Image Credit: Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic
Reese Witherspoon is reteaming with James Mangold, who directed her to a Best Actress Oscar with 2005′s Walk the Line. The actress will star in Mangold’s Three Little Words, an adaptation of Ashley Rhodes-Courter’s memoir which has been in the works since 2009.
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• Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) is reportedly in talks to join Christopher Nolan’s (The Dark Knight Rises) time-travel epic, Interstellar. She’d be joining a cast that currently includes Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey. Since she’s started getting more significant roles, Chastain has never really ventured into pure science fiction territory (we’re not counting Take Shelter). She famously dropped out of Oblivion when offered the Zero Dark Thirty role, so we’re excited for her to take on a new kind of film. The two-time Oscar nominee (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty) is currently filming Liv Ullmann’s adaptation of Miss Julie and will soon start work on Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak. [Deadline]
• Ethan Hawke (Before Sunset) has signed on to join Neil LaBute’s (Possession) thriller The Geography of Hope. The film will tell the story of two crooks (Hawke and Ed Harris) in the 1970s who are hiding out in Baja after messing up a job. They find two women to keep them interested while they’re in hiding, but eventually things get complicated. Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel) and Emmanuelle Devos (Coco Before Chanel) star as the women. [Screen Daily]
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• Kiefer Sutherland is in final talks to play the villain in Paul W.S. Anderson‘s (Resident Evil) take on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Consider him the Billy Zane of Pompeii, the history-based disaster romance movie that somehow didn’t get made when Titanic and Pearl Harbor were reeling in the big bucks at the box office. Sutherland joins Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Emily Browning (Sucker Punch), and Jared Harris (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) in the film that began production in Toronto last week. [THR]
• Christina Applegate isn’t finding any shortage of work after her sudden departure from NBC’s Up All Night. The comedienne is in final negotiations to star in Vacation, a reboot of the franchise that began with 1983′s National Lampoon’s Vacation. Also set to appear in the film is Ed Helms, who will play Rusty, Anthony Michael Hall‘s role in the original. [THR] READ FULL STORY »
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EW has confirmed that previous Best Actress Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, and Sandra Bullock will present at this year’s Academy Awards. Witherspoon won in 2005 for Walk the Line, Kidman won for The Hours in 2002, Berry won for Monster’s Ball in 2001, and Bullock won for The Blind Side in 2009.
The Academy Awards will air on ABC Sunday, February 24.
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Image Credit: Phil Bray
• Joaquin Phoenix is currently in talks to join Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, a classic Los Angeles noir set around the time of the Manson family arrest and trial. Robert Downey, Jr.’s name had been floating around the project for a little while, but we’ll be thrilled if Inherent Vice brings The Master duo together again. [Variety]
• Reese Witherspoon is in talks to star in a film about the Lost Boys of Sudan – the name given to the over 20,000 boys who were displaced after the devastating Second Sudanese Civil War. Reportedly titled The Good Lie, Margaret Nagle (Boardwalk Empire) wrote the screenplay, and Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) is set to direct. Witherspoon has not had a theatrical release since This Means War, but she can be seen in Jeff Nichols’ (Take Shelter) Mud, opening in theaters on April 26. [The Wrap]
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David Fincher, the man behind creepy procedurals Zodiac and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, might be turning his camera toward Gillian Flynn‘s blockbuster 2012 novel Gone Girl. According to Variety, the director is in early talks to tackle the project, which is being produced by Reese Witherspoon (no word yet on whether she’ll also appear in the film). Flynn’s dark mystery — about a husband dealing with his wife’s sudden disappearance — was one of 2012′s biggest (and best) novels. The author, a former Entertainment Weekly TV critic, is writing the screenplay. If Fincher does end up signing on the timing of the project is unclear, since the director is already reportedly attached to a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie and might still take on Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire.
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Matthew McConaughey is going from dirty dancing in Magic Mike to Mud.
In the drama, which was met with acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival last May, McConaughey stars as Mud, a loner with a past whom two kids stumble upon in an island near Mississippi. Nothing is exactly as it seems with Mud, who is trying to get back with the love of his life (Reese Witherspoon), and also on the run from the law. The movie, full of southern intrigue, is directed by Jeff Nichols and co-stars Sam Shepard, Michael Shannon, and Tye Sheridan.
Watch the trailer below: READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Jose Haro; inset: Ian Gavan/Getty Images
With Academy Awards voting underway, EW’s Prize Fighter is kicking off the “Consider This” series, asking folks with Oscar histories of their own to share their personal favorites of the year. Reese Witherspoon, who won the best actress award in 2006 for Walk the Line, shared with us a letter she wrote to Naomi Watts about her role in The Impossible, playing Maria Belon, a mother of three fighting for her family’s survival in the 2004 tsunami:
Hi Naomi,
I know we don’t know each other well. I hope it’s ok that I am reaching out to you, because I simply could not contain my enthusiasm about your performance in The Impossible.
