Hayden Panettiere becomes a “Daydream” believer. Brittany Murphy gets her “Hall” pass, but will she take over for “Poor” Lindsay Lohan? And my, what “Big Eyes” Kate Hudson has!
It’s all in the latest edition of the Access Hollywood Casting Call.
“Heroes” starlet Hayden Panettiere has signed on to star in the teen comedy “Daydream Nation,” Variety reports.
Kieran Culkin (“Igby Goes Down,” “The Cider House Rules”) is also in talks to co-star in the coming-of-age film along the lines of “Juno,” the producers said.
Panettiere will play a bitter teen, with Culkin in line to play her oblivious boyfriend.
Producers are hoping to start shooting in late 2008, barring any conflicts with the filming of “Heroes.”
Hayden will next appear on the big screen opposite Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds and Willem Dafoe in the drama “Fireflies in the Garden,” opening sometime later this year.
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Brittany Murphy could be in line to replace Lindsay Lohan in the dark comedy “Poor Things,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Although negotiations have yet to begin, Murphy is being considered to replace Lohan, who fell out of the project over the summer when she went into rehab.
“Poor Things,” which also stars Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Rosario Dawson and Channing Tatum, is based on true events, with the story following two elderly female con artists who befriend and then murder homeless men in order to collect on the insurance policies.
Murphy and Dawson will also be teaming up for “Sin City 2,” however no release date has been announced yet.
Murphy is currently filming the indie thriller “Across the Hall,” co-starring “Cloverfield” star Mike Vogel and “Cold Case” star Danny Pino.
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Kate Hudson will star in the indie film “Big Eyes,” according to Variety.
Hudson will play painter Margaret Keane, whose trademark works featuring big-eyed children became an art mass-market success story in the 1950s.
The film will follow Keane’s personal awakening at the beginning of the feminist movement, which led to her lawsuit against her husband, who was taking credit for her work.
Production is tentatively slated to begin in June.
Hudson currently stars alongside Matthew McConaughey in the comedy “Fool’s Gold,” which opens wide on Feb. 8.
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Keanu Reeves, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Monica Bellucci and Alan Arkin will all join the cast of “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
“Pippa,” which already stars Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder and Robin Wright Penn, follows a loyal housewife whose husband falls for a younger woman, allowing her to explore her own buried sensuality, which leads to a nervous breakdown.
The film is written and directed by Rebecca Miller – the daughter of famed playwright Arthur Miller and the wife of Oscar nominee Daniel Day-Lewis.
Wright Penn plays the title character, with Arkin as her cheating husband and Ryder as the younger woman he falls for.
Reeves will play Wright Penn’s younger lover, while Gyllenhaal plays her pill-popping mother in flashback sequences.
Bellucci plays Arkin’s first wife and Moore is a lesbian author.
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Michael Douglas, Amber Tamblyn and Jesse Metcalfe will team up for the remake of the 1956 RKO classic “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt,” reports Variety.
“Reasonable Doubt” follows a journalist investigating a corrupt district attorney, who sets himself up as a murder suspect, only to have the D.A. uncover the plot and incriminate the reporter.
The original film starred Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine.
Shooting on the remake is scheduled to begin March 3.
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Casey Affleck will star in the period noir drama “The Kind One,” based on the recently published Tom Epperson novel, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Set in 1930s Los Angeles, the film follows a man suffering from amnesia (Affleck) who finds himself working for a twisted killer (nicknamed “the Kind One”) and soon finds himself falling for the mobster’s girlfriend.
Epperson will begin to adapt his novel for the big screen once the writers strike comes to an end.
Affleck is up for a supporting Oscar nomination for his role alongside Brad Pitt in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”
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Dominic Monaghan has landed the lead role in the psychological thriller “Pet,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Monaghan, who “Lost” fans know as the now deceased Charlie Pace, will play a man who bumps into his old high school crush and becomes obsessed with her.
He eventually kidnaps her and keeps her underneath the animal shelter where he works but soon begins to realize his old sweetheart isn’t who she seems to be.
Monaghan rose to fame as the diminutive hobbit Merry in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
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