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Film Casting: ANTIBIRTH, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, Anthony Russo & Joe Russo directing AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR – PART 1 & 2 [Updated]

Anthony Russo Joe Russo

Antibirth, X-Men: Apocalypse, Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2, and other films 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.

X-Men: Apocalypse

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Jennifer Lawrence…confirmed that 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse will be her last turn as shapeshifting mutant Mystique.

Lawrence spilled the news while chatting with MTV. Asked whether Apocalypse might be her last X-Men movie, Lawrence responded in unequivocal terms: “It is my last one, actually. Yes.”

Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2

Anthony and Joe Russo have just closed their deal to direct Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2. They’re about to go into production on Captain America: Civil War and will do back to back Avengers films after that.

There are still no writers attached to Avengers: Infinity War, but apparently Marvel is courting Captain America writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who’ve become the go to duo.

Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip

Bella Thorne has joined the cast of Fox’s sequel Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip…Thorne will play Ashley.

Pilgrimage

Jon Bernthal (Fury, The Walking Dead), Richard Armitage (The Hobbit trilogy, Into The Storm) and Tom Holland (The Impossible, BBC’s Wolf Hall), have signed on to Pilgrimage, an action thriller from director Brendan Muldowney. Set in 13th century Ireland, the film follows a small group of monks as they undertake a treacherous pilgrimage to escort their monastery’s holiest relic to Rome. As the journey becomes increasingly fraught with danger, the faith that binds the men together threatens to be the very same thing that will tear them apart.

The Leviathan

Simon Kinberg has come on board Irish filmmaker Ruairi Robinson’s white hot sci-fi project The Leviathan as producer. Neill Blomkamp (Chappie) will also join the formidable creative team as exec producer. Jim Uhls (Fight Club) is penning the sceeenplay…set in the early 22nd century. Mankind has colonized many worlds in a time when travel faster than the speed of light has been made possible by the harvesting of exotic matter from the eggs of the largest species mankind has ever seen. Those who take part in the hunt for the matter are mostly involuntary labor.

In The Deep

Louis Leterrier is in talks to helm In The Deep, the Black List script by Anthony Jaswinski about a lone surfer attacked by a shark and stranded on a reef must find a way back to shore before succumbing to her injuries.

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Tonally, the spec is described as a cross between 127 Hours meets Jaws, with a touch of Gravity thrown in for good measure. A young woman who is dealing with the recent death of her mother is surfing on an isolated beach and gets stranded 20 yards offshore on a buoy. What lies between her and the shore is a huge great white shark. It’s an emotional piece for a young twentysomething star.

The Lake

J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) along with Charlie Bewley (Twilight series) and Diarmaid Murtagh (Sons Of Liberty) have joined the cast of The Lake…Bewley and Murtagh join Sullivan Stapleton (the Aussie star of 300: Rise Of An Empire) as three of the four leads in the film.

Simmons has a smaller role as the rear admiral and leathery boss to the SEALs who doesn’t exactly approve of what his team is doing but supports them nevertheless.

Bewley is playing the soulful Stanton, who has a love interest (yet to be cast) and daydreams about what life would be like outside of the military. Murtagh is Duffy, the more introspective SEAL who is a bit more mysterious.

Independence Day 2

Charlotte Gainsbourg…has joined the cast of Roland Emmerich’s sequel Independence Day 2

Katie Says Goodbye

Olivia Cooke has signed on to star as the title character in Katie Says Goodbye

Joining Cooke in the feature are The Killing star Mireille Enos, Christopher Abbott, Jim Belushi and Mary Steenburgen.

Wayne Roberts wrote the script and was encouraged to direct it

Katie centers on a 17-year-old waitress, played by Cooke, who attempts to overcome the hardships of poverty by prostituting herself in order to fulfill her dream of a new life in San Francisco.

Abbott will play Cooke’s mechanic love interest while Enos is Cooke’s mother, a woman with no mom instincts whatsoever.

Belushi plays one of Cooke’s clients and Steenburgen is the owner of the diner where Cooke works.

Narco Sub

Brian Kirk has closed a deal to direct…action-thriller “Narco Sub,” which will likely star Liam Neeson

David Guggenheim (“Safe House”) wrote the movie

“Narco Sub” follows a notorious Ecuadorian drug lord who forces a disgraced American naval officer to navigate a cocaine-packed submarine past the U.S. Coast Guard.

Antibirth

Natasha Lyonne is set to star in Antibirth, an indie horror pic from writer-director Danny Perez. She will play Lou, an anti-heroine struggling with a strange illness, paranoia and fragmented visions who embarks on an insane journey to regain control of her life. Chloe Sevigny, Meg Tilly, Marc Webber and Neville Edwards co-star.

She Who Brings Gifts

She Who Brings Gifts is the 2014 Brit List script that has been adapted by MR Carey from his own dystopian novel, The Girl With All The Gifts. Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock, Ripper Street) will make his feature directing debut…Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close have boarded the thriller about a seemingly normal and very intelligent little girl who lives in an underground army bunker with other children her age. They are all experimental cases being examined by scientists to find a cure for a fungal spore that has infected the planet.

Realm

Rebecca Sonnenshine spec script Realm just sold to Relativity Studios in a mid-six-figure deal. Scott Speer is attached to direct. In the short, a young woman (played here by Adelaide Kane) possesses the power to enter the soul of the possessed to wage physical battle against their inner demons.

The idea came from John Swetnam (who scripted the short) and Speer, and they enlisted Sonnenshine to pen the script

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Source: Thewrap, Hollywoodreporter, Slashfilm, Deadline

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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