Casting News: Chris Evans Is the Snow Piercer; Jeffrey Dean Morgan Joins Chloe Moretz in The Rut; Kate Winslet in Kenneth Branagh's Latest
Posted 01.16.12 by Ryan
In November, actor Chris Evans (Captain America: The First Avenger) added a non-Marvel movie to his upcoming slate with The Iceman, replacing James Franco as Robert Pronge, the mentor of convicted mob contract killer Richard Kuklinski, a.k.a. the Iceman. Now, Evans has also added another non-comic book character role in The Snow Piercer.
Variety reports that Evans is in negotiations to star in the indie drama which is set on an ice and snow-covered world where a train full of travelers struggle to co-exist. Bong Joon-ho, who directed the 2006 Korean monster movie The Host, will make his English-language directorial debut with The Snow Piercer, which was written by Park Chan-wook, the director of the 2004 Korean adaptation of Oldboy. American remakes of both Oldboy and The Host are reportedly in the works, though Oldboy is further along with Spike Lee (Miracle at St. Anna, Inside Man) set to direct and Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) set to star.
Evans is currently shooting the The Iceman, and will start production on The Snow Piercer in March. Marvel has yet to officially announce Captain America 2, though Evans has said that the sequel isn't likely until 2014, so expect him to add more non-Marvel roles after he finishes doing press for The Avengers in April and May.
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Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) is looking to reunite with his Texas Killing Fields co-star Chloe Grace Moretz in the indie drama The Rut, THR reports.
The Rut follows Moretz as a young girl who journeys in to the wilderness alone to hunt deer in order to win the approval of her father, played by Morgan. The movie will be directed by Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body, Aeon Flux) and was written by newcomer Kevin Caruso.
The Rut will likely start production in October, should financing come together.
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Speaking of reunions, Kate Winslet is looking to work again for director Kenneth Branagh (Thor), who directed the Titanic actress in 1996's Hamlet.
The Daily Mail reports that Winslet will star in The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, based on the best-selling novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows. Winslet will play Juliet Ashton, a magazine writer in the 1940s, who takes up correspondence with a man who lives on the Nazi-occupied Channel Island of Guernsey. Drawn in by the eccentric stories of the town, Juliet eventually travels to the island to find her life changed forever. In a recent interview with Variety, Branagh called the movie "a very beautiful romance, very touching and uplifting". There's also not one Marvel superhero character in it.
Production on The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society will begin in March. Screenwriter Don Roos (Marley & Me, The Devil Wears Prada) is adapting the script.