Although we won’t be seeing it for over two years thanks to his Batman v Superman commitments, Ben Affleck is prepping his return behind the camera following Argo. His long-in-the-works adaptation of Dennis Lehane‘s Live By Night is set to shoot next year and today the first word of casting has come in. According to Deadline, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana and Elle Fanning will play the lead roles in the Prohibition era drama.
The story follows the son of a police captain who gets involved in the mob — a role that has yet to be cast, but rumors of Adam Driver, Jon Bernthal and Chris Messina have been circling. As for the newly added trio, Miller will play a love interest and girlfriend of a mafia boss while Saldana takes the role of a woman our lead gets involved with in Florida, and Fanning takes the role of an aspiring actress and the sheriff’s daughter. Stay tuned for more casting ahead of an October 7th, 2016 release.
Next up, after her break-out role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Margot Robbie shows no signs of slowing down. Currently off filming Tarzan, she’s now boarded two more projects. First up, The Wrap reports she’s in talks for an adaptation of Masamune Shirow‘s manga Ghost in the Shell, directed by Snow White and the Huntsman‘s Rupert Sanders. Set up at DreamWorks, she’d lead the story of “a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.” According to Deadline, Robbie will also take part in Hany Abu-Assad‘s The Mountain Between Us alongside Charlie Hunnam. The project follows them as a couple in a survival story after their plane crashes, adapted from Charles Martin‘s book.
Easily one of our most-anticipated films in some time, we let you know production has kicked off on Joachim Trier‘s English-language debut Louder than Bombs and now we have a few more additions to the cast. According to Variety, Amy Ryan and David Strathairn have joined Jesse Eisenberg, Isabelle Huppert and Gabriel Byrne in the film, which follows a family grieving over the loss of a war photographer in their family.
In other casting news, Dito Montiel is set to reteam with his star of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Shia LaBeouf, for a new drama. Man Down, kicking off production next month, follows LaBeouf as a haunted Afghanistan war veteran who attempts to come to terms with his past while searching for his family in a post-apocalyptic America. Also starring Kate Mara and Gary Oldman, we expect the Adam Simon-scripted project to be ready for a festival debut next year if all goes according to plan.
Speaking of LaBeouf-related films, after Lars von Trier gave her a major role in Nymphomaniac, Stacy Martin has found another project, Variety reports. She’ll be leading a new thriller titled Taj Mahal, which focuses on a terrorist hostage situation in 2008 at the famous hotel located at the titular place. Scripted and directed by Nicolas Saada (who gave us the thrilling Sleepless Night), the film specifically follows Martin’s character, as she sees the events from her room. Also starring Alba Rohrwacher, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, and Gina McKee, production kicks off next month for a release next year.
Which of the above films are you most looking forward to?