The end is nigh! The currently shooting "The Bitter Pill," starring Channing Tatum and Rooney Mara, marks Steven Soderbergh's penultimate feature film, after which the curtains will close with his long-gestating Liberace biopic "Behind The Candelabra," which films this summer. The latter has now began filling out its cast, with Dan Aykroyd jumping on board to play the famed entertainer's long-term manager, Seymour Heller.
Despite being the flamboyant singer's manager for much of his career, Heller disapproved of Liberace's relationship with live-in lover Scott Thorson. Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are set to play Liberace and Thorson, and the script comes by way of Richard LaGravenese with the project to premiere on HBO in the U.S. before a theatrical unveiling internationally. [Variety]
This past Sunday saw the end of the latest season of HBO's uber-popular "Game Of Thrones." Before lensing on the next set of episodes begins, talent from the show have been making the most of their success, lining up various film projects. The latest talent to do so is Kit Harington, who plays the Starks' bastard son Jon Snow, who has lined up "Greenland Time" with Vera Farmiga. The psychological thriller will follow the story of a woman out for revenge on the man who killed her daughter in a hit-and-run accident. David Newman and Catherine Linstrum are directing. [ScreenDaily]
With baseball a hot topic for films these days after "Moneyball," Billy Bob Thornton and Edward Burns are now set to star in drama based on "Friday Night Lights" scribe Buzz Bissinger's novel "Three Nights In August," which follows a 2003 three-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. David Anspaugh will take the helm of the tale, which is reportedly a fictionalized version of events that glorifies Cardinal manager "[Tony] La Russa's 'old school' managerial style as a direct challenge to the statistical analysis theses of Michael Lewis' 2004 book 'Moneyball.'" Lensing set to begin as early as this fall with Thornton playing the team's pitching coach and Burns as the starting pitcher. [Variety]
Shirley MacLaine, Robin Williams and "Project X" star Oliver Cooper have jumped on board Andy Bergman's comedy "A Film By Alan Stuart Eisner." The comedy follows a young documentary filmmaker who aims to bring his family's "amazing and bizarre World War II history to the screen." Director Rob Reiner is also in line to make an on-screen cameo on the project, which reunites Bergman with producer Mike Lobell ("Gambit"). [Deadline]