Casting Notes: Ray Winstone In Red Snow; Goran Visnjic In Beginners; Gwyneth Paltrow In Let The Right One In Director's Next

Here's a bit of casting news to start the day. Ray Winstone has jumped onto Red Snow, a "serial killer thriller" in which Winstone will be "an ex-SAS officer tracking down his missing daughter in the snow forests of a remote town in north Canada." Script and direction are by Stuart St. Paul based on the true story of a killer that targeted Alaskan towns in the '80s. You don't know St. Paul's name, but you know his work; he's been a stunt guy for over 30 years with credits including Aliens, some of the Roger Moore Bond films and the recent Red Riding productions. [THR]

After the break, news for Goran Visnjic and Gwyneth Paltrow.

ER's Goran Visnjic has joined Beginners, an indie that has already attracted a significant cast: Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent (Shosanna from Inglourious Basterds) and Christopher Plummer are in this one. Directing is Mike Mills, not the guy from R.E.M. but the director of Thumbsucker. He's written the script as well but isn't telling anyone much about the story. I wasn't a big fan of Thumbsucker, but these days I'll root for the small guy going his own way every time. With this cast, it's easy to keep hope alive. [Variety]

Finally, Gwyneth Paltrow is going to test her recently reinstated geek cred by taking the second lead role in The Danish Girl, the next film from Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson. The story is about the first post-op transsexual, Einar Wegener, and his/her relationship with supportive wife Greta. Nicole Kidman, attached for some time now, is a slightly outlandish bit of casting for Einar. Paltrow will be be Greta. Love that Alfredson is doing this instead of taking an obvious genre follow-up to his last film, can't wait to see how it turns out. [Variety]