Film Casting: MAGGIE’S PLAN, OUT OF THIS WORLD, Felicity Jones in STAR WARS Spin-off

Maggie’s Plan, Out of this World, Star Wars, and other movies have made recent film casting, screenwriting, and director news. These films come from movie studios primarily based in the United States. The castings, screenwriters, and directors are subject to change.

Maggie’s Plan

Travis Fimmel is joining Greta Gerwig, Bill Hader, Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore in Maggie’s Plan, the romantic comedy scripted and to be directed by Rebecca Miller.

Desert Eagle

Universal Pictures has optioned Desert Eagle, an action spec scripted by [Tyrese Gibson] and Mike Le. The plan is for it to serve as a star vehicle for the actor-musician. They’ve hired Matthew Stuecken and Josh Campbell to rewrite the script.

In Desert Eagle, a pair of border patrol agents investigate a drug cartel being operated out of a Native American reservation casino. Gibson last starred in 2013’s Fast & Furious 6, which grossed $788 million worldwide, as well as Fox Searchlight’s Black Nativity.

The Olive Sisters

Fred Schepisi’s Simon Baker/Leslie Mann-starring romantic drama, The Olive Sisters, has added several cast members…Anthony LaPaglia, Jacki Weaver, Melissa George, Gia Carides, Josh Lucas and Alexandra Schepisi have all boarded

The story focuses on Adrienne Bennett (Mann), a successful businesswoman with an enviable lifestyle. But when her business goes down the tubes, her life falls apart and her self-confidence quickly crumbles. She is forced to move from her chic New York apartment to the small rural community of Duffy’s Creek, Australia and the run-down olive grove she has inherited from her grandparents. Initial culture shock give way to a personal treasure hunt through the history of a family she barely knew. As she works to restart her life, Adrienne strikes up a friendship with the ruggedly handsome and intriguing Joe which leads her down the road of startling self-discovery.

Ian Baker (Evan Almighty) is DP and David Hirschfelder (The Water Diviner) is handling original music.

Oliver Stone’s untitled film about NSA leaker Edward Snowden

Scott Eastwood is set to co-star alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley in Oliver Stone’s untitled film about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Eastwood will play a National Security Agency agent who leads the group.

Damascus Cover

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been tapped for a starring role in Damascus Cover, a true life spy thriller…Rhys Meyers plays an undercover agent sent to Syria in 1989 to smuggle a chemical weapons scientist and his family out of Damascus. John Hurt, Olivia Thirlby, Igal Maor, Jurgen Prochnow and Navid Negahban also star.

In The Lost Lands

Milla Jovovich is in advanced negotiations to headline Myriad Pictures’ In The Lost Lands adapted from three fantasy adventure short stories…In The Lost Lands will be directed by German helmer Constantin Werner, who also adapted the stories. The project also stars Justin Chatwin.

In The Lost Lands interweaves three story threads. One plot follows a city’s desperate queen who hires sorceress Gray Alys (Jovovich) to travel into the ghostly wasteland called the Lost Lands, to obtain the gift of shape shifting, which comes at a terrible price. Meanwhile, warrior girl Sharra must fight a dragon that serves as the gatekeeper of seven worlds to reunite with her lost lover Kaydar. However, she forgets about her quest after being seduced by a mysterious lord. In the futuristic tale Bitterblooms, a young barbarian girl gets spellbound by a lonely witch in a spacecraft, who shows her beauty and love, which turns out to be a net of lies and deceit.

Love & Friendship

director Whit Stillman and stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny [are] heading from the 1980s back to the 18th century for Love & Friendship.

Set in the 1790s, Love & Friendship centers on beautiful widow Lady Susan Vernon (Beckinsale), who has come to the estate of her in-laws to wait out colorful rumors about her dalliances circulating through polite society. Whilst there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and her rather reluctant debutante daughter, Frederica.

The cast also includes Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga) as the object of Lady Susan’s affections, and Stephen Fry as Mr Johnson, long-suffering husband to Lady Susan’s friend and confidante Alicia (Sevigny). Further cast includes Emma Greenwell, Morfydd Clark, Jemma Redgrave, James Fleet, Tom Bennett and Justin Edwards.

Final Portrait

Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech) is set to star in Final Portrait, a drama written and directed by Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games).

Tina Fey’s untitled project

Christopher Abbott has booked a role in Tina Fey’s untitled project.

The Paramount film is an adaptation of journalist Kim Barker’s wartime memoir, The Taliban Shuffle. The story recounts Barker’s experiences covering conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It’s said to be a dark comedy dealing with Barker’s fish-out-of-water experience and the challenges of being a woman in wartime Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Fey will produce and play the journalist, while Margot Robbie and Martin Freeman are also attached. Abbott’s role currently is being kept under wraps.

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are directing. Robert Carlock, who worked with Fey as a writer on 30 Rock, has penned the script.

Out of This World

Asa Butterfield…will topline Out of This World, a sci-fi adventure that Peter Chelsom is directing

The story is set in motion when, during a mission to colonize Mars led by a billionaire entrepreneur, a female astronaut is found to be pregnant. After she dies during childbirth, her son is raised in secrecy on Mars. Sixteen years later, with the guidance of a mission specialist, the teen (Butterfield) connects with a young woman he’s been communicating with and embarks on a road trip across America in hopes of finding the father he never knew.

Allan Loeb (21, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) wrote the screenplay, with revisions by Chelsom and Tinker Lindsay.

Animal Crackers

Blue Dream Studios has added Kaley Cuoco and John Krasinski to the animated feature film “Animal Crackers,” joining Ian McKellen, Danny DeVito, Sylvester Stallone, Patrick Warburton, Gilbert Gottfried, Raven-Symone and Harvey Fierstein.

Scott Christian Sava is co-directing with Tony Bancroft (“Mulan”) from a script he co-wrote with Dean Lorey.

Star Wars

Disney and Lucasfilm have tapped Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones to star in the “Star Wars” standalone movie from director Gareth Edwards.

Edwards (“Godzilla”) is directing with Chris Weitz penning the script.

Plot details of the “Star Wars” spinoff film are unknown.

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Source: Deadline, Variety