CASTING NOTES: May 17, 2007

Too many of these are just small timers

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Wednesday, May 16th 2007 at 4:22 AM

With all the casting news coming out of Hollywood lately thanks to just regular old reports and the Cannes Film Festival it becomes overkill so I am simplifying some of it with this little installment of the "Casting Notes" which I haven't had to bring out for the longest time. Here we go.

First off Variety is reporting that Nestor Carbonell is joining The Dark Knight as the mayor of Gotham City. Carbonell last played finger chewing baddie Pasquale Acosta in Smokin' Aces as well as a few episodes of "Lost". [Variety]

Next MTV tells us that Naomie Harris will be joining the cast of Night Watch alongside Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans, Terry Crews, Hugh Laurie and Common. The film centers on a veteran LAPD cop (Keanu Reeves) who turns to alcohol after the death of his wife. The cop is forced to go up against his longtime mentor (Whitaker) when he is implicated in the execution of a fellow officer. [MTV]

MTV also brings us news that Johnny Knoxville might be starring in Paul Soter's upcoming zombie thriller. Soter is a part of the Broken Lizard troupe and described the film saying, “[It’s] not a comedy at all. It’s a horror thriller,” he revealed of the new, still untitled film he wrote and hopes to direct. “I’ve always wanted to make some contribution to the zombie genre and this is a different way to do that… It’s about a small Colorado town and there’s a forest fire nearby and it ignites these lost barrels of toxic who knows what. It blows this toxic ash into town and makes all the dogs go apeshit. The lead guy is in a custody battle for his son and has him for the weekend. He’s a firefighter and drops off his son at school and goes into town to fight the fire when he realizes what’s going on. So he’s on one side of town. His eight-year-old boy is on the other side of town. He’s got to get through this army of rabid dogs to get his son.” [MTV]

According to The Hollywood Reporter the fish lipped actress Mischa Barton is set to join Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Lena Headey, Caterina Murino, Stephen Fry, Jodie Whittaker, Celia Imrie, Anna Chancellor, comedian Russell Brand and Toby Jones in the cast of St. Trinians to be directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson and is written by Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft. The comedy details a story about the infamous school for young ladies and their efforts to save it from financial meltdown. [The Hollywood Reporter]

John Turturro is set to direct 1-900 reports Variety. The film is the third film in the Theo Van Gogh remake trilogy. Turturro's film is a redo of slain Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh's 1994 picture 06 about two lonely souls who meet through a sex chat line. The title refers to the digits required to dial such lines in the Netherlands. The first film in the trilogy was directed by Steve Buscemi and is titled Interview and hits theaters July 13 starring Buscemi and Sienna Miller. Stanley Tucci is already slated to helm part two titled Blind Date which starts shooting on May 28 with Tucci also starring alongside Patricia Clarkson. [Variety]

Next we learn that Mena Suvari, Jack Huston, Caterina Murino and Richard E. Grant will star in The Garden of Eden for director John Irvin. The pic is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel set in the jazz age, it's the story of a successful young American novelist, previously an aviator during WWI, who embarks on an extended honeymoon across Europe with his wife (Suvari). But when she brings in a sultry Italian girl (Murino) to spice things up with erotic games, their relationship comes under pressure. [Variety]

Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race 3000 is a remake that has already lined up Jason Statham to star and now LatinoReview is saying that Glenn Close is up to play the part of the warden, Lawrence Fishburne is up for the coach and Djimon Hounsou is up for the main rival role which was once played by Sylvester Stallone. [LatinoReview]

For you Punisher fans it looks like Thomas Jane is out of the sequel and will not reprise his role in Punisher 2 as he wrote in to Ain't It Cool News saying, "I’m writing to tell you that I regretfully and painfully had to pull out of P2. I can’t tell you how completely broken up I am about it. After busting my ass at the gym four days a week for almost two years, watching every character driven action pic that any fan would ask me to watch while I was standing in line buying egg whites and Tuna fish…" He said a lot more so click the link to read it all. [AICN]

Finally we learn that director Craig Lucas and screenwriter Elyse Friedman have signed on to do their thing for Laws of Motion starring Matthew Perry, Justin Long and Hilary Swank. The movie centers on an uptight professor (Perry) struggling with a repressive career and community, as well as headaches caused by his free-spirited brother and sister. Swank will take on a supporting role as the perfectionist neighbor of Perry's character. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Whew, that was a lot of news!