A List Contender for 'Mockingjay'

EXCLUSIVE: As The Hunger Games moves into the final two movies culled from the Suzanne Collins novel Mockingjay, I’ve heard that Lionsgate and director Francis Lawrence are eyeing Julianne Moore to play the role of President Alma Coin. She is the manipulative politician who figures brightly in the finale as Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) becomes a symbol of rebellion against the autocratic Capitol government. 

This is likely to happen quickly, and Moore would star in both of the final films, which brings back Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth and the returning cast along with Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will be making his first appearance in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which the studio is planning to bring to San Diego Comic-Con in July. Color Force’s Nina Jacobson is producing the series.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

 

Casting Addition for a Brit Romantic Comedy

                  

For the most part, Simon Pegg has traversed the comfortable milieu of genre films. Making his mark with Edgar Wright and Nick Frost on their Cornetto films, he's dipped into the blockbuster world with the "Star Trek," "Tintin" and "Mission: Impossible" franchises, while doing one off stuff like "Fantastic Fear Or Everything" or "Burke And Hare" that are still very much in his wheelhouse. However, he has taken strides before into more mainstream, less fantastical fare with stuff like "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" and "Run Fatboy Run," but yeah, they weren't that successful. But he'll give it another go.

In the pages of the most recent issue of Empire, it's revealed in a profile of Pegg that he's attached to star in "Man Up." Penned by Tess Morris, the script made the 2011 Brit List, there are few details on it except that it's a romantic comedy, but we're guessing there won't be any zombies or magic or spaceships in this. And while we'll have to wait on a logline, Pegg is in good hands, as Morris has made a name for herself penning the feature "Beer Goggles," directed by David Mackenzie ("Young Adam," "Perfect Sense") and working on TV, including shows "My Family" and "Charlie Ferrari."

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Cameron Diaz to Portray Miss Hannigan in 'Annie' Film

Cameron Diaz is going to be the sexiest Miss Hannigan ever. Yes, after Sandra Bullock passed, Nikki Finke of Deadline reports that Diaz is taking over the key villain role in the Jay-Z and Will Smith produced adaptation of the 1977 musical Annie. So this movie is shaping up to have a starry, kind of bizarre cast. 

Diaz is certainly an interesting choice for a role that has been played by the likes of Dorothy Loudon, Carol Burnett, Kathy Bates, and, currently on Broadway, Jane Lynch. Productions have oscillated between casting Miss Hannigan as a washed-up sexpot and, well, a Kathy Bates type. In her big number Little Girls, Hannigan sings: "I'm an ordinary woman / With feelings / I'd like a man to nibble on my ear / But I'll admit no man has bit / So how come I'm the mother of the year?"  Diaz does sexpot well, just in a way that's perhaps more overt than any Miss Hannigan before her. But there may be something to the casting, which Finke called an "inspired choice"—the role is perhaps an ancestor of her Bad Teacher character.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

X-Men's Casting Revolution

 

More casting news has surfaced for “X Men: Days of Future Past” as newcomer Josh Helman has joined for an undisclosed role in the high profile sequel.

Helmer joins “X-Men” veterans Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and Ian McKellen as well as “X-Men:First Class” stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence for the time-traveling sequel.

Helmer is the latest addition to an expanded cast for sequel to “First Class” that already includes Peter Dinklage, Daniel Cudmore, Fan Bingbing, Evan Peters and Boo Boo Stewart.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Doc Film Sheds Some Light on Casting Directors

Here’s an interesting fact revealed in Tom Donahue’s documentary “Casting By”: casting directors are the only opening single card credit that does not receive its own Academy Award nomination. It’s an interesting fact, but also sort of a depressing one, as this film reveals not just how integral casting directors are to the creative process of filmmaking, but really how important they have been in shaping the history of American cinema. This film seeks to highlight the publicly under-appreciated casting directors and to pay tribute to the one woman who evolved the position of the casting director, its role in the filmmaking process, and in doing so, had a dramatic effect on some of the most important and influential films of the 20^th century. 

Marion Dougherty had dreams of being an actress in college before she moved to New York and found work assisting a friend casting the televised theater show “Kraft,” in the early days of television, in the late 1940s. Marion had an eye not just for talent but for a person’s energy, sitting down and talking with them and keeping detailed notes about them on 3x5 cards, and going to bat for those actors she really believed in (a fellow by the name of James Dean).  

