Ayelet Zurer Eyes 'Ben-Hur'; Anton Yelchin Joins 'Baseballissimo'; Judy Greer is a 'Geezer'

She's already played Superman's mom in Man of Steel, now the gorgeous Ayelet Zurer will be the mother of Ben-Hur in Timur Bekmambetov's remake. She joins a cast led by Jack Huston as the title character, a nobleman forced into slavery after being falsely accused of a crime by his best friend. Oscar-winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) wrote the latest screenplay, with Morgan Freeman and Toby Kebbell co-starring. Despite Zurer coming aboard the search is still on for an actress to replace Gal Gadot, who had to back out due to her Wonder Woman commitments.  [THR]

Jay Baruchel must love his sports comedies. A couple of years ago he co-wrote and starred in the hockey film, Goon, and now he's switching gears to the diamond with Baseballissimo. Baruchel wrote and will star in the film alongside Anton Yelchin, which is about "a rising baseball minor-league player who gets detoured on the way to major-league stardom by pitching for the Peones, a baseball team in Italy." Jacob Tierney (Good Neighbors) will direct. [THR]

The always hilarious Judy Greer (she's great on Married, by the way) will join Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong in Geezer, along with Fred Armisen, Selma Blair, Chris Messina, Dallas Roberts, and Brian Baumgartner. The rock music drama centers on "the mid-life crisis of a husband and father who, on his 40th birthday, decides to revisit his punk-rock past by throwing an extravagant party in the presidential suite of the Drake Hotel—where he encounters his beautiful ex-girlfriend and former bandmates who have since moved on to bigger and better things." Meh. Lee Kirk is directing this one now in New York City.

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First Images from Marvel's 'Daredevil' Netflix Series; Plus Rosario Dawson's Character Revealed!

This being New York Comic-Con weekend, now was a good time for Marvel to show off some of the projects that have been kept under wraps. One of those is Daredevil, the first of five Netflix series they'll be debuting on the streaming network. Today they revealed the first look at Charlie Cox as the "man without fear" and his look, at least initially, is clearly inspired by the character's most famous storyline.

The two images show Daredevil in the black, ninja-style outfit he wore in Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.'s Daredevil: Man without Fear series. It';s expected that the classic red outfit will appear at some point. The other shows us Daredevil in his alter ego of law attorney Matt Murdock, red shades and all.  Plus, some new cast members were revealed as well as confirmation of Rosario Dawson's character, which many thought would be Elektra. I never did, but I was still way off. Dawson will be playing Claire Temple, who will go on to become Night Nurse. As the name suggests, Night Nurse was someone who provided medical aid to the city's superheroes, usually for free. She's become something of a cult favorite over the years, possibly because of her soap opera-esque origins in the 1960s comic, Linda Carter, Student Nurse. Not sure why they decided to change her name for the TV series, though. What this tells me is that she won't be the same Night Nurse fans of the character are familiar with.

Other additions to the cast include Ayelet Zurer (Man of Steel) as Vanessa Fisk, the wife of Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin who will be played by Vincent D'Onofio; Bob Gunton is Jim Owlsley better known as The Owl; and Vondie Curtis Hall will play reporter Ben Urich. If anybody complains about an African-American playing Urich I'll scream.

Steven Knight serves as showrunner and exec-producer alongside Drew Goddard, with Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson also part of the main cast. Daredevil should premiere on Netflix in 2015.

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Tom Hiddleston Climbs 'High-Rise'; Ewan McGregor and Tye Sherdian Spend 'Last Days in the Desert'

* Last fall we learned that Kill List and Sightseers director Ben Wheatley would helm an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 1975 book, High-Rise, about a violent class war that erupts inside a luxurious apartment block. Now Wheatley has taken to Twitter to announced that he's scored Tom Hiddleston as the star. He also revealed some nifty promo art which you can see above. Filming is set to begin this June after Wheatley finishes up his work on Doctor Who.

* Ewan McGregor and Tye Sheridan have come aboard Last Days in the Desert, the follow-up film from Albert Nobbs director Rodrigo Garcia. It'll be a double-dose of McGregor as he plays both "a holy man and a demon who must confront his own fate after an encounter with a family struggling to survive in the harsh desert environment."  Ciaran Hinds and Ayelet Zurer (Man of Steel) will co-star, with Gravity cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki lensing the picture. [Deadline]

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"Krypton is Doomed" in the New 'Man of Steel' Clip

Reviews for Zack Snyder's Man of Steel will probably start hitting the web in a few hours, meaning that the curtain will be lifted on the film once and for all. With it comes the hopes of a new superhero franchise for Warner Bros., who have been struggling to find their footing as Marvel has dominated the landscape. What's clear is that they're going to do everything to pump up the excitement a little bit more, and have been releasing new clips on an almost daily basis for the last week. The latest focuses on Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer) as they make the fateful decision to send their son Kal-El away to Earth before Krypton's destruction.

Man of Steel opens on June 14th.

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