Zoe Saldana will star in the action flick, Hummingbird, which sounds like it should've been a Colombiana sequel. She plays a black ops assassin whose latest target forces her to confront her true identity. Marcus Kryler and Fredrik Akerström will direct, having made their name in the world of video games. They directed the action sequences for EA's Battlefield 1 video game, and the trailer which has more than 50 million Youtube hits. [Deadline]
Amazon Studios has won the rights to Unfit, a fact-based drama that has Dakota Johnson in talks to star. Based on the script by Melissa London Hilfers, it tells the true story of Carrie Buck, the plaintiff in the landmark 1927 case, Buck v. Bell. A Virginia native, Bell became a key figure in the eugenics movement which set out to eliminate the "unfit" from our society. She, and other members of her family deemed feeble-minded and incompetent, were forced to undergo state sponsored sterilization as part of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. Look out for this one. Under the right guidance it could be an awards season player, but a lot depends on who comes aboard to direct. [Deadline]
Peter Jackson has cast the first two stars of his adaptation, Mortal Engines, and I've only heard of one of these guys. Robbie Sheehan (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) and Ronan Raftery (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) will star in the film, based on the first of Philip Reeve's four-book series set in a world many thousands of years in the future when Earth's cities roam the globe on huge wheels and battle for diminishing resources. Jackson, who has been on board for years and once planned to direct, co-wrote the script and will produce, while longtime collaborator Christian Rivers helms.
