It was a quieter week in casting as the Cannes market cools down, but there are plenty of A-list projects to get excited about. Jeffrey Wright is back in an HBO drama, a pair of Avengers are teaming up once again, Glen Powell continues his hot streak, and Luca Guadagnino recruits Ayo Edebiri in some of the week’s most promising news.
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Jeffrey Wright joins The Last Of Us
Jeffrey Wright joins The Last Of Us
It’s only right (no pun intended) for Jeffrey Wright to join The Last Of Us in its second season: Wright originated the role of his video-game counterpart Isaac in The Last Us Part II. Isaac is “the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy,” per Variety. Wright will reprise the role alongside series stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as well as fellow second-season newcomers Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Young Mazino, Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, Spencer Lord, and Danny Ramirez, and Catherine O’Hara. [Mary Kate Carr]
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Nicola Coughlan is a movie star, alright
Nicola Coughlan is a movie star, alright
It’s Nicola Coughlan’s world and we are happy to be living in it. The Derry Girls actor, who also stars in Big Mood and Bridgerton on TV, has set her sights on the big screen again after Barbie. According to Deadline, Coughlan will lead a thriller called Love And War, which is based on the true experiences of Luise Monaghan. The film centers on Sarah O’Meara, who travels to Syria to rescue her kid, and together, they have to outrun her abusive ex. [Saloni Gajjar]
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Noomi Rapace leads a Mother Teresa biopic
Noomi Rapace leads a Mother Teresa biopic
Noomi Rapace is best known for sci-fi and action thrillers like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and more recently, Apple TV+’s Constellation. Well, her next film is a refreshing change; she’s set to portray Mother Teresa in a new film from director Strugar Mitevska. Mother takes place during seven crucial days of her life as she decides to depart Calcutta and launch her own order, per THR. [Saloni Gajjar]
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Glen Powell can’t stop, won’t stop making movies
Glen Powell can’t stop, won’t stop making movies
In 2024, Hollywood has decided Glen Powell must reign supreme, so every few weeks he launches a new project—a J.J. Abrams movie, Edgar Wright’s Running Man remake, a sports drama on Hulu, to name a few. The latest is a rehashing of Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait from Stephan Gaghan. According to THR, he’ll play an athlete who dies before his time and returns in the body of someone new. In the meantime, can Powell share his time management skills with us, please? [Saoni Gajjar]
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Holly Hunter joins the Star Trek family
Holly Hunter joins the Star Trek family
Paramount+’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has found its lead star: Holly Hunter. The actor, who recently starred in HBO’s Succession on the small screen, will serve as the Academy’s new captain and chancellor. She’ll preside over the new class and faculty as they learn to navigate a 32nd-century galaxy, per Variety. The series begins filming in the summer and is envisioned to be part of a massive Star Trek franchise expansion planned on the streamer. [Saloni Gajjar]
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It’s an Avengers reunion with Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth
It’s an Avengers reunion with Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth
Hulk and Thor together again? Well, yes, sort of. Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth are teaming up not for a Marvel movie but for an intriguing crime thriller, per Deadline. The film is based on Don Winslow’s short story, Crime 101, in which ongoing jewel heists are blamed on a Colombian cartel. However, one sharp detective believes a lone robber is behind the burglaries and thus begins a game of cat and mouse. Bart Layton will write and direct the movie. [Saloni Gajjar]
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Luca Guadagnino welcomes Ayo Edebiri to the family
Luca Guadagnino welcomes Ayo Edebiri to the family
It’s a hell of a time to be Ayo Edebiri, who won an Emmy for The Bear, kicked ass in Bottoms, and has several fun projects lined up. And now she’s joining Luca Guadagnino’s next film—a pretty coveted gig. She’ll star in the thriller After The Hunt alongside Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, per Deadline. The movie centers on a college professor who finds herself at a crossroads when her pupil makes a horrible accusation against one of her colleagues. Will it be steamy and jaw-dropping? Based on Guadagnino’s repertoire, the answer is probably a straight-up yes. [Saloni Gajjar]
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Aaron Eckhart, Devon Sawa lead Thieves Highway
Aaron Eckhart, Devon Sawa lead Thieves Highway
Director Jesse V. Johnson is adapting the crime thriller Thieves Highway with Aaron Eckhart and Chucky’s Devon Sawa set to star. According to a press release, it follows an Oklahoma detective who is in over his head while dealing with the, er, scary world of modern cattle rustling. It sounds like Yellowstone and Breaking Bad coming together for a 2-hour escapade. [Saloni Gajjar]
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Dexter: Original Sin casts Christian Slater, Patrick Gibson, and Molly Brown
Dexter: Original Sin casts Christian Slater, Patrick Gibson, and Molly Brown
Christian Slater will star as Dexter’s dad (originally played by James Remar) in the Dexter prequel Original Sin, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The spin-off has also found its Dexter and Deb in Patrick Gibson (Shadow & Bone) and Molly Brown (Senior Year). Dexter: Original Sin will be showrun by Clyde Philips, a former showrunner on the original series. You can read more about it here. [Mary Kate Carr]
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Christmas comedy Oh. What. Fun. adds Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria and more
Christmas comedy Oh. What. Fun. adds Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria and more
Still riding off the success of The Idea Of You, Michael Showalter has rounded up an impressive ensemble cast for his Christmas comedy Oh. What. Fun. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria, Joan Chen, Devery Jacobs, Havana Rose Liu and Maude Apatow have all joined the cast with a bonus cameo appearance from recent Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks. This is in addition to the already star-studded cast of Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa, and leading lady Michelle Pfeiffer. There’s no release date yet, but with these bonafides it’s shaping up to be one of the most anticipated holiday films in recent memory. [Mary Kate Carr]
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Avan Jogia and Dove Cameron to star in thriller series Obsession
Avan Jogia and Dove Cameron to star in thriller series Obsession
Avan Jogia (Choose Love) and Dove Cameron (Schmigadoon) are set to star in the new thriller series Obsession from Amazon MGM Studios and Atomic Monster, according to Deadline. Jogia and Cameron both came up on the tweenybopper scene; Jogia started on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and Cameron launched on the Disney Channel with Liv & Maddie. Based on Catherine Ryan Howard’s 2021 international bestseller 56 Days, “The story follows Oliver (Jogia) and Ciara (Cameron), who, after meeting randomly in a supermarket, fall for each other fast, and dangerously hard. 56 days later, homicide investigators arrive at Oliver’s apartment to find an unidentified body—brutally murdered and intentionally decomposed. Did he kill her? Did she kill him? Intercutting between an intense single day in the present investigation and the twisted trajectory of the young lovers’ affair in the past, the series is both a crime story and an erotic, psychological thriller.” [Mary Kate Carr]
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Bradley Whitford, Shea Whigham, Stephen McKinley Henderson board Death By Lightning
Bradley Whitford, Shea Whigham, Stephen McKinley Henderson board Death By Lightning
Death By Lightning, the story of the assassination of President James Garfield, has added a few more distinguished gentlemen to its cast. West Wing alum Bradley Whitford and Joker’s Shea Whigham have boarded as series regulars, while Stephen McKinley Henderson (Civil War), Paula Malcomson (Parish), and Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey) also join in recurring roles, per Deadline. The series is executive produced by Game Of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and stars Michael Shannon as Garfield and Matthew Macfadyen as his admirer-turned-murderer Charles Guiteau. Betty Gilpin and Nick Offerman also star. [Mary Kate Carr]