* After starring in the long-running Reno 911, getting her big screen break in Bridesmaids, and turning up as one of the few highlights in What to Expect When You're Expecting, Wendi McLendon-Covey has shown she can shine even in an ensemble. She'll have a chance to prove it again as she's taken the first of four female leads in Tyler Perry's Single Moms Club. She'll play a snobbish book publisher wrestling with her personal and professional life in the film about four single mothers who bond after a school incident brings them together. Perry will write, direct, and star when production begins later this month. Hopefully he won't cast himself as one of the other single moms? [Variety]
* Even though I loved Oliver Blackburn's rather racy and very violent thriller, Donkey Punch, I figured enough people hated it or didn't see it that we would never see him behind the camera again. Fortunately I was wrong, and he's back with his follow-up, the horror Satanic. Formerly titled Kristy, the film currently stars Haley Bennett(Kaboom), and has now added Ashley Greene(Twilight) to the story of a group of college kids who are attacked in their dorms over the Thanksgiving holiday. The script comes from Vanishing on Seventh Street's Anthony Jaswinski. [The Wrap]
* Already one of the most anticipated films of next year, Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners has gotten better with the addition of Maria Bello to the cast. Written by Aaron Guzikowski(Contraband), and starring Hugh Jackman, Melissa Leo, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Paul Dano, the story follows a small town carpenter(Jackman) who takes matters into his own hands when the cops fail to find his kidnapped daughter and her best friend. Bello will play Jackman's wife, with production set to begin early in 2013. [Deadline]
