There’s a lot of breaking news in Hollywood happening every minute. In the age of the blockbuster, it’s easy for some smaller movie and television news to slip through the crack. Last Week in Hollywood is our new weekly series highlighting all the interesting news from the last week that we thought didn’t warrant its own post, but was still worth mentioning. It’s less personal opinions and more a hearty roundup of what you might have missed.
Jeremy Irvine Cast as Alan Scott in Green Lantern
Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) is in talks to play Alan Scott in the HBO Max Green Lantern series, reports TV Line. The series would depict Scott as a secretly gay FBI agent in the year 1941. If cast, Irvine would join Finn Wittrock, who has already been cast as Guy Gardner, the “the inexplicably likable hulking mass of masculinity, and, as rendered in the comics, an embodiment of 1980s hyper-patriotism.”
The Green Lantern series “reinvents the classic DC property through a story spanning decades and galaxies, beginning on Earth in 1941 with the very first Green Lantern, secretly gay FBI agent Alan Scott, and 1984, with cocky alpha male Guy Gardner (Wittrock) and half-alien Bree Jarta. They’ll be joined by a multitude of other Lanterns — from comic book favorites to never-before-seen heroes.”
Poor Things Adds Mark Ruffalo & Jerrod Carmichael
Poor Things, the latest from director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) has added Mark Ruffalo and Jerrod Carmichael to its cast. The two join Emma Stone, Ramy Youssef, and Willem Dafoe in the movie, which is based on the novel by Alasdair Gray and described as a re-imagining of Frankenstein.
In Poor Things, “Bella Baxter – a beautiful young erotomaniac is brought back to life with the brain of an infant.” Stone is playing Bella Baxter while Dafoe will play the “eccentric and brilliant scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter”. Ruffalo will play a character named Duncan Wedderburn and Youssef is playing Max McCandless. No word on who Carmichael is playing.
Tony McNamara (The Favourite) wrote the script. Production on the project is set to begin this year, with a 2022 release date likely.
Nathalie Emmanuel & Garrett Hedlund to Star in The Bride
Nathalie Emmanuel (The Fast Saga) and Garrett Hedlund (Triple Frontier) are set to star in The Bride, a new contemporary horror thriller from Screen Gems. The film will be directed by Jessica M. Thompson (The Light of the Moon) and tell the “story of a young woman who is courted and swept off her feet, only to realize a gothic conspiracy is afoot.”
Blair Butler pitched and wrote the original script, with revisions by Thompson. The project is inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but is not a straightforward adaptation of the horror classic. The studio is fast-tracking the movie and see it as a potential franchise starter.
Bruce Willis & John Travolta Back Together for Paradise City
Bruce Willis and John Travolta will act together again for the first time in 27 years. The two legends will star in Paradise City, a new action film from director Chuck Russell. Willis will play a “renegade bounty hunter, Ryan Swan, who must carve his way through the Hawaiian crime world to wreak vengeance on the kingpin, played by Travolta, who murdered his father.”
Praya Lundberg will also star in the lead female role. Corey Large is co-writing Paradise City with his writing partner Ed John Drake. Large will also star as part of Willis’ bounty hunting posse in the film. Production starts tomorrow in Maui, Hawaii.
Lindsay Lohan Starring in Holiday Rom-Com
Lindsay Lohan is back! The actress, who hasn’t done much acting in the last decade, will star in an untitled Netflix holiday rom-com. In this new movie, Lohan will play a “newly engaged, spoiled hotel heiress, who gets amnesia after a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a handsome, blue-collar lodge owner and his precocious daughter in the days leading up to Christmas.”
The rest of the cast has not been announced yet. Lohan was last seen onscreen in the comedy series Sick Note in 2018 and as a judge on the Australian version of The Masked Singer in 2019. The movie starts production in November, so it likely won’t grace our screens until 2022. Janeen Damian (A Christmas Waltz) will direct.
Jenna Ortega Cast as Wednesday
Jenna Ortega (YOU, The Babysitter: Killer Queen) will star as Wednesday Addams in Wednesday, the upcoming live-action Netflix series based on The Addams Family.
The series’ synopsis teases a “sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.”
Tim Burton will direct all eight episodes of the series. No word yet as to when Wednesday will premiere, so stay tuned.
Christopher McDonald Joins Marvel’s Secret Invasion
Christopher McDonald, who is best known for playing Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, is the latest actor to join Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion.
Deadline reports that McDonald will be playing “a newly created character that could cross over to the larger MCU, including appearing in movies and other Disney+ limited series.” That’s not much to go off of, but perhaps he is the next Phil Coulson? Could he be working with Fury? I need answers!
McDonald joins a cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Olivia Colman, Emilia Clarke, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Killian Scott.
Rina Sawayama Joins John Wick: Chapter 4
Rina Sawayama, a Japanese-British singer-songwriter and model, will make her feature film debut in John Wick: Chapter 4. On the casting, director Chad Stahelski said that she is “an incredible talent who’ll bring so much to the film.” No word yet on who she is playing or how large her role will be. Production on John Wick 4 will begin this summer in France, Germany, and Japan.
That’s it for last couple of weeks. What castings mentioned are you interested in seeing the most onscreen? Tell us down in the comments!
