* Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer has joined Leslie Mann in the female bounty hunter comedy, Las Madres. No director is on board yet but Pam Brady's script centers on three unemployed friends who decide to make some cash by tracking down a dangerous criminal and claiming the reward. [Variety]
* John Hawkes, Alia Shawkat, Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel, and Ciaran Hinds will have some company in Driftless Area as Frank Langella has come aboard. Tom Drury's novel will be directed by Zachary Sluser, with Deschanel as an enigmatic woman who falls in love with a bartender played by Yelchin. Their romance is complicated when they happen upon a bag of stolen cash, drawing the attention of a volatile criminal played by Hawkes.
* Twilight's Nikki Reed will play U.S. equestrian champion Debi Connor in The Sunday Horse. Directed by Vic Armstrong (Left Behind) and sounding like it could draw in the faith-based crowd, it tells the story of how Connor overcame a tough upbringing and a near-fatal accident to win the championship on a horse that was saved from being slaughtered. Good vibes all around. [Deadline]
