Sure Shots: Jon Favreau; Pierce Brosnan; 'Beautiful Creatures'

* Ever since he became the go-to director for easily digestible popcorn flicks, we don't get to see much of Jon Favreau in front of the camera. He had a "blink and you'll miss him" appearance in John Carter, and unfortunately lent his voice to Zookeeper, but now he's jumping back into acting by joining Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman in the potential hit comedy, Identity Theft. Directed by Seth Gordon, who he worked with on Four Christmases, the film has McCarthy in a criminal role once written for a male lead. She'll terrorize Bateman in the film which also sports a supporting cast including John Cho, Clark Duke, and Amanda Peet. Filming is set to begin during McCarthy's hiatus from the CBS sitcom, Mike & Molly. I got an idea, how about they just cancel that dreadful show altogether? Eh? [Variety]

* I'm still not quite sure what to think of The Coup. Is it action or comedy? Or an action comedy? This is the film written and directed by horror maven, John Erick Dowdle(Devil), that is ostensibly an action film with Owen Wilson in the lead role of a father who must protect his family when a violent coup erupts in Southeast Asia. Seriously. Now they go and add James Bond himself, Pierce Brosnan, to the cast and I'm even more confused. Brosnan's role is unclear, and I'm betting when we find out who he's playing it'll shed some light on what kind of tone they're aiming for. We could be looking at something like The Matador here. [Variety]

* There's no question that Warner Brothers has hopes of Beautiful Creatures replacing Harry Potter as their top franchise appealing to the young adult demo, and with the cast they've gathered they have a pretty good shot at it.  Kyle Gallner(Red State) is the latest to join the adaptation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's first book in the Castor Chronicles series. The story follows Lena Duchannes(Alice Englert) and Ethan Wate(Alden Ehrenreich), two teens who share a mysterious, supernatural connection. Emmy Rossum, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, and Thomas Mann co-star, with Gallner playing Larkin, the younger brother to Rossum's character, an evil spell caster named Ridley. Beautiful Creatures is expected to open on February 1st 2013. Filming is currently underway with Richard LaGravanese at the helm. [Variety]