Even more casting news out today as we have three major projects adding to their casts. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Zendaya and Colin Farrell each have new projects lined up for our future viewing pleasure.
Let’s start with Chiwetel Ejiofor, who has signed up for Mary Magdalene, a major Biblical epic following Jesus’ most famous female follower. Produced by the team behind The King’s Speech and directed by Garth Davis (the upcoming Lion), the film will star Rooney Mara as the Biblical prostitute (which isn’t technically accurate based on Biblical and Church teachings, but was in fact a Hollywood convenience by Cecil B. DeMille in order to make it an easier story to tell). Joaquin Phoenix has already signed on for the role of Jesus, because of course he did and everything is ok in the world now, and as of today we have our Simon Peter in Chiwetel Ejiofor. Ejiofor is probably best known for his role in Twelve Years a Slave, for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and I’m excited to see what he will bring to the role.
Zendaya? I think? The world may never know who she really is
Last week, I wrote about Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman, and we have yet another casting announcement today, as the news has broken that Zendaya is in talks to take on a supporting role in the project. The story of P.T. Barnum, it appears that Zendaya will take on the role of a trapeze artist whom Zac Efron’s character falls for. Jackman will play Barnum, Efron will play Barnum’s right hand man, and Michelle Williams will play Jenny Lind, the opera singer who catches Barnum’s eye. I have no idea who Zendaya is, despite people’s attempts to explain her to me. I believe she is a Disney Channel star, and by process of elimination I’m assuming that it is for K.C. Undercover, but that is the extent of how much I know or care to know about her. She will also be playing the lead female role in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming, so expect her to be the next Selena Gomez type, popping up everywhere until we make her a star (although I bear no ill will towards Selena).
OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT SMOLDER I WANT HIM ALL TO MYSELF!
And finally we have the incomparable and intoxicated Colin Farrell, who has signed on to the lead role in Sofia Coppola’s remake of the Clint Eastwood movie The Beguiled. The original told the story of a Yankee soldier who is injured in combat and finds himself in a Southern Girls’ Academy, setting off a chain of lust, jealousy and hate. Farrell, who I assume will be playing the Yankee solider, will be joining Nicole Kidman, as well as Coppola’s protégés Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. I have mixed feelings on this one. Sofia Coppola is a bit of a hit-and-miss director-Lost in Translation is a masterpiece, The Virgin Suicides is ambitious, Marie Antoinette is a fascinating failure, and The Bling Ring is nightmarishly awful, the only truly terrible film Emma Watson has ever made. However, Farrell is a truly talented actor, proving himself in films such as In Bruges, Crazy Heart, a stunningly transformative turn in Horrible Bosses, Seven Psychopaths, and my two personal favorites, Saving Mr. Banks and The Lobster. I’m excited for this one, and I expect big things.
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