Casting Couch - May 19, 2007
Variety reports that Gerard Butler is continuing to spin his 300 box office success into future roles (notice how this didn’t happen after Phantom of the Opera?) Butler will costar with Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin in the Fox Walden fantasy adventure, Nim’s Island.
The pitch: It’s like a pre-teen Lost. Breslin will play a girl living on an island with her father but ends up on her own, trying to survive, and - we’re assuming - talking to a deflated volleyball.
This marks the third nodded head by Butler since 300 dominated the spring box office. He was earlier linked to a proposed reimagining of the John Carpenter classic, Escape from New York, and in the past week came news that he’ll join Nic Cage in Capone Rising, a prequel to The Untouchables.
Jeff Bridges is exceedingly likable on screen and off, but now he’ll mentor us on How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. For the movie based on the book of the same name, Cinematical indicates that Bridges will join Kirsten Dunst, Gillian Anderson, Danny Huston and Hot Fuzz/Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg.
Pegg will reportedly play Toby Young, the writer of the book, and Bridges will portray Clayton Harding, a dead ringer for Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. Kirsten Dunst will likely play a girl who’s not as hot as she thinks she is.
Cinematical points out that this has all the markings of another Devil Wears Prada, and it’s hard to argue. Good cast, too.
That Sienna Miller sure is busy these days. The British sex kitten with a none-too-surprising connection to troubled souls has once again swooped in and stolen a role from Lindsay Lohan. She first replaced Lindsay on The Best Times of Our Lives (now called The Edge of Love).
Now she’s taking over for Jessica Biel in Importance (formerly A Woman of No Importance), which Biel herself took away from the nearly impossible Lohan, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This on the heels just weeks ago that Miller and Cillian Murphy (a co-star in The Edge of Love) will play free spirits in the 1960s flick, Hippie Hippie Shake.
My thought here is that producers and possibly directors see that great uncharted “something” in Miller, and I understand that. I certainly didn’t expect the performance she gave in Factory Girl, and she’s proven in virtually every performance that she’s at the very least fearless, which at this stage of her career and with limited life experience, can go a long way for an actor who isn’t preternaturally gifted. We’ll have a chance to see if they’re right; all of these movies are set to hit theaters within the next two years.
Filed under: Main on June 30th, 2007