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Film Casting: SIX BILLION DOLLAR MAN, Jared Leto Possibly The Joker in SUICIDE SQUAD

Jared Leto Angry

The Six Billion Dollar Man, Suicide Squad, and other films have all 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.

Untitled Woody Allen project

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Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone star in the story that Allen shot on the east coast over the summer about an angst-ridden philosophy professor who starts an affair with a student.

Retribution

the reunion of Al Pacino and Brian De Palma…on the story of a hitman and a cop who will go to any length to stop a Philadelphia child prostitution ring.

The project is based on the 2003 Belgian thriller The Memory Of A Killer. Neither FilmNation nor Relativity International could be reached to confirm the additions to their slates.

Meanwhile anticipation was high over a possible AFM visit by Quentin Tarantino. The Weinstein Company is kicking off its sales push on the director’s Western, The Hateful Eight, and there has been talk among buyers of a personal appearance.

Return To Sender

Return To Sender, the psychological thriller starring Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike, Shiloh Fernandez, Nick Nolte, Camryn Manheim and Rumor Willis.

Pike pays the victim of a home invasion who forms a strong bond with her imprisoned assailant. Fouad Mikati directs from a screenplay by Patricia Beauchamp and Joe Gosset.


The Hateful Eight

Channing Tatum has signed on for a role, and also new to the cast is Oscar nominee Demian Bichir.

The pair join the already announced cast of the pic that includes Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern.

The plot: A stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a former Union soldier-turned-infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a Southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new sheriff.

Downsizing

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Matt Damon will star in Downsizing, the next film from Alexander Payne…Downsizing was scripted by Payne with Jim Taylor…here’s a logline: Pic is a social satire in which a guy realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself.

The Trap

Jamie Foxx is attached to topline ensemble gangster drama “The Trap.”

[Harmony Korine] will write and direct the feature…Benicio del Toro is also attached to star.

John Lesher and Charles-Marie Anthonioz are producing the film.

Bond 24

Jez Butterworth confirms he’s working on a polish of the script by the Skyfall trio of John Logan, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade…Butterworth performed the same service for Skyfall, but did not get a screen credit.

The Man Who Made It Snow

Antoine Fuqua and star Jake Gyllenhaal are reuniting to work on The Man Who Made It Snow, based on the true story of Max Mermelstein, a Jewish hotel engineer who transformed Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel from a small mom-and-pop drug organization into a billion-dollar enterprise.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

[Composer] Hans Zimmer…revealed in a recent interview that he’s bringing in some additional reinforcements in the form of Junkie XL

[Hans Zimmer] said to [Junkie XL], “You take care of Batman. I’ll do the other guy.” And [Zack Snyder] loved that idea.

Criminal

Ariel Vromen’s Criminal…follows a CIA agent whose memories and skills are implanted into the brain of a dangerous outlaw in the hope of stopping an international terrorist. Kevin Costner, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Oldman, Gal Gadot, and Alice Eve.

Mechanic: Resurrection

Jason Statham returns as Arthur Bishop in Mechanic: Resurrection…This time Bishop is forced back into the hitman trade by a figure from his past and is forced to complete an impossible list of assassinations of the most dangerous men in the world. Michelle Yoeh [, Tommy Lee Jones, and Jessica Alba] also stars.

Capsule

Edmund Kingsley is set for his first lead role in writer-director Andrew Martin’s debut feature Capsule…Ben Kingsley will play an experienced fighter pilot who is in command of Britain’s first manned mission to space at the height of the Cold War. He ends alone in space with a malfunctioning capsule, limited contact with the UK, unusual communication with the U.S. and some unorthodox communication with Soviet Russia. The cast also includes Lisa Greenwood and Joseph Baird.

Same Kind Of Different As Me

Olivia Holt has joined Paramount’s faith-based drama Same Kind Of Different As Me. The Disney star will play Regan, the daughter of Renee Zellweger and Greg Kinnear in the film about the unlikely friendship between a wealthy art dealer struggling to save his crumbling marriage and a drifter living (Djimon Hounsou) on the streets.

The Nice Guys

Ty Simpkins…has joined the cast of Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling-led crime drama The Nice Guys…down on his luck private eye Holland March (Gosling) and hired leg-breaker Jackson Healy (Crowe) must work together to solve the case of a missing girl and the seemingly unrelated death of a porn star. Simpkins will play Bobby, a young boy whose shocking discovery sparks the mystery that the duo must solve.

Jungle

Kevin Bacon is in talks to reteam with writer-director Greg Mclean on Jungle, a thriller based on the true story of Yossi Ghinsberg, who lived to write a bestselling memoir about his terrorizing trip to the Amazon jungle with a sketchy guide and two pals.

[Greg Mclean] is aboard to direct a script from fellow Aussie Justin Monjo…, who adapted the 2005 book.

Ghinsberg was an enthusiastic adventurer who headed into the Amazon jungle with two friends and a guide with a mysterious past. Their journey turned into a terrifying psychological ordeal and fight for survival as the darkest elements of human nature and the wilderness tested their endurance. Bacon would play the Austrian guide Karl.

Shot

Noah Wyle will star in Shot, the story of what happens to an innocent bystander and his fiancée when a teenager unintentionally shoots him and all of their lives are turned upside down. Jeremy Kagan directs from a script by William Lambom and Anneke Campbell.

