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.
Andy Garcia Joins The Expendables 4
Andy Garcia has joined the cast of The Expendables 4, the latest installment of the action franchise from Lionsgate and Millennium Media.
Garcia will play “a CIA agent assigned to accompany the Expendables on their dangerous mission.” He joins a cast that includes Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone, who are set to reprise their roles from the previous three installments. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, and Tony Jaa are also part of the cast.
Scott Waugh (Need for Speed) is set to direct with shooting scheduled to begin in October. Spenser Cohen wrote the script, with revisions by Max Adams and John Joseph Connolly.
Salem’s Lot Cast Continues to Grow
The cast for Gary Dauberman‘s Salem’s Lot continues to expand. Alfre Woodard, William Sadler, Makenzie Leigh, Bill Camp, and Spencer Treat Clark have all boarded the upcoming Stephen King adaptation. They’ll star opposite Lewis Pullman, who was previously cast as the lead, author Ben Mears.
Woodard will be playing Dr. Cody, “an ally of the young writer at the center of this story as he uncovers the dirty, blood-thirsty secret of the tiny town of ‘Salem’s Lot.” Leigh will play Susan Norton, Camp is Matthew Burke, and Clark is Mike Ryerson. No word on who Sadler is playing.
New Line has also announced that the film will hit theaters on September 9, 2022.
True Lies TV Pilot Casts Steve Howey
Steve Howey (Shameless) has been cast as one of the leads in True Lies, a CBS drama pilot based on the movie.
Howey will star as Harry, the role played in the film by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The character is described as “a benign, play-it-safe, seemingly risk-averse computer salesman and devoted family man, married with two kids. But in reality, Harry is an undercover operative, a first-class spy working for a covert U.S. Intelligence organization.”
Film Noir Sniff Assembles A-List Cast
Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Dame Helen Mirren, and Danny DeVito are all set to star in the upcoming film noir, Sniff, the latest film from director Taylor Hackford.
Sniff was penned by Tom Grey, a first-time screenwriter. The film’s title is an acronym for “Senior Nursing Institute & Family Foundation.” The synopsis reads: “When two residents die under suspicious circumstances, retired detective Joe Mulwray (Freeman) is pulled back into the action by his former partner William Keys (DeVito) as they uncover a hidden underworld of sex, drugs, and murder in the high-end, luxury retirement community controlled by kingpin Harvey Stride (Pacino) and his femme fatale enforcer, the Spider (Mirren).”
Jodie Comer Joins Kitbag
Jodie Comer (Free Guy) has joined the cast of Kitbag, the upcoming Napoleon Bonaparte historical drama, opposite Joaquin Phoenix. The Ridley Scott project will begin shooting towards the new year. She previously worked with Scott on The Last Duel.
Bruce Willis Makes a Movie for Tubi
Tubi has announced that they have teamed up with Bruce Willis for Corrective Measures, an upcoming film based on the graphic novel of the same name. Michael Rooker, Dan Payne, and Brennan Mejia also star.
Corrective Measures is set “in San Tiburon, the world’s most dangerous maximum-security penitentiary.” The sci-fi/action movie will be written, directed, and produced by Sean Patrick O’Reilly (Howard Lovecraft).
Nicolas Cage to Lead Western The Old Way
Nicolas Cage is set to lead the action-western The Old Way. The film will shoot back-to-back with the previously announced Butcher’s Crossing in Montana. The film will be directed by Brett Donowho (Acts of Violence) from a script by Carl W. Lucas.
In The Old Way, Cage will star as “Colton Briggs, a former gunslinger who now runs a general store and lives quietly with his family. When a gang of outlaws murders his wife in cold blood, Briggs returns home to find his world burning. He unearths his sidearm and saddles up with an unlikely partner: his twelve-year-old daughter.”
Sandra Bullock Replaces Lady Gaga in Bullet Train
Sandra Bullock has replaced Lady Gaga in Bullet Train. Bullock will now take over the role of Brad Pitt’s handler, Maria Beetle. Gaga had to exit the project due to her House of Gucci production schedule.
Collider reports that although “Maria is merely a supporting character and not actually on the train in the book, Sony always envisioned a major star in that role, so when a scheduling issue derailed Lady Gaga’s involvement, the studio made a push for Bullock, who had never shared the big screen with Pitt even though they’re the same age and rose through the Hollywood ranks at the same time.”
