Wasikowska in talks for Gus Van film
Mia Wasikowska, who plays the title character in Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice In Wonderland, is in final negotiations to star in Gus Van Sant’s next project, the dark coming-of-age drama Restless.
The Australian actress had been contemplating a part in Robert Redford’s post-Civil War drama The Conspirator before opting for the Van Sant picture. A number of actresses had been in the mix for the lead role in Restless, which delves into the complex tale of a teenage boy and girl who share a preoccupation with mortality. Producers have not yet cast the male lead.
Bryce Dallas Howard is producing Restlesswith her father, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Rookie screenwriter Jason Lew, with whom the younger Howard went to film school, penned the screenplay, developing it from a play he wrote.
Wasikowska also co-stars in Fox Searchlight’s Amelia Earhart biopic Ameliaand had a role in Edward Zwick’s World War II drama Defiance earlier this year. She came to prominence with her turn as the troubled teenager Sophie on the HBO psychotherapy drama In Treatment.
Kristen Bell steps into Burlesque
Kristen Bell will star as Christina Aguilera’s rival in Burlesque, a musical drama being directed by Steve Antin.
The Screen Gems film centres on the journey of an ambitious small-town girl (Aguilera) with a big-town voice, who finds love and success in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club, reminiscent of the nightclub in Bob Fosse’s Cabaret. (Aguilera has guested in cabarets for the Pussycat Dolls.)
Bell will play Nikki, the loose-cannon lead dancer and main attraction at the club, who spirals out of control when Aguilera’s character suddenly gets the spotlight. Already cast are Cher as the nightclub owner and Stanley Tucci as the man who helps turn Aguilera from bumpkin to bombshell.
The filmmakers are aiming for a Thanksgiving 2010 release.
Bell stars opposite Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman in Couples Retreat,which opened on October 9. The actress, whose credits also include Forgetting Sarah Marshall, next stars in the romantic comedy When In Rome, being released in January. She recently wrapped filming the comedy You Againwith Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis and Odette Yustman.
Tatum O’Neal lands Sweet deal
Tatum O’Neal has been cast in the title role of the indie drama Sweet Lorraine.
She will play a former queen of the New York underground scene who, after moving to small-town New Jersey, gets caught up in local politics when her ex-lover becomes the mayor.
The actress recently completed shooting the indie feature The Runaways, opposite Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. She also has a recurring role on the FX series Rescue Me. O’Neal received an Oscar, aged 10, for her supporting role in Paper Moon.
Melissa Leo in Between
Melissa Leo, AnnaSophia Robb, Brad William Henke and newcomer Anthony Keyvan have been cast in the indie drama The Space Between.
The TSB Films production, written and directed by Travis Fine, follows Montine (Leo), a flight attendant grounded in Texas with an unaccompanied Arab-American boy (Keyvan) on the morning of September 11, 2001. They desperately head east when she discovers his father works at the World Trade Center.
A pilot, Fine first began developing the story in 2004 while on autopilot in the cockpit of an American Airlines jet. He finished the script in 2008 in the UCLA Professional Screenwriting Program.
