* Ellen Page's gay rights drama, Freeheld, has just added Michael Shannon to a cast that already includes Julianne Moore and Zach Galifianakis. Directed by Peter Sollett, the film tells the true story of a gay police woman diagnosed with a terminal illness who must fight to ensure her pension passes to her partner. No word on Shannon's role but the cast and subject matter alone make this project a pretty big deal.
* Blue is the Warmest Color's Adele Exarchopoulos is starting to see the results of her success. She's taken a role in Sean Penn's latest directorial effort, The Last Face, and now she's boarding action flick, Bastille Day, starring Idris Elba. Coming aboard to replace the departed Pierre Morel as director is James Watkins (The Woman in Black), which should amount to quite a change in approach. Anyway, Elba plays a washed-up CIA agent with Exarchopoulos likely as the artist accused of a terrorist attack in the Paris metro.
* Terrence Malick's forever-developing documentary, Voyage of Time, has long had Brad Pitt attached to narrate. And it made sense considering the director shot much of it while filming The Tree of Life, and is something he calls "a celebration of the earth, displaying the whole of time, from the birth of the universe to its final collapse.” After all this time the film still isn't coming out until 2016, with two versions of differing length, and now we know Cate Blanchett will be joining Pitt as narrator. She'll apparently be replacing Emma Thompson, who had been attached previously. [ScreenDaily]
