Welcome to Above the Line’s Casting Corner, where we’ll round up notable casting stories from the worlds of film, television, and streaming in an effort to save you a few clicks.
Dustin Hoffman
The two-time Oscar winner is set to round out the cast of Francis Ford Coppola‘s indie drama Megalopolis several years after being accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.
Adam Driver will star in the Godfather director’s long-gestating passion project, and he’ll be joined by Oscar winners Forest Whitaker and Jon Voight, as well as Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones), Laurence Fishburne (Apocalypse Now), Talia Shire (The Godfather), Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore), Aubrey Plaza (Emily the Criminal), James Remar (Dexter), Chloe Fineman (Saturday Night Live), Isabelle Kusman (Licorice Pizza), D.B. Sweeney (Coppola’s Gardens of Stone), Kathryn Hunter (The Tragedy of Macbeth), Grace VanderWaal, (Stargirl), newcomer Bailey Ives, and Shia LaBeouf.
Coppola has said in interviews that Megalopolis proposes “that utopia is not a place,” and that he’s not worried about sinking tens of millions of his own money into the project because he wants moviegoers to discuss it for years after he’s gone. The epic and ambitious story is said to concern a modern society that is unable to solve its own social problems.
Production is slated to start this fall in Georgia. Hoffman next stars opposite Sissy Spacek in the indie comedy Sam & Kate, and he’s repped by WME and Tavistock Wood Management.
Holt McCallany
The Mindhunter star is set to join Zac Efron in Sean Durkin‘s drama The Iron Claw, which A24 is co-financing with Access Industries.
Efron, Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness), and Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) will play the Von Erich siblings, who were part of a dynasty of wrestlers who have had a huge impact on the sport for the past 55+ years. McCallany will play the family patriarch, Fritz Von Erich.
Durkin is writing and directing the film, which A24 is producing with Tessa Ross, Derrin Schlesinger, and Harrison Huffman. Durkin is best known for Martha Marcy May Marlene, and he most recently directed the 2020 Sundance drama The Nest starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon.
McCallany recently appeared in Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley and the AMC series 61st Street, and he just wrapped Mission: impossible – Dead Reckoning. He’s represented by Buchwald and Atlas Artists.
Norman Reedus and Mike Faist
The longtime Walking Dead star and the breakout of last year’s West Side Story reboot have joined the impressive ensemble of Jeff Nichols‘ drama The Bikeriders.
Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Boyd Holbrook, and Damon Herriman are set to star in the film, which was inspired by the photography of Danny Lyon and his 1967 book The Bikeriders.
Set in the ’60s, The Bikeriders follows the rise and fall of a fictional motorcycle club in the Midwest, as seen through the lives of its members, who have evolved into a more sinister gang that threatens the original group’s unique way of life.
Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Sarah Green are producing via Tri-State, the company they share with Nichols, along with New Regency, while Fred Berger is executive producing.
Reedus’ character on The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon, is known for riding a motorcycle, and Reedus has also hosted the AMC series Ride With Norman Reedus, which saw the actor exploring bike culture. He’s also poised to star in his own Walking Dead spinoff centered around his character, who has become a fan favorite. He’s repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, while Faist is repped by A3 Artists Agency and will next be seen alongside Zendaya in Luca Guadagnino‘s Challengers.
Eva Longoria and George Lopez
The duo will star in a new Latino-led adaptation of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day that is in the works at Disney+.
Gentefied co-creator/showrunner Marvin Lemus will direct from a script by Matt Lopez, who wrote the Latino-led reboot of Father of the Bride for HBO Max. He adapted the beloved children’s book by Judith Viorst.
Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy is producing under his 21 Laps banner along with Dan Levine and Dan Cohen, as well as Lisa Henson of the Jim Henson Company. Emily Morris will executive produce, while Blanca Lista will oversee the project for the Jim Henson Company. Production is expected to start in the spring in New Mexico.
The new take on Alexander follows a Mexican American family who reconnect with each other and their own cultural roots during an epic road trip that, naturally goes terribly, horrible wrong. Longoria will play Alexander’s mother, while George Lopez will play the boy’s grandfather, who just so happens to be a tough biker.
Longoria recently wrapped her feature directorial debut, Flamin’ Hot, about the janitor who claimed to have created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Searchlight will release that film next year. She’s also set to star in and executive produce the Apple TV+ series Land of Women, based on the bestselling novel by Sandra Barneda.
Lopez will soon be seen in the NBC comedy Lopez vs. Lopez as well as the upcoming DC movie Blue Beetle. Longoria is repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, while UTA reps Lopez and Lemus, who are respectively managed by 3 Arts and Mission Entertainment.
Taissa Farmiga
The 28-year-old actress will return to star in The Nun 2, in which she’ll reprise her role as Sister Irene. This time around, she’ll be joined by Storm Reid from Euphoria and A Wrinkle in Time.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, though the sequel is expected to take place in the ’50s again, and you can safely expect Bonnie Aarons back as the demonic nun, who terrorized a monastery in the first film, which went on to outgross every other movie in the Conjuring universe.
Michael Chaves (The Devil Made Me Do It) is directing the sequel, which James Wan is producing under his Atomic Monster banner alongside Peter Safran of The Safran Company. The duo has produced all eight films in the Conjuring universe.
Gary Dauberman will executive produce alongside Michael Clear of Atomic Monster, whose Judson Scott will oversee the follow-up to the hit 2018 horror movie — itself a prequel/spinoff from The Conjuring 2.
The Nun 2 is slated to start production later this month in advance of its Sept. 8, 2023 release date.
Farmiga recently played Michael C. Hall’s daughter in the Sundance movie John and the Hole, and she’s currently shooting Season 2 of the HBO series The Gilded Age. She’s repped by CAA and Anonymous Content.