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Casting to Become Active at Smithsville

                         

Vicky Boone Casting is conducting a state-wide search for young African American males, age 6-8, with great imaginations and natural wit for a lead role in “Sweet Cheeks,” an upcoming feature film shooting in the Austin area in August. The film is directed by award-winning filmmaker Todd Rohal, who also directed “Nature Calls” starring Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt.

The production is looking for extroverted and funny kids who are full of ideas, comfortable around new people and environments, and who like hearing, telling or creating stories. Kids with interesting faces and timeless looks are especially encouraged to submit. Though no acting experience is necessary, kids will be paid on the scale of professional actors.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

HBO Pilot Casting Attracts Hundreds of Actors

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - Hundreds of aspiring actors and actresses lined up along Main St. in Hastings before 8:30 a.m. Saturday for Central Casting's open casting call for an HBO pilot film, "The Leftovers", to be filmed in the village in July. 

Cailin and May Kate Kenehan and their mother Maryann stood in line and filled out forms for a chance at being an extra in the television pilot. The girls said they have been in some school plays but never a casting call. 

"They've never done this before," Maryann Kenehan said. "It's going to be in Hastings, so we wanted to try."
Central Casting Director Brittany Gischner conducted the "call" that drew professionals (Screen Actors Guild union members) and locals who were hoping to be chosen for several scenes to be shot in the village. 

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Casting: Unsung Parts of Entertainment Industry

One of the unsung aspects of the filmmaking industry is casting the film. The actors get accolades for their roles, but how did they end up in that role, in that particular film, to begin with? It’s because of the men and women who go through what must be thousands of headshots and reels, who meet with them for a few minutes to nail down their essence that would show up on the screen. The documentary Casting By highlights the great casting directors and their work through the trenches in a vastly under-appreciated field.

Focusing mainly on the queen of casting, Marion Dougherty, we learn the history of the profession as it shifted from television in New York City like the Kraft series, to the studios before and after the contract method of acting, all the way to today. Marion was instrumental to the shift of casting someone based off looks alone to actually looking at their talents and skills to match them with characters. Instead of trying to find movie stars, she found actors. She went to the NYC theater, Broadway and off-Broadway and even off-off-Broadway to meet new talent and get them in to the TV shows she was casting. This lead to discovering some big actors you have may have heard of before – Jon Voigt, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Glenn Close, and Clint Eastwood just to name a few.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Star Wars Casting Reveals Possible Characters for Episode VII

Bleeding Cool has managed to get their hands on what they claim is a breakdown of the lead roles in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII. Here are the descriptions they have of the characters:

- Late-teen female, independent, good sense of humour, fit.
- Young twenty-something male, witty and smart, fit but not traditionally good looking.
- A late twentysomething male, fit, handsome and confident.
- Seventy-something male, with strong opinions and tough demeanour. Also doesn’ t need to be particularly fit.
- A second young female, also late teens, tough, smart and fit.
- Forty something male, fit, military type.
- Thirtysomething male, intellectual. Apparently doesn’t need to be fit.

Keep in mind that this is not confirmed, but any guesses on who these characters might be? These  are, of course, subject to change, but feel free to sound off with your theories below!

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Topnotch Casting for the Chilean Miner Film

Jennifer Lopez has signed on to join Antonio Banderas in the Chilean miner film The 33.

Mike Medavoy is producing the drama, based on the true story of the 33 Chilean miners who were rescued after being trapped for 69 days in 2010.
The film will mark Lopez's first big-screen role since starring opposite Jason Statham in this year's action-thriller Parker.

Martin Sheen and Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro also have boarded the ensemble film, which was presented to foreign buyers at last month’s Cannes Film Festival. Good Universe is handling international sales.

Patricia Riggen (La Misma Luna) is directing from a screenplay written by Mikko Alanne and Jose Rivera, with production scheduled to begin in the fall in Chile.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

'Godzilla' Casting Comes to Life

It could be a star-studded summer for Hawaii. Rumors are swirling about big Hollywood movies gearing up for production in the islands.

One Hollywood production can mean work for hundreds of local companies and they should be ready for an extremely busy summer.

For more than a century, City Mill has been serving local residents, but in the last decade, they’ve been assisting a different type of customer.

“The fellows that did ‘Pearl Harbor,’ ‘Windtalkers,’ ‘Tears of the Sun,’ ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’” City Mill store manager Vicki Lebowitz said.

