Film Casting: MALIGNANT MAN, LEGO 2, Simon West directing STRATTON [Updated]

Malignant Man, The LEGO Movie 2, Stratton, 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.

Lost In The Pacific

Brandon Routh and Zhang YuQi will star in director Vincent Zhou’s futuristic project about a group of elite passengers on board an inaugural luxury, transoceanic flight in 2020. The creative team includes VFX supervisor Bruce Jones (The Italian Job, Star Trek), art director Ian Bailie (Atonement, Pride And Prejudice) and DP Scott Winig.

Away

David Blair is starting principal photography next week on Away, a feature drama to star Mr Turner‘s Timothy Spall and Sin City 2‘s Juno Temple. The pair play Joseph and Ria, two kindred spirits who forge an unlikely friendship. Matt Ryan, Hayley Squires and Terry Stone co-star. The script is by Roger Hadfield.

The LEGO Movie Sequel

Director Rob Schrab…will make his feature directorial debut on Warner Bros’ The LEGO Movie Sequel. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who directed the first pic, are writing

The Huntsman

Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year) has joined the cast of Universal’s The Huntsman opposite Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron, who reprise their roles from the first installment of the Snow White redux.

Emily Blunt, rumored for weeks, has closed her deal to star in the film. Also returning from the first film will be Nick Frost (Cuban Fury), who has now agreed to terms to reprise his role as a dwarf Nion.

Cedric Nicolas-Troyan…takes the helm for his feature directorial debut. Frank Darabont…wrote the screenplay, with earlier drafts by Craig Mazin and Evan Spiliotopoulos.

Kung Fu Panda 3

Jennifer Yuh will not be helming the latest installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise by herself…DreamWorks Animation has brought in Alessandro Carloni to co-direct Kung Fu Panda 3 with Yuh

Malignant Man

Zak Olkewicz has just been hired to adapt James Wan’s graphic novel Malignant Man for Fox which Wan plans to direct…The story follows a terminal cancer patient who realizes that his tumor is actually a parasite and after given otherworldly powers, he must battle an army of evil buried beneath society’s skin while learning things about his own past.

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X-Men: Apocalypse

Ben Hardy is in talks for a key, as-yet-undisclosed role in Bryan Singer‘s “X-Men: Apocalypse”

Hardy was among those who tested to play Cyclops, though the role ultimately went to Sheridan. Hardy was then rumored to be up for the role of Angel, though insiders say he has been cast in another important role that is being kept under wraps.

The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule

Nick Schenk has been hired by to adapt Sam Dolnick’s New York Times Magazine article “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule”

Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”) is attached to direct the film, which will follow Leo Sharp, an award-winning horticulturist who secretly spent years working as one of the most trusted drug courier for Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel. Sharp was 87 when he was arrested in 2011 for transporting hundreds of kilos of cocaine to drug dealers in and around Detroit.

Stratton

Simon West has come on board to direct Henry Cavill in action-thriller “Stratton”

“Stratton” is based on the first of a series of eight novels by Duncan Falconer and on a Special Boat Service operative tracking down an international terrorist cell through Central Asia, mainland Europe and London.

Manchester-by-the-Sea

Kyle Chandler…will co-star opposite Casey Affleck in Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester-by-the-Sea. Lonergan penned the script, which centers on a ne’er-do-well plumber (Affleck) in Boston who is forced to return home to the titular town after he learns his older brother (Chandler) has passed away. There, he finds himself thrust into caring for his brother’s 16-year-old son but finds himself crumbling due to a secret tragedy in his past.

The film is laced with flashbacks, allowing Chandler to frequently appear onscreen.

Michelle Williams recently joined the cast as Affleck’s wife.

Tomb Raider

Evan Daugherty has been set to script Tomb Raider, the reboot of the video game property with the fetching heroine

Money Monster

Dominic West…has signed on to star opposite George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Jack O’Connell in the Jodie Foster-directed Money Monster

Clooney plays a Jim Cramer-type host of a stock investment show who makes a bad call on a hot stock. A disgruntled investor storms his studio with a gun in front of a live audience, and threatens to kill him if the stock price of the now beaten down stock doesn’t return to previous levels. West plays the CEO of the company that goes under, after the host touts his stock. The CEO tries to hide away in his private jet when the hostage situation unfolds and it becomes clear he is complicit in his company’s failure.

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Source: Hollywoodeporter, Thewrap, Deadline, Variety