Okay, it's impossible to keep up with everything going on at Cannes, but there are a few casting announcements worth keeping tabs on. So rather than do a bunch of smaller posts about them, I'll just whip through them at once here. .
Idris Elba will be teaming up with Naomie Harris are reuniting for The Personal History of Rachel Dupree, an adaptation of Ann Weisgarber's novel set in the frontier West and centering on a pregnant mother struggling to prepare her family for a harsh winter, without the help of her untrustworthy husband. Claire McCarthy wrote the script and will direct, with Viola Davis on board as an exec-producer. Elba and Harris previously starred as Nelson and Winnie Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Helen Mirren has set up to new roles, proving that she's not slowing down any time soon. The first is The Leisure Seeker, in which she'll star alongside Donald Sutherland (President Snow!!!!) for Italian director Paolo Virzi. Virzi's English-language debut is based on the book by Michael Zadoorian and follows a terminally ill couple who escape from a retirement home to go on one last cross-country adventure. With these two screen legends that could be a lot of fun.
Deadline also reports that Mirren will play Sarah Winchester, multimillionaire heiress to the Winchester Arms fortune, in Winchester, a supernatural film co-directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (Daybreakers). Winchester's husband and child both died suddenly, and she came to believe she and the family were cursed by all of the people who had died at the barrel of Winchester rifles. The only way to break the curse was to make additions to their San Jose estate, and she continued to do so for an incredible 38 straight years.
Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer has joined the cast of God Four, which already has Michael Douglas, Jai Courtney, and Brenton Thwaites on board. Directed by Todd Komarnicki, the story centers on a "documentary filmmaker (Courtney) the eve of his 10-year school reunion, who discovers one of his championship rowing crew has just committed suicide. The discovery compels him to look back at his final year at college, a time of rivalry, romance and dangerous secrets." [Deadline]
Antonio Banderas is about to get Salty in the new action-comedy from Con Air director, Simon West. THR refers to the film as "The Hangover meets Spinal Tap", which sounds either awesome or ludicrous, and centers on aging rock star and sex addict who must save his supermodel wife from pirates. Okay, it sounds awesome.
Courtney Love and Joey King will play mother and daughter in an adaptation of Dominique Paul's coming of age novel, The Possibility of Fireflies. Directed by Deborah Chow (The High Cost of Living) and adapted by the book's author, the story sounds like pretty conventional territory. It's set in Maryland in 1989 and follows a precocious teen and aspiring writer who must cope with her chaotic mother and metalhead sister. Eventually she falls in love with an older neighbor who teaches her to do whatever it takes to get what you want. [Variety]
Warcraft and Vikings star Travis Fimmel will star in sci-fi film, Inversion. Directed by Peter Segal (Grudge Match), the story centers on a con man and Chinese physicist who must save the Earth from losing its gravity. [Deadline]
LeToya Luckett, a former member of Destiny's Child (really? I feel bad that I had no idea.), is set to play legendary singer Dionne Warwick in an upcoming biopic directed by Mario Van Peebles. Danny Glover is set to play Warwick's father, with Olympia Dukakis as the great Marlene Dietrich. There had been a rumor that Lady Gaga would play Warwick's rival, Cilla Black, but she has since denied it.
Diane Kruger will star in Faith Akin's new German film, Aus Dem Nichts (In the Fade). There aren't any details on it just yet but it will be Kruger's first German movie, which is a little surprising.