When television shows and movies film in Hawaii, local companies, like City Mill, reap the benefits. For a local company, a major motion picture can bring in revenue in the six-figure range.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Cinderella Casting for Supporting Roles

Genre Films and Allison Shearmur Productions in association with Runaway Fridge Films are in pre-production on the Disney live-action fantasy romance feature film "Cinderella". Casting has been taking place for the starring roles, and auditions are now underway for the film's co-starring and supporting roles. Shooting will get underway this Fall, 2013 in the London, England area. Interior filming will take place at the world famous Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. All of the movie's extras, photo doubles, and stand-ins for the film's actors will be cast in the United Kingdom.

Starring in "Cinderella" is the astonishingly talented and elegant English actress Lily James in the highly coveted title role. Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee Richard Madden has been cast to play the role of Prince Charming. Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett was the first actor to be cast, and will be playing Lady Tremaine. Playing the stepsisters Drisella and Anastasia are Screen Actors Guild Awards winner Sophie McShera and Empire Awards nominee Holliday Grainger rounding out the first four actors officially cast.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Oscar Winning Cast for 'Annie' Remake

                

Oscar winner Sandra Bullock is in early discussions to play Miss Hannigan in Sony and Overbrook Entertainment's remake of "Annie," two individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.

Hannigan, of course, is the mean woman who runs the orphanage where Annie and her friends live. Carol Burnett played the role in the original 1982 film, and Sony has sought to cast an actress with comedic chops and international appeal.

What's especially interesting about Bullock's potential casting is that she initially passed on the role. Now insiders tell TheWrap that Bullock is back at the negotiating table for a family film that may wind up a holiday hit.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Casting Gang of 'Green Dragons'

Ray Liotta, Justin Chon and Harry Shum Jr. (“Glee”) have  joined crime thriller “Revenge of the Green Dragons,” which begins production this week.

Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo are directing with Martin Scorsese exec producing. IM Global’s genre label Octane is fully financing.

The film is also “presented by” Scorsese. The director’s “The Departed” was based on Lau’s “Infernal Affairs.”

“Revenge of the Green Dragons” is adapted from Fredric Dannen’s New Yorker article, which chronicles a murder investigation involving the New York-based Green Dragons gang.

Liotta plays the lead New York detective responsible for investigating the gang.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Undic

Clint Eastwood Looks for Jersey Boys Cast

 

Though the odd stage actor may make it into a movie musical here and there (e.g., Samantha Barks in Les Misérables), for the most part film versions of stage musicals tend to feature a correspondingly cinematic cast (e.g., everyone else in Les Misérables). But Clint Eastwood apparently wants to buck that trend.

According to a new report, the director is eyeing theater stars for his big-screen adaptation of Jersey Boys. Specifically, he’s looking at the actors from the various productions of Jersey Boys from around the world. A-listers looking for their next bit of Oscar bait are gonna be so disappointed. More on Eastwood’s idea, including potential advantages and drawbacks, after he jump.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Need for Casting for 'Need for Speed'

                      
Dreamworks Studios, Electronic Arts and Ford Motor Company announced today that the Ford Mustang will play the lead hero car role in the upcoming Need for Speed movie, slated to hit theaters next February. Of course, the Mustang didn't audition for the role like we imagine the film's star, Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame, might have. Rather, Ford and Dreamworks struck a partnership deal that meant the Mustang could skip the casting couch. The deal will also see the film's universe populated with other Ford products (gratuitously so, we're guessing), and the automaker will also help the studio promote the video-game-turned-movie next year.

The hero car in question is a special one-off Mustang created by Ford that is making its debut at the E3 video game trade show as we speak. Powered by a supercharged V8 and apparently based on the Shelby GT500, the car's been modified with a widebody kit, 22-inch wheels, larger air intakes and twin hood nostrils. Ford also provided the film's production with an F-450 truck that will be called "The Beast" in the film's story, and a second Mustang to be used during filming as a camera car.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

 

Casting That Make Up 'The Judge'

Ken Howard has joined the cast of The Judge with Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. The SAG-AFTRA National Co-President will play Judge Warren in the Warner Bros film. The heartland character presides over the murder trial of Judge Joseph Palmer (Duvall) as he is defended by his cynical and estranged attorney son (Downey). Repped by Greene & Associates Talent Agency, the Emmy-winning actor will also be seen in the upcoming Adult Children of Divorce.

