There has been much speculation (and some false reports, alas) of who the director for the next Bond movie will be, but it appears that Skyfall's Sam Mendes may still be in the running, after all. Mendes wanted to do Bond 24, but had prior theater commitments that had seemed to be too much of a conflict.
Katharine McPhee (star of the recently-cancelled Smash) is joining the cast of Depravity, a thriller with a script by Dennis Lehane, and Paul Tamasy on board to direct. The plot follows a group of roommates who accidentally kill an innocent man they thought was a thrill killer.
Michael C. Hall (who played the serial killer in Dexter) landed the lead role in Cold In July, the adaptation of Joe Lansdale's cult novel. He plays Richard Dane, who shoots and kills an armed burglar in his living room, a move that seems like self defense to everyone but the burglar's father, who vows an eye-for-an-eye justice.
Glenn Close has signed on to play a major role in Guardians Of The Galaxy, potentially as the top cop who heads up Nova Corp, the intergalactic space patrol. In other casting news for the film, Doctor Who's Karen Gillan has been signed to play the lead female villain.
A mere week after it was announced that Tom Cruise was exiting the Man From Uncle film adaptation, it appears that Henry Cavill is the leading candidate to replace him in the role of spy Napoleon Solo.
If you're in San Francisco in mid-June, check out San Francisco's Silent Film Festival, which is airing the first nine films by Alfred Hitchcock with musical accompaniment. The films were recently restored by the British Film Institute and include the film the director considered "the first true Hitchcock picture," The Lodger.
Also in June, the Turner Classic Movies television network is airing Friday Night Noir, with Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation hosting the 16 films scheduled during the month.
Josh Brolin is one of the latest stars to sign on to the cast of Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson's film adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon detective novel. The other is Katherine Waterson, who will play one of the female leads, a "free-spirited hippie chick." Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Martin Short, and Jena Malone are already on board, with Sean Penn also reportedly in talks.
Drafthouse Films has picked up North American rights to the film Borgman, the first Dutch film in the Cannes Film Festival's competition lineup in almost 40 years. The thriller is described as "an allegorical tale exploring the nature of evil in unexpected places. A vagrant enters the lives of an upper-class family, igniting a descent from darkly comic dream to maddening psychological nightmare."
Warner Brothers released a trailer for Prisoners, about two neighborhood girls who go missing.The cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal as a police detective and Hugh Jackman as the father of one of the girls who kidnaps the main suspect (Paul Dano) with the goal of making him reveal where the girls are.
TV
Welsh actor Matthew Rhys is taking on the role of Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy in a new BBC adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley, a sequel novel by crime writer PD James.
BBC Two's new crime drama The Fall, starring former X-Files star Gillian Anderson as an FBI agent after a serial killer, premiered earlier this month and has done so well, the network quickly renewed it for a second season. (Hat tip to Omnimystery News.)
Tracy Letts is being promoted to a regular cast spot on Homeland. The Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning actor/playwright plays the role of Senator Andrew Lockhart, the powerful Committee Chairman.
NBC announced that the serial-killer drama Hannibal is getting a second season on the network.The series is based on characters from Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon and the working relationship between FBI special investigator Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen)
British actress Ashley Davenport is leaving ABC's Revenge due to her option not being picked up. She joins fellow regular Connor Paolo, who also won't be returning for the third season.
Skipp Sudduth (The Good Wife) has joined the cast of the Cinemax pilot Quarry, about a Marine marksman who joins a network of contract killers after returning home from Vietnam and being shunned by the public. Sudduth will play the father of Logan Marshall Green's leading man.
THEATER
Via Martin Edwards comes a review of the Agatha Christie-penned play, Go Back For Murder, which began a run at the Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent last week. The production is from the Agatha Christie Theatre Company and continues through June 1st at the theatre before taking the show on the road.
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