* After building her career mostly with grounded human dramas, including her Oscar-nominated turn in The Help, Viola Davis is going big in 2013 with adaptations of Ender's Game and Beautiful Creatures. Next up she'll turn to Prisoners, the long-developing revenge thriller from director Denis Villeneuve and Contraband screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski. The film stars Hugh Jackman as a small town carpenter whose young daughter and best friend are kidnapped. When the cops fail to do anything about it, he takes the law into his own hands but runs afoul of a hot-shot cop played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Davis' role is unknown, but she'll join Melissa Leo and Paul Dano when filming begins early next year for a September 20th 2013 release. [The Wrap]
* Imogen Poots is becoming increasingly hard to miss lately, and why in the world would we want to? The beautiful and talented Brit can currently be seen holding her own opposite some of today's finest actors in A Late Quartet(my review here), and just recently signed on to star in Need for Speed with Aaron Paul. Next up she'll star alongside Zac Efron and Deborah Ann Woll in the romantic comedy Are We Officially Dating? The badly-titled film comes from writer/director Tom Gormican, and follows three NYC buddies who make a pact to stay single just as they each find love. Oops. Exactly how Poots fits into the story is unclear. She's also still on the shortlist for the female lead in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. [Deadline]
* Back in May it was looking like Adam Shankman's adaptation of This is Where I Leave You was coming together to be something special. The ensemble comedy would have starred Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Malin Akerman, Leslie Mann, Zac Efron, and Goldie Hawn, but all that appears to be over. With Shankman and Bateman out, the film was put into turnaround, but now is back on with Shawn Levy in talks to direct. The story centers on a family brought together after the death of the patriarch, and are forced to sit Shiva for a week where all their various dysfunctions come to the surface. With the schedule now needing to be reworked, it's uncertain if the remaining cast will be able to commit. [Variety]