Wow. Just wow. I was blown away by the film. The story of survival and the incredible images of the tsunami and the performances of the entire cast were astounding. By far, one of the best films I have ever seen in my life.
I could not speak for 24 hours after seeing the film. It was more than a movie. It was a mediation on life and family and humanity. It was fortifying.
But the life-breath of the film is you. READ FULL STORY »
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• Reese Witherspoon is on board to produce and star in The Beard, a romantic comedy about a woman who serves as a fake date for a gay man to help him pass as straight. Incredibly, the project marks Witherspoon’s first (pardon the pun) straight-up romantic comedy since 2005′s Just Like Heaven (last spring’s action comedy This Means War doesn’t count). Becca Greene (a writer on MTV’s 2011 animated series Good Vibes) penned the script. [THR]
• Julianne Hough (Rock of Ages) is attached to Time and a Half, a romantic dramedy penned by Diablo Cody about a young twentysomething in a dead-end job who comes across an old one night stand who also happens to be her sister’s high school ex-boyfriend. Hough just recently starred in Cody’s untitled directorial debut. Ol Parker (Imagine Me & You) is directing. [Variety]
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers has joined The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, an adaptation of the first book in Cassandra Clare YA fantasy series about a young woman (Lily Collins) who learns she’s from a line of warriors called Shadowhunters, who keep the world safe from demons. Rhys Meyers will play the main villain, the ominously named Valentine Morgenstern. Lena Headey, Jared Harris, and Kevin Zegers (Transamerica) costar. Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid) is directing. [THR]
• Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) has signed up for Plush, an indie thriller about a rock singer (Sucker Punch‘s Emily Browning) with psychic abilities, and the similarly gifted psychologist (Twilight‘s Cam Gigandet) who tries to help her. Samuel will play a mentally unhinged guitarist who joins the band. Director Catherine Hardwicke (yep, another Twilight alum!) also penned the script with Arty Nelson. [Variety]
• Michael Kenneth Williams (HBO’s Boardwalk Empire) is in talks for the upcoming Robocop remake, as the old partner of the Detroit cop (Joel Kinnaman) who gets transformed into the titular crime-fighting cyborg after a near-fatal accident. Jose Padilha (Elite Squad) is directing. [THR]
Read more:
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• Colin Firth and Cate Blanchett are attached to Skinny and Cat, which would be Barbra Streisand‘s first film as a director since 1996′s The Mirror Has Two Faces. Scripted by producer Linda Yellen, the film would trace the real-life romance between writer Erskine Caldwell (Firth) and photojournalist Margaret Bourke White (Blanchett). EW had confirmed the film is in active development, but financing has yet to be fully secured, and the film does not yet have a greenlight. [L.A. Times/Showbiz 411]
• Type casting alert. Charlie Sheen will play the President of the United States in director Robert Rodriguez‘s exploitation thriller sequel, Machete Kills, Rodriguez announced Thursday on Twitter. The film will follow ex-Mexican Federale Machete (Danny Trejo) as he takes on a drug cartel for the U.S. government. Mel Gibson, Jessica Alba, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, and Zoe Saldana costar. [@Rodriguez]
• Reese Witherspoon is an alien! Specifically, a Venusian. The actress is attached to a feature adaptation of Dr. John Gray’s mega-bestseller Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Commercial director Bryan Buckley will make his feature directing debut with the film, which was adapted by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (Leap Year, Made of Honor). [Deadline]
• Maya Rudolph, Rob Corddry, and Amanda Peet have joined The Way, Way Back, the coming-of-age dramedy penned by recent Oscar winners Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (The Descendants). The pair will also make their directorial debut with the project, as well as star in two small supporting roles. The cast also includes Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, and Liam James (AMC’s The Killing), in the lead role of a teenager who spends a summer at a local water park. [Deadline]
• Max Minghella (The Social Network) is in preliminary talks to star opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in director Shawn Levy‘s comedy The Internship. Minghella would play an ambitious intern who squares off against Vaughn and Wilson, playing has-been salesmen who try to reboot their careers by taking internships at a technology company. [Variety]
• Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), Michael Gladis (AMC’s Mad Men) and Matt Letscher (ABC’s Scandal) have all signed onto the West Memphis Three film Devil’s Knot. Greenwood will play the presiding judge in the case that controversially sent three Arkansas teenagers to jail for the murder of three young boys; Gladis and Letscher would play defense attorneys in the case. Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) is directing. [THR, Deadline]
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