Toy Story 4

John Lasseter will direct Toy Story 4…Disney says the story came from Lasseter, Unkrich, Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter, the Pixar veterans behind the other pics. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, the team who penned the indie hit Celeste And Jesse Forever, have joined the project as writers.

Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers has added some heavyweights to its voice cast. Sir Ian McKellen, Danny DeVito, and Sylvester Stallone will lend their voices to…[a] film about a family whose life is turned upside down when they inherit a rundown circus and a mysterious box of Animal Crackers that turn the person who eats them into the animal they’ve just snacked on. Patrick Warburton, Gilbert Gottfried, Raven-Symoné, Harvey Fierstein, James Arnold Taylor, Tara Strong, and newcomer Lydia Taylor round out the line-up for co-directors Scott Christian Sava and Tony Bancroft. Sava and Dean Lorey are co-writers

Whatever Makes You Happy

Susan Sarandon, Allison Janney, Stephen Amell (Arrow), and Elijah Kelly (Hairspray) are in talks to star in Whatever Makes You Happy, the directorial debut of Emmy-winning writer-producer Cindy Chupack…Pic is adapted from the novel by William Sutcliffe about two suburban mothers who decide to visit their 28 year-old sons in NYC; Chupack scripted based on an early draft by Mark Andrus

The Six Billion Dollar Man

Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg…are re-teaming for the feature film version of The Six Billion Dollar Man with various writers circling the project…Berg will direct and Wahlberg is attached to star in the film about former astronaut Steve Austin who, after a horrific crash of an experimental plane, is saved by doctors when he is fitted with bionic replacements — both legs, his right arm and left eye. With super-human power, he becomes a force to be reckoned with for the government as a secret agent for the Office of Scientific Intelligence.

The story is based on the sci-fi book Cyborg by Martin Caidin

Unlocked

Michael Apted has added Oscar nominees John Malkovich and Toni Collette to his female-driven action thriller Unlocked, starring Noomi Rapace…[she] anchors the pic as a CIA interrogator who unwittingly gives info to terrorists and must race against the clock to stop their biological warfare attach on London. Michael Douglas and Orlando Bloom are also set to star in the Bourne-esque tale scripted by Peter O’Brien.

Suicide Squad

Jared Leto is circling a key role in David Ayer‘s “Suicide Squad” that could prove to be The Joker

Tom Hardy, Will Smith and Margot Robbie are in various stages of discussions to star in “Suicide Squad,” which David Ayer is directing and Charles Roven is producing. Jesse Eisenberg is also expected to reprise his role as Superman’s mortal foe Lex Luthor

Ryan Gosling was initially sought to play The Joker but he was unwilling to sign a deal with options for multiple movies

Based on the DC Comic, “Suicide Squad” finds the government granting a group of supervillains a shot at redemption by sending them on a mission that will likely kill them all.

While The Joker did not appear in Justin Marks’ original draft of the screenplay, Ayer is expected to rewrite the script and that revision is rumored to include The Joker.

comic book movie scoopers at Latino Review recently reported that Cara Delevingne is being sought to play Harley Quinn

Leto recently directed the documentary “Artifact” and insiders say he has been looking for the chance to direct a feature as well. It’s possible Leto may sign on to “Suicide Squad” to improve his global visibility and box office clout, which would help give him leverage to direct in the near-future.

Daughter of God

Mira Sorvino has come on board thriller “Daughter of God” opposite Keanu Reeves and Ana de Armas.

Christopher McDonald, Big Daddy Kane, Michael Rispoli and Laura Gomez have also joined the cast. Gee Malik Linton is directing and writing the project

The story revolves around the aftermath of a Latina woman witnessesing a miracle and a police detective (Reeves) searching for the truth behind his partner’s death.

Beyond Skyline

Frank Grillo will star in “Beyond Skyline,” a spin-off to 2010’s alien invasion adventure, “Skyline.”

Screenwriter Liam O’Donnell, who also penned the script for “Beyond Skyline” and co-wrote its predecessor, will make his directorial debut with the film.

Grillo will play a detective who fights to free his son from a terrifying alien warship.

Barton & Charlie & Checco & Bill

Emily Blunt is in negotiations to co-star in Rupert Friend’s feature directorial debut Barton & Charlie & Checco & Bill…Friend, who will also star, wrote the script…The film follows a down-on-his-luck con-artist who meets a woman who he offers to teach the tricks of his trade. She turns the tables on him and they embark on a road trip, along with a 10-year old Mexican boy, where they are pursued a Confederate newspaper mogul, Bill.

Ant-Man

Hayley Atwell is also set to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron — and now we’ve learned she has a part in Ant-Man as well.

The new report bolsters an unconfirmed report from August that claimed Atwell’s Peggy would appear alongside younger versions of Howard Stark, Armin Zola, and Alexander Pierce in a scene featuring Hank Pym at S.H.I.E.L.D. That was a few drafts ago, but the fact that Atwell is now confirmed to be in Ant-Man suggests there’s a good chance we’ll see the others too.

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Source: Variety, Screendaily, Deadline, Slashfilm, Thewrap, Newyorker, MI6

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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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