* Although cameras have been rolling for awhile, Robert Rodriguez is still adding names to Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. The latest is Stacy Keach, who takes on the role of Wallenquist, a mob boss known as "The Kraut", described as the one man so evil he simply can't be redeemed. Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Dennis Haysbert, Jamie Chung, Chris Meloni, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple, Jeremy Piven, Julia Garner, Bruce Willis and Eva Green star in the October 4th release. [Variety]
* Rupert Wyatt has been reluctant to decide on a project to follow-up Rise of the Planet of the Apes. One thing we know for sure is that it won't be Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which he backed out of a few months ago. He's circling a number of projects which could be next, and now he's added one more in an adaptation of Sebastian Faulks' acclaimed novel, Birdsong. It's a project Wyatt's been eying for some time, even having Michael Fassbender attached at one point, but now it seems to be moving forward with a clean slate. The story follows a man named Stephen Wraysford, chronicling his life in France before and during WWI. He falls in love with a French woman, but they are separated when he's shipped off to war. [Screen Daily]
* Geoffrey Rush, Sophie Nelisse (Monsieur Lazhar), and Emily Watson are set to star in the adaptation of Markus Zusak's best-selling novel, The Book Thief. We learned of the project last year, which features a script by Michael Petroni to be directed by Brian Percival. Set during WWII in Nazi Germany, the story follows a young foster girl who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
