Hollywood Casting Round-Up

This week there have been a bunch of new castings for various roles ranging from dramas, comedies, thrillers and all girl country bands. Instead of writing a bunch of different blogs surrounding each film, I thought I'd compile them into one nice round up. Checkout the list of actors and roles they have recently attached themselves to below...

First up a project I am the most excited for out of all the casting news round-up. Jason Segel has been cast alongside Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman in a comedy titled "The Adventurer's Handbook". The film is being directed by Akiva Schaffer for Universal based off a script Jonah Hill, Matt Spicer and Max Winkler wrote about "four childhood friends who are bored with the monotony of their lives and embark on a global adventure inspired by the stories of explorers detailed in Mick Conefrey's book "The Adventurer's Handbook: Life Lessons From History's Great Explorers."" In the film Segel will play a piano who has always dreamt of making it beig, but instead is a drunken backup piano player. Jonah Hill will play an isolated engineer, while Schwartzman will play a boastful three-time Grammy Winner. Production is reported by THR to begin early next year.

Next up, Variety reports that Carla Gugino will reunite with Watchmen director Zack Synder for his latest film called "Sucker Punch". In the film, Gugino will play a nurse that becomes a madam at a brothel in the title characters alternate reality. "Sucker Punch" follows a young girl (Emily Browning) who after her father puts her into a insane asylum creates an alternate reality to cope with being institutionalized. "Sucker Punch" will begin shooting early this fall and co-stars Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone and Abbie Cornish.

A film that has been sitting for over a year now "The Tourist" has finally landed it's leading man. Variety reports that Sam Worthington will co-star alongside Charlize Theron in the remake of the 2005 French thriller Anthony Zimmer. Worthington replaces Tom Cruise who dropped out to do an action comedy titled "Witchita" with Cameron Diaz. Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) will direct the remake off Jeff Nachmanoff's draft. The thriller follows an Interpol agent (Theron)who uses an American tourist (Worthington) in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal who was her former lover. The ironic part here is that Worthington is an Aussie actor, definately not American.

Next up, Darren Lynn Bousman has reached out to True Blood star Deborah Ann Woll for his upcoming remake of the 80's horror flick "Mother's Day". Woll who plays a newly made vampire on this season's True Blood will play one of the demented and twisted siblings who engage in vicious murders to impress their mother. The original only featured two brothers, however Lynn Bousman is clearly raising the stakes by adding some sex appeal to the vicious family. THR reports Bousman's updated will see villainous family return to the house where they grew up and terrorize the new owners and their guests. The production company's behind they remake Twisted Pictures, the Genre Co., Rat Entertainment and LightTower Entertainment hope to have a Mother's Day date release next year.

Liam Neeson is proving to be a busy man. The actor who will be playing Zeus in the upcoming remake of "Clash of the Titans" and also taking on the role of Hannibal Smith in "The A-Team" has signed on to a new thriller from Dark Castle Entertainment and Warner Brothers. The film is called "Unknown White Male" and follows a husband who after suffering a coma on a vacation to Berlin, awakes and finds himself replaced ay another man. THR reports Liam Neeson will play the title role, which is aiming for a January of next year production start. Jaume Collet-Serra will direct off a Karl Gajdusek script.

Twilight fans will be happy to know that Silent Hill star Jodelle Ferland has been cast in "The Twilight's Saga: Eclipse" as a newly turned vampire. Latino Review doesn't give clear indictation just who she will be playing but a couple ideas jump into my mind right off the bat. Eclipse opens with Seattle being plagued by a young vampire who cannot control their thirst for blood, which very well could be the role Ferland has been cast as. There is also the army of "newborn" vampires that Victoria controls which she could much likely be one of them as well. Ferland is a pretty intense little girl and should be a nice addition to "Eclipse".

Latino Review also has an interesting scoop on Korean star Rain who can next be seen in James McTeigue's "Ninja Assassin". The webmaster reports that Rain will play "a rogue Shaolin monk" in an update of Bruce Lee's classic film Enter the Dragon now titled "Awaken the Dragon". The film follows "a lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk into the bloody world of underground martial arts fight clubs." Kurt Sutter who is known for executive producing television's The Sheild will write and direct a noir-style update to the Bruce Lee film. Sutter tells Latino Review, "I'm a huge noir fan, and this plot lends itself to the film I want to make. I wanted to set it in these underground fight clubs where the action is really raw and expose the brutality of Shaolin Kung fu. This will be more 'Raging Bull' than 'Crouching Tiger' in its viciousness." The one angle to this scoop that is a tad bit perplexing it that Latino Review says Warner is looking for an "American" to play the title role. What the hell does that mean in this melting pot of culture we have here in America?

Finally, this brings us to my last casting scoop. Variety reports that Jennifer Aniston will star in "Goree Girls". The film will be directed by Michael Sucsy and follows a all-girl country band in a Texas prison in the 1940's. Overnight Productions is financing and production is set for January of next year. Along with being the lead of "Goree Girls" Aniston will produce alongside Rick Schwartz, Aaron Kaufman and Kristin Hahn.

What say you? Which of these current projects jump out the most? Strikeback...