Disney Sets 'Ghost in the Shell' with Scarlett Johansson for 2017

Relax, everybody. It's not the end of the world that Scarlett Johansson has taken the lead role in Disney's live-action adaptation of anime Ghost in the Shell. She's playing a friggin' cyborg so just chill out with all the "white-washing" chatter, okay? Besides, who knows what will happen in the two years you've got until the film comes out. Disney has now set the Rupert Sanders-directed film for release on April 14th 2017, a week after Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim 2.

What else? Disney has also bumped Jon Favreau's visual effects-heavy version of The Jungle Book back six weeks to April 15th 2016. That will give Favreau more time for post-production, and it allows Disney to move up Coast Guard drama The Finest Hours to October 9th 2015. The film stars Casey Affleck and Chris Pine and is based on a true story.

Finally, David Lowery's non-musical remake of Pete's Dragon will spring to life on August 12th 2016. The film stars Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley, Michael C. Hall, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Oona Lawrence. It centers on an orphan boy who befriends a giant imaginary dragon.

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Jeff Daniels Boards 'The Martian'; Eric Bana gets'The Finest Hours'; Richard Madden Joins 'Bastille Day'

 Jeff Daniels, who has Dumb and Dumber Too and The Newsroom's third season coming up, has joined Ridley Scott's The Martian. The cast keeps getting better with Matt Damon in the lead and Kate Mara, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Pena in talks. Adapted from Andy Weir's book, The Martian follows the first astronaut to ever set foot on Mars as he tries to survive being abandoned by his crew after an accident. [THR]

Disney has added Eric Bana to the cast of The Finest Hours, the period thriller starring Casey Affleck and Chris Pine. Directed by Craig Gillespie, the film "chronicles the massive rescue mission that’s launched when a pair of oil tankers split in two off the coast of Cape Cod in 1952." In a role that sounds similar to what he did in Lone Survivor, Bana will play the respected Coast Guard warrant officer who sends his men out on the dangerous rescue mission. [Deadline]

Game of Thrones' Richard Madden will join fellow HBO alum Idris Elba in Bastille Day, the James Watkins-directed action flick which "follows a rogue U.S. CIA operative who is tasked with interrogating and eventually making a young American man, who’s also a con-artist, 'disappear' in order to avoid embarrassment to the U.S. government after the American is linked as the prime suspect to an attack on the Paris metro. After several more attacks, the operative realizes the young American is innocent and may be the only link to the person actually orchestrating the terrorist attacks."

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Ben Foster Joins 'The Finest Hours', Leslie Mann Eyes 'Vacation', Billy Bob Thornton Boards 'Our Brand is Crisis'

Disney's Coast Guard rescue drama The Finest Hours just got a lot more interesting with the addition of Ben Foster (The Messenger) to the cast. He joins Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, and Holliday Grainger in the Craig Gillespie-directed film chronicling the dangerous 1952 rescue attempt after two oil tankers collided during a blizzard. Foster will be seen next as Lance Armstrong in an untitled biopic, and will have a key role in Duncan Jones' Warcraft film. [Variety]


Filming on the remake of National Lampoon's Vacation begins this week, but one major role has remained elusive. That would be Audrey Griswold, the sister of Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) and daughter to Clark and Ellen Griswold (Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo). Leslie Mann (Knocked Up) is eyeing the Audrey role now, with Chris Hemsworth as her TV anchor husband, Stone Crandall. Christina Applegate plays Rusty's wife, with Charlie Day as a river rafting guide. John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein (Horrible Bosses) are directing.


Fresh off the multi-Emmy winning Fargo, Billy Bob Thornton is in talks to join Sandra Bullock in the political comedy, Our Brand is Crisis. Directed by David Gordon Green and based on Rachel Boynton's 2005 documentary, the film centers on political spin doctors as they try to sway the 2002 Presidential election in Bolivia.

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Samuel L. Jackson is 'The Black Phantom', Dakota Fanning Joins 'American Pastoral', Casey Affleck Boards 'The Finest Hours'

 Playing characters with wildly flamboyant and colorful names is nothing to Samuel L. Jackson. Nick Fury, "Stacks" Edwards (in Goodfellas), Zeus Carver (Die Hard with a Vengeance), Shaft, Romulus Ledbetter (The Caveman's Valentine), Mace Windu, The Octupus (The Spirit), and that's just the start. Now you can add The Black Phantom to his list of strange monickers as Jackson has replaced Jamie Foxx in the action-comedy. He'll star alongside Kevin Hart with Tim Story directing the film about the partnership between a betrayed mob enforcer played by Hart, and Jackson's Black Phantom, the notorious hit man hired to kill him. [Deadline]

Hot on the heels of Jennifer Connelly coming aboard Philip Noyce's adaptation of American Pastoral comes word that Dakota Fanning is now joining the cast. Ewan McGregor stars in the film based on Philip Roth's book, with Fanning taking on the key role of Merry Levov, the daughter to happily middle-class Jewish businessman Swede Levov, whose life is upended by the political climate of the 1960s.

Casey Affleck is in talks to join Chris Pine in Disney's rescue drama, The Finest Hours. Directed by Craig Gillespie (Million Dollar Arm), the true story is based on the 1952 collision of two oil tankers near Cape Cod and the daring Coast Guard rescue that followed. Affleck will be seen next in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, and is planning to direct a biopic on Major League Baseball slugger Josh Hamilton. [Deadline]

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Michael B. Jordan Joins 'Men Who Kill'; Chris Pine Eyes 'The Finest Hours'

* With Fantastic Four, the Rocky spinoff Creed, and John Hillcoat's Triple Nine on the way, Michael B. Jordan isn't lacking for things to do. But he's still taking time to add more to his slate, joining the upcoming CIA thriller, Men Who Kill. Nothing else is know about it at this time except TJ Fixman will write the script with Greg Berlanti (Life As We Know It) producing. [Variety]


* Last year we learned Robert Schwentke (Red , RIPD) was on board to direct Disney's The Finest Hours, based on the 1952 collision of two oil tankers near Cape Cod and the daring Coast Guard rescue that followed. But with Schwentke busy with the Divergent sequel, Insurgent, that job is now going to Craig Gillespie (Million Dollar Arm), with Chris Pine in talks to star. Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson write the script, adapted from Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias' book. Pine would fit this movie in before he jumps into the next Star Trek film which is still in need of a director. [THR]

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