Casting Bits: Jessica Chastain joins HORIZONS - Jacki Weaver circling SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

Here are two bits of casting news!

Jessica Chastain is set as one of the female leads in Joseph Kosinski's Horizons. Ropes of Silicon reports that she will either be playing Cruise's wife in the film or the role of a mysterious woman in the upcoming sci-fi film starring Tom Cruise. Chastain beat out Olivia Wilde, Brit Marling, Noomi Rapace and Olga Kurylenko for the role. One of those actresses could fill the other lead role still. 

The film is based on the Radical Publishing graphic novel that Kosinski wrote and was adapted by William Monahan (The Departed) and a rewrite by Karl Gajdusek (Trespass). Horizons is set on "a future Earth, where civilization lives above the clouds and scavengers collect ancient artifacts from the polluted surface below. When a soldier (Cruise) stationed on the planet below, with a surface destroyed by aliens, finds a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off a chain of events that cause him to question everything he knows." Horizons is expected to be released on July 19, 2013. Chastain is the go-to girl lately, so this is a no-brainer casting wise.

Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) is circling a role in an adaptation Matthew Quick's novel The Silver Linings Playbook, being directed by David O. Russell. She would play the role of Pat People's mother in the film and would star opposite Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro. Here is a description from THR:

Pat Peoples, the endearing narrator of this touching and funny debut, is down on his luck. The former high school history teacher has just been released from a mental institution and placed in the care of his mother. Not one to be discouraged, Pat believes he has only been on the inside for a few months––rather than four years––and plans on reconciling with his estranged wife. Refusing to accept that their apart time is actually a permanent separation, Pat spends his days and nights feverishly trying to become the man she had always desired.

This sounds like a a great role for the Oscar-nominated actress. I loved her in Animal Kingdom and am excited to see her career take off.