Rebecca Hall Joins Joel Edgerton's Directing Debut; Joshua Marston Lands Rachel Weisz, Michael Shannon for Next Film

Joel Edgerton has scored numerous screenwriting credits in some impressive films (The Square, The Rover, Felony), but now he's going all the way by making his directorial debut. The untitled project is described as a contemporary suspense thriller which he'll also write and co-star in, and he's already landed a star in Iron Man 3's Rebecca Hall. No other details are available at this point but this is one to keep an eye on. [TheWrap]

The vastly underrated Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace, The Forgiveness of Blood) is setting up his next film, and he's off to a pretty good start with Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon coming aboard to star. The untitled film centers on "Alice, the intriguing guest introduced at a dinner party hosted by Tom and his wife, celebrating his birthday. Tom increasingly believes he knows Alice but by a different name and a different biography, and suspects that she’s not there entirely by coincidence. The evening spins into a highly-charged reunion between a man in need of making a change in his life and a woman who desperately wants to stop changing." Filming begins early next year and yep, I'm excited for this one! [ScreenDaily]

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Joshua Marston lands Michelle Williams and Joel Edgerton for 'The Double Hour'

The name "Joshua Marston" may not mean much yet....but give it time. His sobering 2004 drug-trafficking drama Maria Full of Grace was a powerful opening statement, and last year's The Forgiveness of Blood was in my Top 10 Hidden Gems of 2012. In between shooting the occasional episode of The Newsroom, Marston has also been putting together his next feature, The Double Hour, and with his first two additions to the cast it's guaranteed to get a lot of attention.

Rumored for the female lead late last year, Michelle Williams is now confirmed. She'll be joined by Joel Edgerton, who is currently busting Leonardo DiCaprio's chops in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. Marston will be remaking Giuseppe Capotond's 2009 film, La Doppia Ora, which follws a maid and a security officer who hit it off at a speed dating event, embarking on a passionate romance. When tragedy strikes, she begins to lose her grip on reality, and strange things begin to occur every time the clock hits a "double hour".

With headliners like Williams and Edgerton, The Double Hour should have no trouble finding investors at Cannes. [Deadline]

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Sure Shots: Angry Birds; Joel Edgerton; Michelle Williams

* Well, you knew this was coming, right? A film based on the addictive video game Angry Birds was bound to happen, and now today on the third anniversary of its debut the announcement we were expecting has finally happened. Rovio Entertainment has announced that John Cohen(Despicable Me) is set to produce an Angry Birds feature film for the summer of 2016. David Maisel, ex-Chairman of Marvel Studios, is on board to exec-produce.

* We keep waiting for Joel Edgerton to finally take his place amongst the A-list elite, and maybe that time has come with Zero Dark Thirty right around the corner and The Great Gatsby next year. Between those two flicks he'll star alongside Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender in Jane Got a Gun, the upcoming Western from Lynne Ramsay(We Need to Talk About Kevin). Awesome? Hell yeah it's awesome. Portman plays a woman who turns to her ex-lover(Fassbender) for help when her husband is shot up by his former gang. Edgerton would play John Bishop, the leader of the men coming to her husband. Filming is set to begin early next year. [Deadline]

* Michelle Williams was excellent and dare I say awards-worthy in Take This Waltz earlier this year, but you'd never know it based on the lack of attention she's received this season. Fortunately that doesn't seem to be deterring her from taking on another complex, character driven role in 2013. She is reportedly in talks to star in The Double Hour, from Maria Full of Grace director Joshua Marston. A remake of 2009's Italian romantic-thriller, La Doppia Ora, it follows a maid and a security officer who meet at a speed dating event, only to have tragedy strike and weird things begin occurring when the clock hits a "double hour". This is  tremendously promising, but with Williams shooting Suite Francais next we may be waiting a little while.

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