Film Casting: SKULL ISLAND, BEN-HUR, Charlie Hunnam in A PRAYER BEFORE DAWN

Skull Island, Ben-Hur, A Prayer Before Dawn, 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.

Skull Island

Legendary Pictures has set Flight scribe John Gatins to do the next draft of Skull Island, the King Kong origin pic that Tom Hiddleston will star in and Jordan Vogt-Roberts will direct…The script was penned by Max Borenstein

untitled Low Riders movie

Eva Longoria and Lily Collins are in talks to star opposite Demian Bichir in the untitled Low Riders movie

Ricardo de Montreuil is on board to direct the script, written by Josh Bierne-Gordon and Justin Tipping. Previous drafts were written by Cheo Hodari Coker and Elgin James.

Snakehead

Lucy Liu has been set to star in Snakehead, a New York-set drama about the international underworld of human smuggling…directed by Evan Jackson Leong…Leong wrote the script

Liu will play a Chinese immigrant who arrives penniless to the streets of New York City’s Chinatown, until she is mentored in the business of human smuggling by the powerful bosses—called Snakeheads—who run a thriving business that preys on the hopes of wannabe immigrants who pay a high price for a piece of the American dream. Motivated by a desire to regain her daughter and reclaim her family, she rises to the top of Chinatown’s smuggling business.

13 Hours

Michael Bay is in negotiations to potentially helm 13 Hours…which follows the true story of the events on September 11, 2012, when terrorists attacked a U.S. Compound and a CIA station in Benghazi, Libya.

Chuck Hogan wrote the script

Vincent-N-Roxxy

Emile Hirsch and Zoë Kravitz have signed on to star in Vincent-N-Roxxy, an action crime drama written and to be directed by Gary Michael Schultz…which follows two down-on-their-luck rebels who fall in love and fall apart when their violent pasts catch up with them.

Ben-Hur

Gal Gadot has passed on a role in Ben Hur

The actress’ shooting schedule for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has forced her to pass the project, which she had been circling to star in for Paramount and MGM.

Gadot was to have co-starred as the female lead, but Batman v Superman’s complicated and ever-lengthening shoot has put the kibosh in the proceedings.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Disney’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes has hired Wrath of the Titans writer David Leslie Johnson to pen the script.

Author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith will make his directorial debut with the project. The story follows two teen boys whose small Midwestern town is taken over by a carnival featuring a mysterious leader who seems to be able to grant the townsfolk’s wishes, but at a very dark cost.

Man in the Dark

Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert will produce the thriller A Man in the Dark — directed by Fede Alvarez and written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues — through their Ghost House Pictures.

A Man in the Dark centers on a group of three teens who execute perfectly planned home robberies. Their final target is a reclusive blind man who’s hiding millions of dollars, but when they break into his house, they find themselves up against a psychopath with his own secrets.

Three Generations

Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon have signed on to star in the drama Three Generations.

Written by Nikole Beckwith, the film is described as an exploration of identity that centers on a New York City teen, Ray (Fanning), transitioning from female to male and her single mother, Maggie (Watts), who is coming to terms with having to raise her only daughter as a son. At the same time, Maggie’s mother, Dolly (Sarandon), a quick-witted music manager who shares her brownstone with her lesbian partner, Frances, is having a hard time wrapping her head around Ray’s life-altering decision and Maggie’s inability to move out of the house in which she grew up.

Gaby Dellal (On a Clear Day) is directing the indie

Lion

Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman are attached to star in Lion, a new drama that The Weinstein Co.

The drama…follows a street kid from Calcutta (Patel) who is taken in and adopted by a couple in Australia. Garth Davis…is attached to helm Lion. Luke Davies…adapted the book for the screen.

A Bollywoof Tale

Kunal Nayyar, from hit show Big Bang Theory, is set to voice a street dog called Santoosh in the upcoming live-action family drama A Bollywoof Tale.

The film [is being helmed] by…director Frederik Du Chau…The script has been written by Stephen Leslie

A Bollywoof Tale tells the story of Basil, a pet spaniel who moves with his family from London to Delhi, only to find himself lost in Kolkata after his crate is misplaced. He must team up with Santoosh and a Holy cow named Uma to help reunite with his owners.

Hack Attack

Anthony McCarten is in talks to adapt the Nick Davies bestseller Hack Attack…George Clooney…plans to direct a film that looks at the seamy side of the craft.

The film focuses on the scandalous practice of how British tabloids routinely hacked into the phones of politicians, celebs, cops, hookers, royalty and terror attack victims to get scoops. The low point came when journos hacked the phone and deleted messages of missing 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who later was found murdered. The results were seismic: The 168-year-old tab News Of The World folded, and a government inquiry aired the unsavory business practices. It was a giant embarrassment to Rupert Murdoch as celebrities including Hugh Grant went public with how their privacy had been compromised for salacious tabloid stories.

A Prayer Before Dawn

Charlie Hunnam is attached to head-line in true-life Thai kick-boxing prison thriller “A Prayer Before Dawn” with Jean-Stephane Sauvaire…on board to direct.

Sauvaire has started casting former prisoners who were Muay Thai champions in Thailand…Hunnam is already in training for the Muay Thai sequences.

The screenplay is by Nick Saltrese, based on the book by Billy Moore.

Pic tells the true-life story of Billy Moore’s incarceration in one of Thailand’s most barbaric prisons — Klong Prem, the notorious Bangkok Hilton. In a system where life has no value, Moore discovers the deadly martial art of Muay Thai Boxing, and begins fighting for his freedom in the ring. It is the story of a man’s descent into hell and his journey back to redemption.

Special Correspondents

Eric Bana and Ricky Gervais are set to star in the remake of the French comedy “Special Correspondents.”

Besides starring in the pic, Gervais will also write, direct and produce the film.

The story will follow Bana’s character, a struggling New York-based radio journalist whose arrogance and decadent lifestyle has hindered his career. With his job on the line, he fakes front line war reports from the comfort of his hideout above a Spanish restaurant in the heart of Manhattan.

The Godmother

Jon Bernthal, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Oscar Jaenada and Mehdi Dehbi have joined Catherine Zeta-Jones in the cast of drug-lord drama “The Godmother.”

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Source: Holywoodreporter, Variety, Deadline