What is Casting Couch? It’s your Monday look at all of the great work casting agents and PR people did over the weekend to keep those Hollywood gears turning.
It seems like Sylvester Stallone is fully committed to his experiment of figuring out how many big name celebrities have to be packed into an Expendables movie before one of them actually becomes interesting. The latest news regarding his quest (found on Stallone’s Facebook page by JoBlo) is that Nicolas Cage has been confirmed for a role in The Expendables 3, and that Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, and Mickey Rourke are the names he intends on recruiting next. You keep on trucking there, Mr. Stallone. With the addition of just five or ten more celebrities, The Expendables 3 is bound to be the one that finally gets out of first gear and actually becomes a decent action movie. We have faith!
John Cusack
John Cusack has been at the center of a rash of recent casting announcements, but none as bizarre as the latest. Vulture is reporting that the veteran actor is producing a biopic of conservative/insane radio host Rush Limbaugh, and in addition to playing a part in putting the film together, he’s also viewing it as a starring vehicle for himself; which is nuts, you know, because Limbaugh is a balding, corpulent, pigman and Cusack kind of isn’t. This could be the sort of role that requires Eddie Murphy-level fat suits, makeup, and outlandish acting in order to properly pull off.
Jeff Goldblum
Jeff Goldblum is a total freak who has more quirks in one of his weird fingernails than most people do in their entire body. That’s why he was such a good fit for a Wes Anderson movie back when he played the snooty bad guy in The Life Aquatic, and that’s why he’ll undoubtedly be equally awesome now that he’s been confirmed as the latest member of the huge cast assembled for Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. There’s not yet any word on whether Anderson will once again have him casually abusing animals for the sake of comedy, but one can certainly hope. [KPCC via The Playlist]
Jude Law
What’s a movie star as big as Jude Law to do in order to keep his career interesting, now that he’s pretty much been everywhere and done everything? How about take a job working for Werner Herzog? That should do it! According to THR, Law is the latest name to join Herzog’s desert epic/biopic of Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert. Which means he’s also the latest name to join Naomi Watts and Robert Pattinson in the crazy risk of allowing Herzog to drag them out to the middle of nowhere Morocco and probably get them killed. Law will probably need some advice in how to get through this one with his health in tact. If only Klaus Kinski was still around, he might be able to give the guy some pointers.
Jason Bateman
Arrested Development star Jason Bateman is all set to try his hand at directing a movie, and The Wrap has the scoop of who he recruited to comprise his first cast. His film is called Bad Words, and in addition to Bateman himself taking the starring role of a 41-year-old dropout who finds a loophole that allows him to enter a spelling bee meant for eighth graders, he’s landed solid supporting names like Allison Janney and Philip Baker Hall to play the various adults who get disgusted by his ridiculous antics, as well as young actor Rohand Chand, who will play a socially awkward spelling bee contestant who his character befriends. Bridesmaids actor Ben Falcone and Parks and Rec semi-regular Kathryn Hahn are also said to have joined the cast in roles that have yet to be disclosed.
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart doesn’t usually go very long without making headlines, which can get pretty annoying. But the latest story making the rounds that has her name attached to it is actually a concrete bit of casting news, and not some piece of garbage about her personal life or how she feels about her body. According to THR, she’s currently in negotiations to co-star with Ben Affleck in Focus, a movie about con artists that was written and will be directed by the dudes who made Crazy, Stupid, Love. Stewart can next be seen in the final installment of that Twilight thing and Walter Salles’ On the Road.