Norman Reedus Joins 'Triple Nine'; Shia LaBeouf Exits 'Rock the Kasbah'; John C. Reilly Nets 'The Lobster'

* Fresh off The Walking Dead scoring the highest season finale ratings in the show's history, Norman Reedus aka Daryl Dixon is joining the all-star cast of John Hillcoat's Triple Nine. He'll be starring alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Teresa Palmer, Gal Gadot, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Winslet, Aaron Paul, Woody Harrelson, and Michael Pena in the cop thriller penned by Matt Cook. Affleck plays a rookie cop targeted by a group of dirty cops blackmailed by the mob into committing a near-impossible heist. For the plan to work they need to create a '999', police code for a downed officer, to distract from their illegal activities. No word on Reedus' role, but this is already one of the most anticipated films of 2015. [Deadline]

* Well, now that unpredictable Shia LaBeouf won't get a chance to screw up Barry Levinson's comedy, Rock the Kasbah. Perhaps that whole retirement thing is true (wouldn't bet on it, though) because he's dropped out of the film, which has a pretty stellar cast consisting of Bill Murray, Zooey Deschanel, Danny McBride, Bruce Willis, and Kate Hudson. Perhaps Shia didn't feel comfortable being at the bottom of the bill? He was set to play half of a military duo in the film about a washed-up rock manager stranded in Kabul who discovers a new singing talent on the reality show, Afghan Star. Filming is set to begin in June so there's plenty of time to recast Shia's role. [THR]

* As shooting kicks off on Yorgos Lanthimos' (Dogtooth) next feature, The Lobster, the cast surrounding Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, and Lea Seydoux has been rounded out. John C. Reilly, Ashley Jensen (Extras), and Jessica Barden (Hanna) have joined the ensemble, set in a dystopian future and follows "a desperate man who breaks with the rules of The City where single people are arrested and obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days at The Hotel. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods."

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Rachel Weisz and Colin Farrell Snare 'The Lobster'

As busy as Colin Farrell was last year with three movies, including Saving Mr. Banks, he's got just as much going on in 2014. Next week will see him headline Akiva Goldsman's Winter's Tale, the long-developing adaptation of Mark Helprin's fantasy novel. On the other hand, Rachel Weisz has been pretty quiet with only Oz the Great and Powerful under her belt recently and not a lot on the way. But she and Farrell are adding one more project, joining the English-language debut of Oscar-nominated Dogtooth director, Yorgos Lanthimos.

Weisz and Farrell will star in The Lobster,  alongside the previously-cast Ben Whishaw, Lea Seydoux, Olivia Colman, Ariane Labed and Aggeliki Papoulia. Lanthimos co-wrote the script with Efthimis Filippou, his longtime collaborator, and the story is set in a dystopian future where finding a partner is a matter of life and death. Pretty vague, but the talent Lanthimos has assembled promises there's a lot more to it than the logline suggests.

Filming on The Lobster is set to begin in March.

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