With the Toronto International Film Festival in full swing, all sorts of deals are being made and mended, and the news is coming fast and furiously, straight from the great white north. Predictably, we’re doing all we can to keep up with the news, with a rundown that includes the start date for Tom Hanks‘ next feature, a big time cast member joining David Gordon Green‘s “Manglehorn,” information on Tommy Lee Jones‘ next directorial project, a legendary name lending a hand to Elijah Wood‘s new horror movie and word that a creepy old dude will be joining a young adult novel adaptation.
First off, the briefest of news bits: Willem Dafoe will join the seemingly unstoppable Shailene Woodley in Josh Boone‘s “The Fault in Our Stars,” an adaptation of John Greene‘s wildly popular young adult novel of the same name (it was announced via the director’s Twitter). Dafoe will play reclusive author Peter Van Houten. The novel is about a young cancer patient (Woodley) forced to attend a support group, where she falls in love. Dafoe joins a supporting cast that also includes Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Mike Birbiglia and Nat Wolff. No release date has been solidified for the movie, which began filming began in late August.
Speaking of shooting, it’s been announced that Tom Tykwer‘s “Hologram for the King” will begin shooting early next year, with Tom Hanks firmly locked into the project, an adaptation of Dave Eggers‘ 2012 novel of the same name (a finalist for the National Book Award). The project finds Hanks reuniting with his “Cloud Atlas” director (well, one of them, at least) for a tale about a struggling businessman who “travels to a Saudi Arabian city in a last ditch attempt to stave off a foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition and do something great.” Hanks can next be seen in a pair of Oscar bait-y features this fall: first as the titular “Captain Phillips” and then as Walt Disney himself in “Saving Mr. Banks.”
Like Hanks, Tommy Lee Jones is an actor who likes to dabble in directing, and he’s just lined up his next gig on that front: a remake of the 1972 John Wayne western “The Cowboys,” about an epic cattle drive. This project will follow another oater that he just co-wrote, directed, and produced (alongside Luc Besson) called “The Homesman.” “The Cowboys” will be made for Warner Bros. Jones can next be seen in Besson’s fairly enjoyable “The Family,” co-starring with Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer.
The action thriller “Momentum” just got a whole heck of a lot that thanks to additions to its cast. Olga Kurylenko and Vincent Cassel are the latest to join the movie that already stars Morgan Freeman and Shea Whigham. Stephen Campanelli, a veteran camera operator best known for working with Clint Eastwood, will make his directorial debut.
Horror icon John Landis has joined the Elijah Wood-produced werewolf movie “Bad Vibes” as an executive producer. The film, written and directed by Dave Gebroe, is a werewolf movie set in the ’60s psychedelic rock music scene. While the concept is pretty great, what’s even better is who Wood and his SpecreVision-producing partners have lined up to do the music: beloved indie musician Ariel Pink. Hopefully it’ll be like “Inside Llewyn Davis” but with multiple decapitations. In a statement, Landis, whose genre bona-fides include “An American Werewolf in London,” “Innocent Blood,” “The Twilight Zone Movie,” Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller” music video and three episodes of “Masters of Horror” (two under the original moniker and one under the rebranded “Fear Itself” iteration), said “ I am very excited that Dave Gebroe’s clever and scary ‘Bad Vibes’ has found the perfect home.”
Lastly, Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren and rising star Manish Dayal will star in “The Hundred-Foot Journey” for Participant Media and DreamWorks. Lasse Hallström (frequent Nicholas Sparks adapter, “The Cider House Rules“) will direct the film. — additional reporting by Cain Rodriguez