He may have starred in two of the worst blockbusters of recent years — “Green Lantern” and “R.I.P.D.” — but don’t hold that against him, given the right film and role (like this year’s “The Voices”) Ryan Reynolds can shine. Deadline reports Reynolds will stay in the arthouse world with a role in the Helen Mirren-starring “Woman In Gold” alongside Daniel Bruhl, who’s in negotiations with The Weinstein Company. Reynolds will play the lawyer — replacing Andrew Garfield, who was linked to the role earlier this year — for Mirren’s Jewish WWII survivor, fighting the Austrian government to recover lost art stolen from her family by the Nazis. “My Week With Marilyn” helmer Simon Curtis will direct the film.
Multi-hyphenate James Franco is all set to return to the “based on a true story” well. Per Vulture, Franco will play “Michael Glatze, a gay activist who leaves San Francisco, renounces his past, and comes out as an ex-gay Christian fundamentalist” in a currently-untitled movie that has Gus van Sant producing with unknown director Justin Kelly at the helm. Benoit Denizet-Lewis’ 2011 New York Times article will be used as source material for the film which begins shooting this July.
Writer-directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash must have had a great time with their cast on their directorial debut “The Way, Way Back,” because The Wrap is reporting the duo is in talks to reunite with two of their former stars, Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney, for their Kristen Wiig-starring follow-up. If talks are successful, the pair of actors would join Wigg in “The Heart,” which is being described as an action-comedy where the SNL alum will play “a cash-strapped woman who agrees to transport black market organs with a man she just met.” Rockwell is eyeing the role of the unsavory man and Janney would be Wiig’s “intimidating boss who has two boyfriends.” Production on the film is scheduled to start this May in North Carolina.
Tom Hardy is keeping very busy. Yesterday we learned he’ll be doing the UK TV drama series “Taboo,” and this morning comes news from Daily Mail that he’ll have a small role in the film adaptation of the stage musical “London Road” featuring Olivia Colman. Rufus Norris co-wrote the script and is directing the movie “about how a community in Ipswich was shattered when a serial killer murdered five women, and how it coped with the ensuing frenzy.” Hardy will take the role of taxi driver Mark who “sings about a rather morbid passion he enjoyed as teenager.”
Finally, the Colin Trevorrow-helmed “Jurassic World” has added another name to its cast as THR reports Judy Greer will play an as-of-yet undisclosed role. She brings with her two other actresses, Katie McGrath and Lauren Lapkus, joining the already-cast Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt. Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins, Jake Johnson, Irrfan Khan,Vincent D’Onofrio and BD Wong. “Jurassic World” will roar across screens nationwide next year on June 12th, 2015.