Jon Hamm, Sam Worthington, Brit Marling, more casting news
• Things are about to get animated for Jon Hamm. The Mad Men actor will lend his voice to Minions, Universal’s spinoff of their Despicable Me movies that is capitalizing on the little yellow creatures that stole the show in the first film in 2010 (Despicable Me 2 comes out this summer). Hamm will voice the inventor Herb Overkill, husband of stylish super-villain Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock). His previous voice acting work includes such TV shows as Robot Chicken and Archer. [Deadline]
• Another Girls star is headed to the big screen. Allison Williams, who plays Marnie on the HBO show, is in talks to play the woman Romeo was obsessed with before he met Juliet. Rosaline, based on the 2012 book When You Were Mine, is a re-imagined modern version of Shakespeare’s tale of star-crossed lovers that focuses on Rosaline, the young woman who never appears onstage in the play but is mentioned several times as Romeo’s former object of affection. Shawn Levy (Date Night, Real Steel) is directing the film. [Deadline]
• Brit Marling, who became Sundance 2011’s “It” girl with the double-whammy of Another Earth and Sound of My Voice, will appear in another indie sci-fi project. In I Origins, a new project directed and written by her Another Earth collaborator, Marling will play a biologist who “uncovers startling evidence that may fundamentally change society as we know it,” Deadline reports. Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire) will play her lab partner. Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead), and Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) also signed on for the film. [Deadline]
• After getting his start with Australian indie Somersault, Sam Worthington has lately been drawn to bigger (much bigger) studio projects, like Avatar, Terminator Salvation, and Clash of the Titans. But he’s going indie again with The Keeping Room, where he will play a soldier who has broken off from the Union Army in the last days of the Civil War. Also set to star are Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), and Nicole Beharie (42). [Deadline]
PREVIOUSLY: Sharlto Copley will star in ‘District 9’ director Neill Blomkamp’s next sci-fi film
‘Downton Abbey’ actress Lily James cast as ‘Cinderella’ opposite Cate Blanchett
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