Sure Shots: Eva Mendes/Greta Gerwig; 21 Jump Street; Christian Bale joining Aronofsky's Noah?

* The hot 'n spicy Evan Mendes has joined the cast of Derek Cianfrance's follow-up to Blue Valentine, titled The Place Beyond the Pines. The film stars Ryan Gosling as an ex-stuntman who takes to crime to support his new child. This runs him afoul of a rookie cop, played by Bradley Cooper, which ignites a generational feud. Mendes will play the mother of Gosling's kid. Also circling a role is my latest crush, indie fave Greta Gerwig(Greenberg). If signed, she'll play the wife to Cooper's character. Nice to see her branching out yet again. [Deadline]

* So it likely won't be a comedy the caliber of Bridesmaids, but I have to confess that 21 Jump Street is lookin' pretty good to me. Speaking of Bridesmaids, Ellie Kemper, who played the newly married Becca in the film, has just joined the cast which already includes Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Rob Riggle, Dave Franco, Brie Larson, and Johnny Simmons. She'll play a chemistry teacher who falls for Tatum's character, which is sorta weird because his character is an older guy pretending to be a high school student. D'oh. [Variety]

* Just a few days ago it was noted that Darren Aronofsky was full steam ahead on his passion project, Noah, based on the Biblical story of the guy with his boat and all those animals and such. No, not Evan Almighty. The only stumbling block was securing a good chunk of change to finance it. Some of that has come through, but for such an expensive project(upwards of $130M), an A-lister is going to need to front it. Vulture says that guy may be Christian Bale, who Aronofsky is reportedly courting. Talks haven't officially officially begun yet, so more on this as it develops. Sounds like the type of thing Bale would be good at, though. Big, showy, and epic.