The Casting Couch: Sep. 7, 2006
Rumors and confirmations made
To begin we learn that Timothy Olyphant and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have joined Kimberly Peirce’s Stop Loss for Paramount Pictures. Already aboard are Ryan Phillippe and Channing Tatum in a film that is based on a true story and was adapted for the screen by Peirce herself. The story centers on Brandon (Ryan Phillippe), a soldier who returns home to Texas and is called to duty again in Iraq through the military’s “stop-loss” procedure. Olyphant has been cast as Lt. Col. Boot Miller, a no-nonsense military man who, serving as Brandon’s commanding officer, welcomes the troops home from Iraq but then orders their re-enlistment. Gordon-Levitt will play one of the soldiers who returns to a failing marriage and seems to be having the toughest time readjusting to civilian life. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Next, Variety tells us that Nicholas Turturro has joined the comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Turturro joins Adam Sandler and Kevin James in the flick in which two straight firefighters (Sandler and James) pose as a gay married couple in order to qualify for their department’s domestic partner benefits. Turturro will play a fellow firefighter. [Variety]
Prince’s ex, Mayte Garcia, is finding film roles as she has found a role in Mike Nichols’ Charlie Wilson’s War with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman for Universal and Playtone Prods. [Variety]
Kenneth Branagh has come aboard to direct Sleuth, an adaptation of the Anthony Shaffer play with Jude Law and Michael Caine set to star. Harold Pinter penned the script which revolves around two men vying for the same woman. Caine starred in an adaptation of the same play back in 1972 in which he played a hairdresser and received an Oscar nomination along with Laurence Olivier who played a writer. This time, Caine will play the brilliant thriller writer and social fixture who’s so upset at losing his wife to a young hairdresser (Law) that he hatches a complex revenge plan. Oddly enough Law played a role originated by Caine when he stepped into the shoes of Alfie back in 2004. [Variety]
Finally a bit of rumor as Meg Ryan’s career might not actually be over after all that wretched plastic surgery. Rumor out of Production Weekly is that Ryan may be replacing the previously announced Annette Bening, to co-star with Antonio Banderas in the thriller Homeland Security. Writer-director George Gallo is set to helm the feature, which is described as a mystery in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. 30 days of principal photography begins October 2 taking in locations around Shreveport, Louisiana. [Production Weekly]
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