play (possible small spoiler, I guess) an officer in the police department, who is really a member of a Satanic cult. How '80s! We need more Satanic cults in movies, so chalk up a minor score for Odd Thomas. [THR]Nicholas Jarecki (screenwriter for The Informers) is putting together the financial thriller Arbitrage, with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Drake and Aubrey Graham. It is about "hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller, played by Gere, who is forced to lean on an unlikely ally after he makes a major banking error." Now Laetitia Casta and Nate Parker are in the cast, too. Nate Parker is Jimmy Grant, a presence from the main character's past; Laetitia Casta is Julie Cote, an art dealer and the main character's mistress. [Variety]

Finally, Jamie Kennedy is joining the cast of Tyler Perry's upcoming Good Deeds. For this one the Atlanta filmmaker steps away from Madea's housedress to play a successful single guy who falls for a down on her luck single mom, to be played by Thandie Newton. [Variety]