David Krumholtz has also joined The Judge. The actor will play Kattan, a younger prosecutor who challenges the Downey’s character’s sense of right and wrong. Krumholtz can be seen in the upcoming This Is The End with Seth Rogen and James Franco. The independent film Teddy Bears, which he stars opposite Melanie Linsky, premieres this month at The Seattle International Film Festival. Krumholtz is repped by Silver Lining Entertainment and Gersh.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

 

Filmmakers Look for Casting Shortcuts

 

MUMBAI: Actor-film and maker Farhan Akhtar, who has helmed successful films such as Dil Chahta Hai and Don — The Chase Begins, admits that all directors and producers in the film industry have to go through a certain procedure for casting.

Casting is an integral part of a film’s process. “It is actually one of the most demanding processes; in terms of trying to get appointments, to get time,” he said.

“In the entire film industry, all producers and directors have to do jugaar [find shortcuts] for casting. Nothing can happen without that,” added the 39-year-old.

In fact, for his directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai, he had pulled off a casting coup with big names from Bollywood, including Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Khanna and Preity Zinta.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

 

NatGeo Looks for Casting for 'Killing Kennedy'

 

National Geographic is putting out a casting call for extras for their film 'Killing Kennedy'.

They need people of all shapes and sizes, but also Hispanic men and women for some scenes and for infants and toddlers that resemble a young Caroline Kennedy and John Kennedy Jr.

The film begins shooting on June 11, and casting will go on through the summer.

To sign up for an audition you can go to the casting company's website www.ericaarvoldcasting.com for more information.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Indie Films Get Big Casting

 

EXCLUSIVE: Kristen Stewart has committed to star in back to back projects shooting this summer. She will star in Camp X-Ray, a politically charged drama written and directed by Peter Sattler, and she will also star in the Olivier Assayas-directed Sils Maria.
 
In Camp X-Ray, Stewart will play a young soldier who escapes her suffocating small town by joining the military, only to find that she isn’t going for a tour of duty in Iraq as she hoped. Instead, she’s sent to Guantanamo. Met with hatred and abuse from the Muslim men in her charge, she forges an odd friendship with a young man who has been imprisoned at Gitmo for eight years. The film’s being produced by Gina Kwon and Sophia Lin, and exec produced by David Gordon Green, Lindsay Williams and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein. Production begins late summer.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Oscar Winning Casting for 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

                    

Oscar-winner Benicio del Toro has joined the increasingly stellar cast of Marvel comic book movie Guardians of the Galaxy, reports Deadline.

The Puerto Rican actor will play an unspecified role as part of a deal to appear in a number of films for the Disney-owned studio. Marvel, which had huge success with last year's $1.5bn The Avengers and this year's highest-grossing film, Iron Man 3, is embarking on a long-term project to bring dozens of comic book characters from its print back catalogue to the big screen.

Del Toro is rumoured to be playing Thanos, a villainous, death-obsessed extra-terrestrial figure who has made life difficult for Iron Man, Captain America and Daredevil, among others, in the comics. He will join Glenn Close, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and John C Reilly in Guardians of the Galaxy.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

'Million Dollar Arm' Casting Team Goes Into Action

Roth Films in association with Mayhem Pictures is now in production on the Walt Disney Pictures true-story live-action feature film "Million Dollar Arm," about a sports agent who discovered baseball pitchers amongst cricket players in India by staging a reality show to discover new talent. The casting team is holding an open casting call in Atlanta, GA for all types of people to work as fully paid background performers. The Atlanta portion of filming will begin in June, 2013. Filming has previously taken place in Mumbai, India.

Disney casting executives have cast Golden Globe Award winner Jon Hamm to portray the lead role of sports agent J.B. Bernstein. Directors Guild of America DGA Award winning Australian filmmaker Craig Gillespie is directing "Million Dollar Arm" from a screenplay written by Academy Award winning scribe Tom McCarthy. Primetime Emmy Award nominee Joe Roth and Palak Patel are producing "Million Dollar Arm" for Roth Films. Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray are producing for Mayhem Pictures.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair

Cast Exit Due to Financial Concerns at Cannes

Johnny Depp has fallen out of Black Mass, Cross Creek and Exclusive Media's biopic of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger for director Barry Levinson, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. 

Depp was to have been paid his usual quote of $20 million, according to sources, but with sales of the project at Cannes on the soft side, producers were looking to trim the budget, in the high $60 million range. Depp was asked to take half, according to sources, and the actor and his reps at UTA refused. The situation came to a crux Wednesday.

A producer source disputes the softness of the sales, saying the sales were on target and that most territories were sold.

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To learn more about casting calls please visit the International Truffles Casting Fair