What is Casting Couch? It’s not so much a couch as it is a list, a list of recent castings. And it seems to be talking a lot about World War II today.
George Clooney and Matt Damon must have decided that they both look super handsome when they’re standing next to each other, because not only have they already worked together on the Oceans movies and Syriana, but now Deadline is reporting that Clooney has decided that he’s going to cast Damon in his next project as a director, The Monuments Men. This is that one about the museum curators who try to save as many artifacts and works of art as possible during the Nazis’ slash and burn campaign that took place during the dying days of World War II. If Damon’s negotiations go well and he signs up, he’ll be joining a cast that already includes Clooney himself, Daniel Craig, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville, and Bob Balaban—which is enough big name actors that they should probably just cash in and rename this thing Oceans Monuments Men.
David Harewood
Up until last year, if you wanted to bring up David Harewood’s name, the best you could do was explain that he was in Blood Diamond, and people would still probably be like, “Who?” But now that he’s been featured on Showtime’s ridiculously popular show Homeland, he’s kind of become a name. That’s why it’s news that he’s been cast in a biopic called Robeson, about the life of Paul Robeson, who was an entertainer from the ’20s through the ’50s that eventually became a victim of Joe McCarthy’s witch hunt. Due to McCarthy’s efforts to round up all the Pinkos, Robeson had his passport revoked for eight years, despite being one of the entertainers who went over to perform for the troops in World War II. Harewood’s casting isn’t the only news surrounding this biopic either, because it turns out that Louis Gossett Jr. is also already attached. He was in Iron Eagle! [Variety]
Anne Hathaway
Are there any plans to make any more superhero movies set in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight universe? Not to the public’s knowledge, but that doesn’t appear to have stopped Anne Hathaway from using her current press exposure due to the release of Les Misérables to continually campaign for a Catwoman spinoff. Twice already she’s cried while recounting how much she loved playing Selena Kyle, and repeatedly she’s added quotes to her tears like this one she gave Access Hollywood: “ …aassuming there was enough Kleenex in the world, I would love to do a spin-off.” Would Nolan himself come back to direct? Probably not. But when you’ve got a star as big as Hathaway publicly campaigning to revisit a role from a franchise this large, you have to think there’s a Warner Bros. executive somewhere scratching his chin in contemplation. This might be a situation worth keeping an eye on.
Ben Whishaw
Just because Ben Whishaw has taken on the iconic role of gadget-master Q in the current incarnation of the James Bond franchise doesn’t mean he isn’t going to still have time to do smaller pictures. Case in point, THR is reporting that he’s just signed on to a micro-budget feature from writer/director Hong Khaou called Lilting. The film is apparently about a Chinese mother (Cheng Pei Pei) who gets left alone in England with her son’s lover (Whishaw) after his untimely demise. The mother only knows the lover as a roommate, both are in serious grief, and one can imagine that things get rather complicated from there. Peter Bowles, Morven Christie, and Andrew Leung are also set to appear in this one, which is the eighth film to come from Film London’s Microwave system that only makes features with budgets of up to £120,000.
Jason Clarke
Oscar Isaac has recently been in stuff like Drive, Sucker Punch, and The Bourne Legacy, and soon he’ll be appearing in the new Coen brothers movie Inside Llewyn Davis. Jason Clarke just rubbed elbows with some big stars in Lawless, and has roles coming up in things like Zero Dark Thirty and The Great Gatsby. To say that these two guys are up-and-comers in the acting world might be something of an understatement, and now they’re being teamed up in a project that could be the thing that takes them both to the next level. According to a press release, they’ve just signed to star in The Departed scribe William Monahan’s next film as a director, Mojave. Not much is yet known about the plot of this film, but it’s said that it’s going to be about a criminal’s escape from the law via the desert. Is it too much of a leap to conclude that one of these guys is going to be the criminal and the other the guy who’s chasing him? What do you think, who looks more evil?