Casting Net: 'Man of Steel' eyed for 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.'; Plus, Josh Brolin joins 'Inherent Vice', more (original) (raw)

Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage

• Fresh off the news that Tom Cruise exited the long-gestating production of Man From U.N.C.L.E., it looks like Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) may take on the now-vacated starring role. The **Guy Ritchie-**directed Warner Bros. adaptation of the 1960s television show currently stars Armie Hammer (The Social Network) and Alicia Vikander (Anna Karenina). Besides his potentially career-changing turn in Man of Steel, Cavill is also attached to the still-delayed production of The Great Wall. [Variety]

• Director Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master) has added another cast member to his adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice — Josh Brolin (True Grit). The ensemble cast currently includes Owen Wilson, Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, and Martin Short. The report also says that Sean Penn may be in consideration for the film as well. Brolin has wrapped a number of projects recently including Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Spike Lee’s Oldboy, and Jason Reitman’s Labor Day. [Deadline]

• Joel McHale (The Soup) may be known for his comedic chops, but the actor may be expanding his resume soon. The Community star is in talks to join the demonic-possession crime thriller Beware the Night, where he’d play a cop alongside Eric Bana (Hanna). Sean Harris (Prometheus) also recently joined the cast as the Devil. Sinister director and writer Scott Derrickson will helm the project off a script he co-wrote with Paul Harris Boardman. Olivia Munn (_Magic Mik_e) and Edgar Ramirez (Zero Dark Thirty) also star. [THR]

• Danny Huston (Hitchcock) is in negotiations to join Tim Burton’s Big Eyes, starring Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) and Amy Adams (The Master) as art world duo Walter and Margaret Keane. Huston would play the role of a gossip reporter chronicling the fallout of the Keane’s marriage and their long, public argument about who actually painted those kids with the big eyes. [THR]

• Mary Steenburgen (The Help) will play Anne Hathaway’s mother in Kate Barker-Froyland’s Song One, a drama about a woman (Hathaway) who deals with her brother’s coma by befriending his favorite musician (played by real-life musician Johnny Flynn). [Deadline]

• Smash’s Katharine McPhee is attached to star in the thriller Depravity, about some roommates who murder someone they assume is a killer. Poor McPhee is the one that this group of roommates tries to use as a scapegoat. Paul Tamasy, who wrote the screenplay for The Fighter, will make his feature directorial debut on the project, penned by crime author Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island, Mystic River). [Deadline]

• Resident best friend T.J. Miller (She’s Out of My League) is set to play Mark Wahlberg’s mechanic friend in Transformers 4. The cast also includes Jack Reynor (What Richard Did), Li Bingbing, Nicola Peltz (Bates Motel) and Kelsey Grammer (Boss). T.J. Miller can also be seen as Jimmy Goodwin in Fox’s The Goodwin Games, and is currently filming the ensemble comedy Search Party. [The Wrap]

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