Benjamin Walker Is ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER
by Brendan Bettinger Posted: January 27th, 2011
Benjamin Walker (Flags of Our Fathers) was among the lesser known names of the shortlist — Walker, Adrien Brody, Timothy Olyphant, Josh Lucas, James D’Arcy, Oliver Jackson-Cohen — that screen tested for the lead role in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. But 20th Century Fox appears eager to get into the Benjamin Walker business. Walker was the first young actor cast as a student in the X-Men: First Class before he was dropped out to reprise his starring role in the Broadway musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. In retrospect, that iconoclastically presidential role was the perfect preparation to anchor Fox’s summer tentpole: Variety reports Walker has closed a deal to star in Abraham Lincoln.
Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) will direct and co-produce with Tim Burton and Jim Lemley (9). Seth Grahame-Smith wrote both the book and the adapted screenplay. Hit the jump for an official synopsis for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, scheduled for release June 22, 2012.
.........more here; http://collider.com/benjamin-walker-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter/73183/
Carey Mulligan and Jodie Foster Drop Out of STOKER; Mia Wasikowska and Chan-wook Park Drop In
by Brendan Bettinger Posted: January 27th, 2011
We heard last week that Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right) hopes to fit both Stoker and The Wettest County in the World on to her 2011 production schedule. Given recent news, Fox Searchlight has extra motivation to sign Wasikowska to the former. The earlier report suggested Wasikowska would join the previously attached Carey Mulligan and Jodie Foster. However, Deadline hears Foster is no longer on board and Wasikowska will actually replace Mulligan in the lead role, “an eccentric teen whose enigmatic and estranged uncle returns to the family after the death of the girl’s father.” Those are two tough losses, and I’d be interested to hear why Mulligan and/or Foster moved on if details ever surface. More after the jump:
On a more positive note, Deadline seems confident that Chan-wook Park (Oldboy) is in the director’s chair. Park entered negotiations late last year, but this is the closest we’ve come to confirmation that this will indeed be the director’s English-language debut. Actor Wentworth Miller (Resident Evil: Afterlife) penned the script, which landed on the 2010 Black List of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays; Miller reportedly already has a prequel script titled Uncle Charlie on file.
Wasikowska will next be seen in an adaptation of Jane Eyre, due March 11. Gus Van Sant’s Restless is likewise in the can, but the release was pushed to sometime later in 2011. In addition to The Wettest County in the World, Wasikowska has been linked to Albert Nobbs, A View from the Bridge, and Jim Jarmusch’s next film (hence the scheduling difficulties).