The film “follows a group of assassins who board the same high-speed train, each tasked with a different mission.” The star-studded cast also includes Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Logan Lerman, Andrew Koji, Michael Shannon, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Hiroyuki Sanada, Masi Oka, and Bad Bunny.
Action-Thriller Trigger Warning Assembles Cast
Netflix’s action-thriller Trigger Warning has added Anthony Michael Hall, Mark Webber, Alejandro De Hoyos, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, and Gabriel Basso to its cast. They all join the previous announced lead Jessica Alba in her first feature project since 2019’s Killers Anonymous.
Per Deadline, Trigger Warning tells “the story of Parker (Alba), an active-duty Special Forces officer described as a female John Wick. Parker takes ownership of her grandfather’s bar shortly after he dies, and soon finds herself at odds with the violent gang that killed him.”
Filming is set to begin in New Mexico this fall.
Netflix Orders Guillermo del Toro Anthology Series
Netflix has reteamed with Guillermo del Toro for Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, an anthology series of horror stories. The series will run for eight episodes and feature different directors tackling the genre. Here’s the rundown for each episode:
- Essie Davis, Andrew Lincoln, and Hannah Galway will star in an episode written (based on an original story by Guillermo del Toro) and directed by Jennifer Kent (The Babadook).
- F. Murray Abraham, Glynn Turman, and Luke Roberts will star in an episode written by David S. Goyer (based on a short story by Michael Shea), and directed by David Prior (The Empty Man).
- Tim Blake Nelson, Elpidia Carrillo, Demetrius Grosse, and Sebastian Roché star in an episode written by Regina Corrado (based on an original story by Guillermo del Toro); and directed by Guillermo Navarro (Narcos)
- Crispin Glover and Ben Barnes star in an episode written by Lee Patterson (based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft) and directed by Keith Thomas (Firestarter).
- Peter Weller stars in an episode directed by Panos Cosmatos (Mandy), who also writes along with Aaron Stewart-Ahn.
- Mika Watkins writes an episode (based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft) directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen); with cast to be announced.
- David Hewlett to star in an episode written (based on a short story by Henry Kuttner) and directed by Vincenzo Natali (Hannibal).
- Haley Z. Boston serves as writer of an episode (based on a short story by comic book author Emily Carroll) directed by Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night) with cast to be confirmed.
No release date was revealed at the time of writing.
Tony Revolori Joins Wes Anderson’s Next Film
Tony Revolori has joined the cast of Wes Anderson‘s upcoming film. The project will mark the third time the actor and director have worked together after The Grand Budapest Hotel and The French Dispatch.
Revolori joins a cast that includes Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Tilda Swinton, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Rupert Friend and Tom Hanks. The picture is expected to shoot in Spain soon.
Paul Schrader Casts Joel Edgerton & Sigourney Weaver
Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver have been cast in Paul Schrader‘s next movie, Master Gardener. Edgerton will play “the master gardener of an American estate who is forced to confront his dark past.”
Here’s the synopsis: Narvel Roth (Edgerton) is the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens. He is as much devoted to tending the grounds of this beautiful and historic estate, to pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill (Weaver). When Mrs. Haverhill demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece Maya as a new apprentice chaos enters Narvel’s spartan existence, unlocking dark secrets from a buried violent past that threaten them all.”
Francis Ford Coppola Assembling Massive Cast for Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola is looking to finally make his epic dream project, Megalopolis. He is in deep discussions with a stellar cast of actors that include Oscar Isaac, Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett and Jon Voight, with Zendaya, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, and James Caan.
The film will reportedly cost between $100 million and $120 million. Coppola told Deadline that he is willing to put up “$100 million if I have to here. I don’t want to, but I will do it if I have to.” Coppola is committed to making Megalopolis and hopes to shoot it in the fall of 2022.
Coppola states that:
“The concept of the film is a Roman epic, in the traditional Cecile B. DeMille or Ben-Hur way, but told as a modern counterpart focusing on America. It’s based on The Catiline Conspiracy, which comes to us from ancient Rome. This was a famous duel between a patrician, Catiline, and that part will be played by Oscar Isaac, and the famous Cicero, who will be Forest Whitaker. He is now the beleaguered mayor of New York, during a financial crisis, close to the one that Mayor Dinkins had. This story takes place in a new Rome, a Roman epic sent in modern times. The time set is not a specific year in modern New York, it’s an impression of modern New York, which I call New Rome.”
Best luck, Coppola.
That’s it for last couple of weeks. What projects mentioned are you interested in seeing once completed? Tell us down in the comments!
