We begin with the return of Kathryn Bigelow, who’ll direct Tom Hardy in a film based on Anand Giridharadas‘s book, The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas. Publisher W.W. Norton, releasing the book just ten days ago, describes it as “the story of Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a Bangladesh Air Force officer who dreams of immigrating to America and working in technology. But days after 9/11, an avowed ‘American terrorist’ named Mark Stroman, seeking revenge, walks into the Dallas minimart where Bhuiyan has found temporary work and shoots him, maiming and nearly killing him. Two other victims, at other gas stations, aren’t so lucky, dying at once.” Variety‘s Justin Kroll reports on the project.
Tilda Swinton is “attached to star in The Infinity Engine, her fourth collaboration with director Lynn Hershman Leeson,” reports /bent. “Swinton will play a cat in the film. But not just any cat. She’ll play a rebel talking cat that glows because she has genetic code from a jellyfish.”
With Clouds of Sils Maria set to premiere in Competition in Cannes, we know nothing about the project Olivier Assayas will turn to next—except that Robert Pattison will be in it. Says the Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth.
From Nick Vivarelli: “Matteo Garrone (Gomorra) has added Toby Jones, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Stacey Martin (Nymphomaniac) and Bebe Cave (Great Expectations) to previously announced key cast Salma Hayek and Vincent Cassel of his English-language fantasy/horror The Tale of Tales.” Shooting started yesterday.
Also in Variety, Elsa Keslassy reports that Emmanuelle Bercot will direct Catherine Deneuve in Standing Tall and that Baltasar Kormakur might direct Michael Douglas, playing Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, based on the 1986 summit.
And Vincent Perez’s Alone in Berlin, an adaptation of Hans Fallada’s novel, has its first round of cast members, reports Leo Barraclough: Emma Thompson, Daniel Brühl and Mark Rylance.
“After a long, slow haul, the film rights to Glenn Greenwald’s book about Edward J. Snowden and his revelations about electronic surveillance by United States security officials have found a home, at Sony Pictures Entertainment.” For the New York Times, Michael Cieply reports that Sony’s acquired rights to No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the U. S. Surveillance State for the producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, “known for their work on James Bond films like Skyfall and Quantum of Solace.”
“Jeremy Irons and Sienna Miller have joined Tom Hiddleston on Jeremy Thomas’s anticipated JG Ballard adaptation High-Rise from Sightseers and Kill List director Ben Wheatley.” Andreas Wiseman reports. Also: “Michael Shannon has newly joined Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in Freeheld, about a gay police-woman’s struggle to ensure that her police pension is passed to her partner after she is diagnosed with a terminal illness.” Further down that same page, we see that writer-director Tony McNamara’s Ashby now has Mickey Rourke, Nat Wolff, Emma Roberts and Sarah Silverman on board. This’ll be about “the relationship between a high school student (Wolff) and a retired CIA assassin (Rourke) who only has months to live.”
And also in Screen Daily: “Indonesian action star Yayan Ruhian (The Raid, The Raid 2) has been cast opposite Hayato Ichihara in Takashi Miike’s return to hardcore genre filmmaking,” reports Liz Shackleton. “Billed as the world’s first yakuza vampire movie, Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld is currently in production for a 2015 theatrical release in Japan.”
“Ridley Scott is in negotiations to direct Matt Damon in The Martian, an outer space adventure project,” according to the Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit. Also, Michael Fassbender is in talks to star in The Light Between Oceans, an adaptation of the M.L. Stedman novel to be directed by Derek Cianfrance.
Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr. reports that Nicolas Winding Refn is “in early talks” to direct The Bringing, a horror film about a man investigating a death at a hotel.
As if there could possibly be anything we either don’t already know or would simply rather not know about James Franco, a documentary following him around for a year is about to wrap. Ben Beaumont-Thomas for the Guardian: “From first-time director Lisa Vangellow, Franco: A Documentary will follow both Franco’s professional and personal life, and will apparently feature Franco’s actor friend Seth Rogen as well as the director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Klaus Biesenbach.”
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