What is Casting Couch? It’s a column that has a lot of new casting news today, so settle in.
Even after only two movies, the number of aged action stars who have yet to appear in Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables series has dwindled down to a select few. So, given his age, his lengthy resume, and the way he’s linked almost exclusively to the action genre, Jackie Chan has to be seen as one of the biggest fish out there that Stallone has yet to catch. It looks like that’s going to change in The Expendables 3, however, as Chan has told Cinema Online [via Coming Soon] that Stallone has invited him to join the cast of the film, and he has agreed to appear as long as it’s in a featured part and not just a cameo. Looks like we might finally get our chance to see Dolph Lundgren get beat up with a ladder.
Amber Heard
Amber Heard has a long history of being cast in movies as the generically beautiful girl, but Variety is reporting that a McG movie, of all things, might end up being the project that finally offers her a meatier role. According to the trade, she’s joining the ridiculously named director’s next film, Three Days to Kill, where she’ll be playing the woman who offers Kevin Costner’s dying Secret Service agent access to an experimental drug that promises to prolong his life. In payment for this, Costner’s character will have to do some sort of last assignment, which makes it seem like Heard’s character will be a government agent or something. That’s a long way from girl who gets off of boat while wearing bathing suit.
Mireille Enos
Atom Egoyan’s next thriller, Queen of the Night, is going to be starring Ryan Reynolds as a father who finds a new set of clues regarding his daughter’s whereabouts eight years after her kidnapping. His character isn’t the only one who’s going to be looking for the missing girl though, because Deadline has a report that Mireille Enos (Gangster Squad) has just signed on to play his wife, who checks in with the police every year on her daughter’s birthday, and Scott Speedman (Felicity) will be playing a police officer who, presumably, hasn’t been doing a very good job of finding the girl. I mean, eight years? Come on!
Tim Roth
Speaking of kids getting kidnapped, The Jesuit, which is a revenge thriller shooting in Mexico that stars Jose Maria Yazpik as an ex-convict who takes matters into his own hands after his wife is killed and his son is kidnapped, has reportedly just added four new actors to its cast. According to THR, Brian Cox, Tim Roth, Tommy Flanagan, and Neal McDonough have all just joined the film in undisclosed roles. Seeing as they’re all smug-looking white guys, this is a revenge film, and it’s starring a Mexican actor and being shot in Mexico, let’s just assume that they’re the people who get revenge done to them. They join the already-cast Shannyn Sossamon and Paz Vega.
Jon Bernthal
Jon Bernthal, the actor best known for playing Shane on The Walking Dead, is the latest to join that Sylvester Stallone vs. Robert De Niro in an old guy boxing match movie, Grudge Match. According to Variety, he’ll be playing the role of the De Niro character’s son, who’s been estranged from his father for years and is conflicted about training him for his big comeback fight. So, basically, he’s playing the exact opposite of the role that Nick Nolte played in Warrior. He joins Kim Basinger, Kevin Hart, and Alan Arkin in an already impressive-looking supporting cast.
Samuel L. Jackson
In an interview with Movies.com, Samuel L. Jackson—in between shamelessly promoting himself as being available for any future Star Wars projects—revealed that he has just joined the cast of Kite, which is going to be a live-action remake of the two-part anime of the same name. The story is about an orphan girl turned contract killer who tries to hunt down her father’s killers alongside his former partner. The film will re-team Jackson with his Snakes on a Plane director, David R. Ellis, which is kind of an awful proposition. Sorry, anime fans.
Alicia Vikander
Swedish actress Alicia Vikander seems like she’s poised to blow up. Not only is she one of the lead candidates to star in Disney’s upcoming Cinderella film, but Variety reports that she’s the latest to join Bill Condon’s upcoming untitled project that’s going to star Benedict Cumberbatch as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Daniel Bruhl is also in the film as Daniel Domcheit-Berg, and Vikander is said to be playing a co-worker who becomes his eventual love interest. Ain’t that always how it is? These actors get to play real people with real names, and a promising young actress gets stuck just playing…somebody’s girlfriend.
Noomi Rapace
Tom Hardy has been rumored to star in Gone Baby Gone writer Dennis Lehane’s latest script, Animal Rescue, for quite a while, and now Deadline has some new news regarding those rumors. Not only has Hardy’s status on the film been upgraded from “in talks” to “in final negotiations,” but now The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo actress Noomi Rapace is apparently in talks to join him as the female lead of the film. Hardy will be starring as a criminal looking to get out of the life, but who gets sucked back in due to some business regarding a botched heist and a lost pit bull, which would mean that Rapace should likely be negotiating for the role of…I dunno, his girlfriend?