Film Casting: WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS, Bill Murray in THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book, We Are Your Friends, 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.

The Jungle Book

Bill Murray will supply the voice of Baloo in [Disney’s] live-action/VFX take on Rudyard Kipling’s classic. Murray joins a powerhouse voice cast that includes Ben Kingsley as worrywart panther Bagheera, Christopher Walken as fire-envious orangutan King Louie, Scarlett Johansson as kaleidoscope-eyed snake Kaa, Luipta Nyong’o as wolf mother Raksha and Idris Elba as villainous, man-hating tiger Shere Khan. Newcomer Neel Sethi is mancub Mowgli in the film from director Jon Favreau

Clavius

Joseph Fiennes will star and Tom Felton will co-star in Kevin Reynolds’ early first-century epic thriller Clavius…Clavius is told through the eyes of an agnostic Roman Centurion (Fiennes) charged by Pontius Pilate to investigate rumors of a risen Messiah and locate the missing body of Jesus of Nazareth in order to subdue an uprising in Jerusalem. Along the Centurion’s high-stakes mission, his doubts of such a supernatural occurrence are challenged as he encounters the Apostles and other historical characters while piecing together the mysterious events that unfolded after the crucifixion.

We Are Your Friends

Emily Ratajkowski…will star alongside Zac Efron in We Are Your Friends, a film that will be directed by Max Joseph, co-star of MTV’s Catfish series. Joseph makes his directing debut on a script he wrote with Meaghan Oppenheimer from a story by Richard Silverman.

It’s set in the worlds of electronic music and the Hollywood nightlife, where an aspiring 23-year-old DJ named Cole (probably Efron) spends his days scheming with his childhood friends and his nights working on the one track that will set the world on fire. All of this changes when he meets a charismatic but damaged older DJ named James who takes him under his wing. Things get complicated, however, when Cole starts falling for James’ much younger girlfriend, Sophie (probably by Ratajkowski). With Cole’s forbidden relationship intensifying and his friendships unraveling, he must choose between love, loyalty, and the future he knows he’s destined for.

Russ and Roger Go Beyond

Will Ferrell is in talks to play porn producer Russ Meyer in independent movie project “Russ and Roger Go Beyond.”

The film centers on the collaboration between Meyer and Roger Ebert on the 1970 film  “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,” which Meyer directed from a script he co-wrote with Ebert.

The script is written by Christopher Clues…It explores the relationship between Meyer and Ebert, who was starting out as a Chicago Sun-Times film critic when he agreed to write the script.

The Preppie Connection

Joe Castelo‘s ’80s private school drug ring film The Preppie Connection has accepted actor Logan Huffman into its click.  Huffman will play Ellis Tynes, one of the wealthiest men at the school who is dating popular girl Alexis Hayes (Lucy Fry)…At first Ellis looks at Toby Hammel (Thomas Mann) with disdain, but soon takes to him after learning that the lower class scholar is a drug dealer. After learning that Alexis is falling for Toby, Ellis sets out to sabotage a big drug deal that is going down.

Wrong Side Of Right

Nico Evers-Swindell will be playing the part of Will Holloway in filmmaker Alex Ranarivelo’s indie feature Wrong Side Of Right which tells the story of a woman who goes undercover to expose an inhumane dog breeder.

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Source: Variety, Deadline