What is Casting Couch? It’s a roundup of all the day’s most important casting news. Today we have a bunch of legit reports, and one of those dreaded short-lists. It’s a short-list concerning that much talked about Natalie Portman movie, Jane Got a Gun though, so it’s kind of a pressing matter.
It looks like Captain America may be trading in his sidekick Bucky in order to team up with The Sundance Kid. Deadline is reporting that Robert Redford, the patron saint of independent cinema, is making a surprise move and negotiating to join the cast of Marvel’s very commercial superhero sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. If he officially signs, he’ll reportedly be playing a high-ranking member of SHIELD, that government agency run by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in all of the Marvel movies. I wonder if he gets his own flying aircraft carrier? If he does, that could be the thing that seals the deal.
Gary Oldman
Another respected, veteran screen presence who’s no stranger to doing the occasional superhero flick is Gary Oldman, and Heat Vision has a report that he’s currently in the process of joining his The Dark Knight Rises co-star, Tom Hardy, in the cast of Daniel Espinosa’s Soviet-era thriller Child 44. Oldman will be playing the head of the Soviet military police who suspect one of their agents (Hardy) of being responsible for some improprieties. Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman are also on board, so this is a project whose talent runs pretty deep. Better mark it on your to-watch list now, if you haven’t already.
Alan Ritchson
Are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles considered superheroes? Or are they just mutants, or ninjas? Either way, we’ve got news about another movie wherein good guys will fight bad guys. Deadline is reporting that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’s Alan Ritchson is about to trade the daggers he wields in that movie for the twin sai of Raphael in Platinum Dunes’ upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He joins a cast that already includes Megan Fox, but where she’s likely to be outfit with a low-cut yellow jumpsuit for the film, Ritchson will be covered in motion capture sensors so that he can be digitally transformed into a gigantic turtle. God, he loves being a turtle.
Rebecca Ferguson
Just yesterday, after the casting of Rufus Sewell, we promised that there would soon be more casting news regarding Brett Ratner’s Hercules coming down the pipeline, and already today we have a whole heap of it. The big news is that Ian McShane will be joining Hercules’ crew of mercenaries as Amphiarus, the elder statesman and prophet who serves as something of a mentor to Dwayne Johnson’s big, muscled goon. But also hidden in that report from THR is the news that Joseph Fiennes, John Hurt, and Rebecca Ferguson have joined the film in various roles as well. It looks like this one is coming together pretty quickly. But that’s not surprising, because we’ve always heard that timeliness is one of Ratner’s best qualities, haven’t we?
Dave Franco
And now for something completely different. Deadline has some casting news regarding Nicholas Stoller’s upcoming comedy, Townies. The film features Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne playing a young married couple who move in next door to a rowdy frat house full of rowdy frat dudes and chafe against them because their idea of a fun night probably involves a bottle of wine and a board game instead of chugging ice-brewed beer with your butt, or whatever. We already knew that Zac Efron was on board as the leader of the frat, but now it appears that Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse are going to be joining in on the fun as well. These guys are used to playing off of each other already, because of the Funny or Die videos they do together, so they should prove to be a strong addition to an already funny-looking film.
Chris O’Dowd
Speaking of funny-looking movies that have casts that are starting to look strong and deep, Deadline also has some news about St. Vincent De Van Nuys, that movie where Melissa McCarthy plays a desperate single mother who lets her 12-year-old son be watched by an old man being played by Bill Murray, even though he’s a dastardly curmudgeon who lies, cheats, and steals his way though life. Apparently Bridesmaids and The Sapphires star Chris O’Dowd is joining the film in the role of a young priest who’s shocked to see that McCarthy’s character would entrust her son into the hands of such a terrible man. Murray, McCarthy, and O’Dowd are probably three of the funniest and most charming people on the planet, so you’ve got to have high hopes for this one.
Jeff Bridges
Finally, that short-list that was promised. Much has been recently written about Jane Got a Gun, how it kept flip-flopping actors, had to change its director at the last minute, and how the change of directors led it to losing Jude Law as its villain. Well, now that Gavin O’Connor has stepped in to take over directing duties, somebody new is going to have to be found to join Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton in the principal cast, and The LA Times is reporting that the first names being looked at are Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and Jeff Bridges. As you can probably tell at first glance, there don’t seem to be very many similarities between these three actors, so it looks like the situation over there is becoming kind of desperate. Hopefully we’ll have news of who’s joining up soon, so this one can finally get put in front of cameras.