Jason Clarke (Terminator Genisys) is joining Helen Mirren in the supernatural thriller, Winchester, a film that was announced just a couple of months ago at Cannes. The Spierig Brothers (Daybreakers) are directing the film which is inspired by the legend of Sarah Winchester (Mirren), heiress to the Winchester Arms fortune. Sarah became convinced the souls of everyone who died at the hands of Winchester rifles were haunting her. After her husband and daughter were suddenly killed, she becam convinced the only way to break the curse was to make constant additions to her home, which she proceeded to do for 38 years, 24-hours a day. Clarke plays a skeptical psychiatrist sent to the home to evaluate Sarah's state of mind.
Ava DuVernay's adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time already has Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, and Reese Witherspoon heading up the all-star cast. Now they'll be joined by a rising star, 13-year-old Storm Reid who will take the lead role of Meg Murry. This is a pretty cool casting move as it's another case of Disney adding some ethnic diversity to a classic story. Madeleine L’Engle’s novel has been adapted by Jennifer Lee (Frozen) and follows Meg Murry, a young girl who goes on an interplanetary journey with her younger brother and schoolmate to find their missing father. This is another big film for Reid who got her start in 12 Years a Slave. [THR]
Christina Hendricks (The Neon Demon) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) are joining Glenn Close, Max Irons, Stefanie Martini, Terence Stamp and Honor Kneafsey in Crooked House, an adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery. Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes is penning the screenplay for director Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Dark Places), and they'll be taking a crack at one of the few Christie novels never to hit the screen. The story is a classic Christie whodunit, with investigator Charles Hayward brought in to investigate the poisoning death of his fiance's grandfather, with her promise that they can never marry until the case is solved. [Deadline]
