Casting Roundup: The Descendants, Conan, The Ledge, 127 Hours, Forest Whitaker
Judy Greer (The Village), Beau Bridges (Max Payne), Matthew Lillard (SLC Punk) and Robert Forster (Heroes) have all joined the cast of Alexander Payne's next film The Descendants, which begins filming Monday in Hawaii. The movie is based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, where George Clooney plays an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-establish his relationship with his daughters after his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The cast also includes Shailene Woodley, Mary Birdsong, Nick Krause and Amara Miller.
Actor Said Taghmaoui (G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, The Kite Runner) has been in Marcus Nispel's not highly anticipated film, Conan. Taghmaoui will play a leader of thieves who is saved by Conan being played by Jason Momoa. Also starring in the film is Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Bob Sapp, Leo Howard and Ron Perlman.
Ugly Betty actor Christopher Gorham joins Charlie Hunnam, Terrence Howard, Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson in writer-director Matthew Chapman's suspense thriller, The Ledge. The film tells the story of a man (Hunnam) standing on a high-rise ledge who insists he must jump by noon as the policeman below (Howard) tries to manage the situation. Gorham will play the distraught man's roommate, a television editor.
Lizzy Caplan (Cloverfield, Mean Girls) has announced that she's been cast in Danny Boyle's new film 127 Hours. She joins James Franco who plays Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who was pinned under a boulder in Utah and amputated his own arm to survive. Caplan will play his younger sister, Sonja, who was 22 at the time of the accident.
Forest Whitaker is looking to to star in a new indie drama calledLittle Treasure. The film tells the story of an American couple who returns to the wife's homeland of China, and focuses on the couple dealing with prejudices, humor, cultural differences and self-discovery while meeting a Shanghai street kid who changes their lives.