Casting News: William Hurt In Stephenie Meyer's The Host; Benjamin Bratt's No Snitch; Helen Mirren Marries Hitchcock
Posted 12.08.11 by Ryan
Twilight fans have to be lamenting that the franchise is coming to an end, but, luckily, there's another potential franchise to fill the void. The Host, based on Twilight author Stephenie Meyer's 2008 novel of the same name will start shooting next February and will be in theaters on March 29, 2013 — a mere four months after The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 hits theaters.
While still exploring the theme of romance, The Host abandons vampires for an unseen alien race called Souls, who have taken over most of humanity by inhabiting their bodies as hosts. Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) is one of the few remaining survivors, but is finally captured and is invaded by a Soul named the Wanderer, a.k.a. Wanda (also played by Ronan), who can't gain complete control of Melanie's mind. Ian (Jake Abel) falls for Wanda, who, as Melanie, is still in love with Jerad (the recently cast Max Irons). It's an all-new, but more complicated, love triangle!
With the three leads cast, EW reports that co-screenwriter Meyer and director-writer Andrew Niccol (In Time) have cast actor William Hurt as Jeb, Melanie's crazy uncle and a leader of the human resistance.
Meyer is said to be planning two sequels to The Host, titled The Soul and The Seeker, but a sequel is yet to be published.
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Benjamin Bratt (Traffic) is the latest actor added to the action thriller Snitch. The movie stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a suburban father who goes undercover to help capture a drug dealer after his falsely-accused, teenage son is given a long prison sentence. Barry Pepper (The Kennedys) was cast in November as a DEA agent that helps Johnson, while Variety reports that Bratt will play a "major player in the Mexican drug trade" that is exposed by Johnson's undercover work.
Snitch recently began shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, under the direction of Ric Roman Waugh (Felon), who also wrote the script. The Walking Dead actor Jon Bernthal has also been cast in the movie and recently talked about his role and the movie itself to The Wrap.
It's basically about, it's based on a true story. It was a PBS Frontline special about mandatory minimums in drug sentencing. It's about a young kid who's sentenced to 10 years in prison, and his father makes a deal with the DEA, to get him out, to try to bring in a bigger drug dealer. And his father teams up with an ex-con who's trying to get his life in order for his own son. They team up together, and they brought down some members of the Mexican mafia and the drug cartel. Dwayne Johnson plays the father, and I play the guy who he teams up with, the ex-con. It's a really, really cool cast, and I think it's going to be a really interesting movie. I just, I hope I don't screw it up.
Snitch is expected to be released in early 2013. Susan Sarandon co-stars as an ambitious U.S. attorney who works to convict Bratt.
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Looks like Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins will star in Fox Searchlight's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho after the project spent four years developing at Paramount. With Hopkins already set to play Alfred Hitchcock, THR reports that Mirren will play the famed director's wife, the writer Alma Reville.
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho is not to be confused with the other Hitchcock biopic, The Girl, which HBO is producing with BBC Two and stars Toby Jones as Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as Birds actress Tippi Hedren. Instead, The Making of Psycho will focus on, obviously, Hitchcock's decision to make the landmark 1960 horror movie, which was seen as a step backward at the time.
Production is scheduled to begin in April on the movie, which is based on the non-fiction book by Stephen Rebello. Sacha Gervasi (Anvil! The Story of Anvil) is directing a script by John McLaughlin (Black Swan), which also focuses on the relationship between Hitchcock and Reville.