Three Line Up for Pirates of the Caribbean 4: Stephen Graham has joined the cast of Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Graham (Snatch) is said to be playing a character named Scram. Meanwhile, reports say Sam Claflin (“The Pillars of the Earth”) and Max Irons (son of Jeremy Irons) are in the two names bubbling to the top to fill the shoes of Orlando Bloom as the film’s new male heart throb. Filming is set to begin shortly on the film, which is already slated for a May 20, 2011 release. [Production Weekly and E! Online]
Big Momma’s House 3 Gets Bigger: Faizon Love, Emily Rios, Portia Doubleday and Michelle Ang have been cast opposite Martin Lawrence in Big Momma’s House 3, which will begin shooting this month in Atlanta at the private, all-girls Agnes Scott College. The new film finds Big Momma (Lawrence) and Charmaine (Brandon T. Jackson) undercover at an all-girls performing-arts school to unmask a murderer. Love will play Kurtis Kool, a school security guard and former Run D.M.C. roadie who becomes smitten with Big Momma. Rios, Doubleday and Ang will play students at the school who befriend Jackson’s character. [THR]
Farrell Finds Something Borrowed: Colin Farrell is in talks to join Something Borrowed for director Luke Greenfield (The Girl Next Door). Farrell will play a character named Marcus as he joins previously cast Ginnifer Goodwin, John Krasinski and Kate Hudson in the rom-com based on Emily Giffin’s 2005 debut novel centering on a Manhattan attorney (Goodwin) who becomes involved with her best friend’s fiance following her 30th birthday. Filming begins in the Hamptons later this month. [Production Weekly]
Farmiga Lines Up Directorial Debut: Vera Farmiga is set to star in Madonna’s W.E. and Source Code for Moon director Duncan Jones, but in June she’ll begin shooting her directorial debut. Farmiga will direct and star in the indie feature Higher Ground based Carolyn Briggs’s memoir “This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost” telling the story of an 18-year-old mother living in a trailer with no plans beyond having more babies-until she found Jesus only to soon give herself over to a radical, apocalyptic New Testament church. Filming is expected to begin in June in Upstate New York. [Production Weekly]
Tom Arnold Joins Battleship: Along with the recent news Taylor Kitsch would play the lead male role in Peter Berg’s Battleship we now learn Tom Arnold (True Lies), which will begin shooting in Australia in August for a May 25, 2012 release. There is no word on what role Arnold will be playing in the Naval driven alien invasion feature based on the popular Hasbro board game of the same name. [Movieline]
Owen and Fresnadillo’s are Intruders: Clive Owen is set to star in Intruders for 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. The thriller is said to center on an 11-year old girl forced to confront childhood demons, but further details are being kept quiet. Owen will, however, play the girl’s father. Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) has also been cast. Production is scheduled to begin in June in London and Madrid. [Risky Business]
Twilight‘s Greene is Mixed with Butter: Ashley Greene has joined the cast of Butter as a rebellious high school teenager named Kaitlen Pickler in a film that follows a number of competitive characters in a small Midwestern town as they become entwined in an annual butter-carving contest. Word is screenwriter Jason Micallef developed the film as a metaphor for 2008’s Hilary versus Obama Iowa caucus showdown. Jim Field Smith (She’s Out of My League) is directing the feature which also stars Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson, Rob Corddry and Ty Burrell. Filming begins next week in Louisiana. The Weinstein Co. is distributing. [Risky Business]
Sam Mendes is No Longer Directing Preacher: Sam Mendes has dropped off directing Preacher, a long-gestating adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Vertigo comic series, in favor of directing James Bond 23. The film’s producer Neal Moritz still sees the picture shooting in 2011 and says the film’s screenwriter John August has expressed an interest in directing while also admitting they are talking to another director. [Collider]
