Randall Miller's rock 'n' roll tribute "CBGB" has found its female lead with 'Twilight' star Ashley Greene taking on the role of Lisa Kristal, daughter of the Hilly Kristel, the owner of the titular, influential New York club to be played by Alan Rickman. The story follows Kristal as she clashes with her father, ends up as the club's business manager and attends law school all while keeping the club afloat during tough times. The real life Lisa Kristal is, in fact, a producer on the film so authenticity shouldn't be an issue here. Miller is helming from a script he wrote with Jody Savin with several interesting cast members already filled including Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop, Mickey Sumner as Patti Smith and Malin Akerman as Debbie Harry. [Variety]
Matthew Modine is set for a career-booster this summer featuring in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" and has now lined up another interesting role; that of former Apple CEO John Sculley in Joshua Michael Stern's Steve Jobs biopic "jOBS." This is, of course, the one that stars Ashton Kutcher as Jobs with Josh Gad as co-founder Steve Wozniak. Sculley is best known as the CEO fired Steve Jobs during his tenure at the tech company during his reign between 1983 and 1993. Modine compared his character's importance to that of a college basketball coach who sacked Michael Jordan in his youth. Does anyone remember that guy ? Or does anyone even recognise Sculley as part of the Apple empire? A good part for Modine nevertheless — lensing on "jOBS" is currently taking place. [CBSFIlms]
Kathryn Bigelow's Osama Bin Laden hunt film "Zero Dark Thirty" has been shooting for quite some time now but continues to add more actors to its cast. The latest addition is Mike Colter ("MIB3") who'll play yet another member of the Navy SEAL team. He joins names like Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, Mark Duplass, Harold Perrineau, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong and Edgar Ramirez. The Bigelow-Boal reunion looks to be jam packed with talent and is definitely one of our most anticipated films of the fall. [BlackFilm]
Brad Furman's offshore gambling tale "Runner Runner" has added Michael Esper (Broadway's "American Idiot") to its cast with the actor to play a tattooed man who's an affiliate of the poker company owned by Ben Affleck's character. The story follows Justin Timberlake's lead who flies to Costa Rica to chase his the tuition money he was cheated out of playing online poker but ends up becoming the corrupt CEO's right-hand man. Gemma Arteton, Anthony Mackie, Oliver Cooper and Ben Schwartz also co-star with the film backed by Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way shingle.
DiCaprio, pal Tobey Maguire and many other Hollywood hotshots were heavily involved with the poker scene and its rise early last decade with one high profile incident forcing Maguire to hand over hundreds of thousands in winnings when a private, high-stakes games was revealed to be run by a hedge fund manager also running a $26 million Ponzi scheme. Here's a fascinating article about the whole debacle. Oh, and if you've ever wondered about Maguire's interesting role choices post-'Spiderman,' he's apparently taken home tens of millions in private Hollywood poker games alone. Why bother learning lines? [Variety]
