* When Will Smith dropped out of the sci-fi adaptation Brilliance, basically to star in Ridley Scott's untitled concussion drama, it left a big starpower gap left to be filled. Neither Noomi Rapace or director Julius Onah could do it, but maybe Oscar-winner Jared Leto can? Leto is being sought to replace Smith in the film, based on Marcus Sakey's book set in a world where a small group of people known as "brilliants" are born with extraordinary powers. Leto would play a gifted federal agent who uses his powers to track down another brilliant trying to start a civil war through terrorist acts. [Deadline]
*Former welterweight champ Victor Ortiz is bringing his boxing expertise to Southpaw, the Antonie Fuqua-directed drama on the sweet science. Jake Gyllenhaal will star as a leftie boxer who climbs the championship ranks while his personal life falls apart. Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker co-star, with Ortiz as a flyweight with real sparring potential. Ortiz will be seen later this year in The Expendables 3. Boxers who become solid actors are a rarity, but Ortiz's career is already better than what Fernando Vargas was able to put together. [Deadline]
* Between Game of Thrones and Terminator reboot Emilia Clarke probably doesn't have a lot of time for much else, and yet that hasn't stopped her from joining the psychological thriller, Voice from the Stone. Eric D. Howell will make his directorial debut on the adaptation of Silvio Raffo's book La Voce Della Pietra, which is set in the 1950s and follows "a nurse who is helping a boy through the trauma of his mother’s sudden death. As she works with the troubled child, she becomes ensnared by a malevolent force inside the family’s castle." Why doesn't she just summon one of her dragons? Filming is set to begin this fall. [THR]
