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Casting Bits: Keira Knightley In ‘Untouched’, Wendi McLendon-Covey In ‘A White Trash Christmas’, Hayley Atwell In ‘The Return Of Captain Nemo’ Just as Emma Thompson’s VictorianEffieisfinally coming together, competition has sprung up in the form of a rival project inspired by the exact same subject.Keira Knightleyis reportedly in talks to take the lead inUntouched, a biopic ofEffie Graywritten byAleksandra CrapanzanowithAndrucha Waddington(House of Sand) directing. Both films are based on the same scandalous 1850s love triangle between Gray, the art critic John Ruskin, and painter John Everett Millais....

Casting Notes: Brandon Routh In ‘Missing William’; Ray Liotta In ‘The River Sorrow’; Liev Schreiber In ‘Goon’ Brandon Routhwon’t be in the newZack Snyder-directedSuperman, or so we’re told. Which is too bad; after meeting resistance when he first got the role, I think a lot of people have grown used to the idea of Mr. Routh as Superman. Earning good will inScott Pilgrimdidn’t hurt, through the rather dire-lookingDylan Dogmight. Regardless, now he’s booked a role in the indieMissing William....

Chris Columbus Talks ‘Pixels’, Video Game Licenses, Pac-Man Creator, Return To Amblin Era And John Hughes While in Las Vegas for CinemaCon 2015 last week, I got the opportunity to sit down withChris Columbus, a screenwriter and director who had a dramatic effect on the cinema of my childhood, and yours. Lets do a list:Gremlins,Goonies,Young Sherlock Holmes,Adventures in Babysitting,Home Alone,Mrs. Doubtfire,Stepmom, and the first installments of theHarry Potterfranchise. His latest filmPixelsseems to be a return to the roots of his earlier days, and I’m personally excited to see it....

Dan Stevens Joins Adam Wingard’s Godzilla Vs Kong 2 Thelion of lovemust have broken out of his cage because Dan Stevens was just announced as having joined the cast of “Godzilla vs. Kong 2,” reuniting him with Adam Wingard who directed Stevens in the action-thriller “The Guest.” Stevens' announcement is the first major casting news from “Godzilla vs. Kong 2,” the highly-anticipated sequel to Wingard’s 2021 ultimate kaiju battle flick and the next addition to Legendary’s Monsterverse film franchise....

Danny Elfman To Score ‘Justice League,’ Will Probably Charge More Than $1 Elfman returns…to superhero movies. Danny Elfman, the composer for classic superhero movies like Tim Burton’sBatmanand Sam Raimi’sSpider-ManandSpider-Man 2, has signed on to scoreJustice League. This may throw a wrench in Elfman’s recently announced plans toscore smaller films for $1— I’m pretty sure Warner Bros. will pay him a little bit more than that, at least. Elfman will be joining his previous collaboratorJoss Whedon, who he worked with onAvengers: Age of Ultron, in the post-production stage ofJustice League, according toThe Hollywood Reporter....

David Chen’s Most Anticipated Films Of 2017 [Podcast] Sometimes humans can be terrible at predicting things, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun when we try. My previous attempts to predict my favorite films of the year are often wildly inaccurate — inevitably,myactualfavorite films of the yearwill contain lots of entries that I couldn’t have possibly foreseen. That being said, for 2017, the job is slightly easier. There are sequels on the docket that lots of people are actually psyched to see, rather than follow-ups people didn’t need (Alice Through the Looking Glass) or ask for (The Hunstman: Winter’s War)....

Director Lee Daniels Departs Long-Gestating Richard Pryor Biopic A biopic about legendary comedianRichard Pryorhas been developing long enough thatEddie Murphywas once considered for the lead role, but has since been hired toplay the father of the iconic comic, who will instead be played byMike Epps. The project finally seemed like it was on track to make it in front of cameras withLee Danielsat the helm, but the filmmaker behindThe ButlerandPrecioushas now fallen away from the project, leaving it without a director....

Disney Is One Of The Most Successful Companies In The World – So Why Are Its Failures So Troubling? (Welcome toThe Disney Discourse, a recurring feature where Josh Spiegel discusses the latest in Disney news. He goes deep on everything from the animated classics to the theme parks to live-action franchises. In this edition: Disney may be massively successful, but its failures speak to a troubling trend.)Last month,Robert Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company,spoketo the financial magazine Barron’s about what 2019 brings for Disney....

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness Features Another Sam Raimi Trademark Sam Raimi’s latest film, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” is in theaters now, giving fans of the famously frenetic director reason to celebrate. Raimi hasn’t made a feature film since “Oz the Great and Powerful” in 2013, and in the nine years since then, he has only directed a few episodes of “Ash vs. Evil Dead” and a notable chapter inQuibi’s “Fifty States of Fright....

Don’t Look Up Ending Explained: It’s The End Of The World As We Know It Writer and director Adam McKay has made quite the mid-career transition, pivoting from his usual mode of crowd-pleasing (but deceptively clever) comedies, to more serious-minded films that function as vehicles for political commentary just as much as they provide laughs. It might be easy to believe that the same filmmaker could be credited for movies like “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Step Brothers,” and “The Other Guys,” but then things get a little more complicated with the additions of “The Big Short,” “Vice,” and now “Don’t Look Up” in recent years....

Early Buzz: First Reactions From ‘The Avengers’ Hollywood Premiere The world premiere ofJoss Whedon’sThe Avengershappened tonight in Hollywood. We recorded a video blog reaction after the screening which we’ll be posting in addition to a couple full reviews from various members of the /Film team. But any long form reviews are embargoed until later — at this moment they are saying May 2nd, but I’d bet that will be moved up....

First Look: Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers Earlier this month,we notedin surprise, as did a number of peers on the web, the sudden announcement of a new film fromHarmony Korine, the semi-reclusive director ofMister Lonely.Aforementionedsurprise arose because the project, entitledTrash Humpers, was already completed, said to be a 78-min feature, and set to premiere at next month’sToronto International Film Festival. TheTIFFhas released further details alongside the first photos fromHumpers. As seen below, the set pics are John Waters-esque andmoderately NSFW....

First Look: James Franco In ‘Rise Of The Apes’ With all that’s going on in the wonderful world ofJames Franco– including hosting the Oscars andediting 12 hour movies– it’s easy to forget that the guy has a few huge movies on the horizon. Paramount among those, even if it’s being released by Fox, isRise of the Apes, the modern-day prequel toPlanet of the Apeswhich stars Franco as a scientist who single-handedly plants the seed for the end of the world when he helps to create Caesar, the world’s first intelligent ape, played in full motion-capture byAndy Serkis....