Casting Bites: March 11, 2007

A few mini bits from the trades

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Monday, March 12th 2007 at 6:48 PM

Neil LaBute and Ashton Kutcher are getting ready to work togeth in Screen Gems' thriller Lakeview Terrace. LaBute will direct Kutcher and Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington who already joined the project centered on an LAPD officer (Jackson) who will stop at nothing to force out the interracial couple that recently moved in next door. Kutcher would play Washington's spouse. David Loughery wrote the screenplay, and Howard Korder has been tapped to pen a rewrite. Shooting will begin in June in Los Angeles. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Stand-up comedian Katt Williams will write and star in DreamWorks Pictures' comedy Marshals. Eddie Murphy will produce and is set to co-star. The story revolves around the first black marshals of the Old West. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Rob Schneider is still trying to continue his career and he is looking to join Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess With the Zohan, a comedy for Columbia Pictures. The story centers on a Mossad agent (Sandler) who fakes his death so he can move to New York and become a hair stylist. Schneider's character is described as an East Yistannen cab driver. Shooting will begin in the summer in Los Angeles and New York for a summer 2008 release. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Vinnie Jones, Bradley Cooper, Brooke Shields and Leslie Bibb have boarded The Midnight Meat Train for director Ryuhei Kitumara and Lionsgate. The film is an adaptation of the story from Clive Barker's "Books of Blood" collection. In the pic Jones will play a serial killer who stalks the subways looking for victims. Cooper plays a struggling photographer who decides that tracking down and capturing "the subway butcher" on film will improve his fortunes. Shields plays an art gallery owner who befriends the photog, and Bibb will play his girlfriend. Shooting begins in Los Angeles on March 18. [Variety]