River Road Entertainment’s adaptation of Karen Thompson Walker’s best-selling debut novel The Age of Miracles has reached a deal with Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke to helm the project. The film revolves around a girl’s coming of age during a time when the world is about to come to an end. Seth Lochhead (Hanna) has written the screenplay for the film being produced by River Road Entertainment’s founder Bill Pohland. Harwicke is fresh off production from her latest project, Plush, a thriller starring Emily Browning and Cam Gigandet. Hit the jump to read the synopsis and full press release for The Age of Miracles.

Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C., and the CW’s golden child (he currently has four series running or about to premiere on the network: Gossip Girl, Hart of Dixie, the Carrie Diaries and Cult) is teaming up with Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) and Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) for yet another hour-long CW teen drama, Copeland Prep. Ellis is said to be writing the script and acting as executive producer alongside Fake Empire’s Schwartz and Stephanie Savage.  Hardwicke will act as an executive consultant on the project (look at her IMDB page and you’ll see why.  Essentially, if the CW made movies …).  For what Copeland Prep is all about, hit the jump.

20th Century Fox has tapped newcomer Wes Ball to direct an adaptation of James Dashner’s dystopian novel (aren’t they all?) The Maze Runner.  Twilight helmer Catherine Hardwicke was previously attached to helm the pic, but Deadline now reports that Ball is onboard.  The young adult book centers on a group of teenagers who wake up to find themselves trapped in an ever-changing maze.  Screenwriter Noah Oppenheim was tapped to pen the adaptation last January, but it’s unknown if Ball’s take will necessitate a rewrite.

Fox is apparently a big fan of Ball.  His animated short Ruin made waves earlier this year, and the studio hired him to develop a live-action feature film iteration of the story for him to direct.  He’s working on that script with T.S. Nowlin under the supervision of producers McG and Lucasfilm’s Steve Tzirlin.  Ball runs the animation/effects company Oddball Animation, but The Maze Runner will be live-action.  Hit the jump to watch his impressive short and to read the full synopsis for The Maze Runner.

A bit of casting news to sum up for you today.  Here are the particulars:

• Heather Graham played a memorable character in The Hangover but was absent in the follow-up. Todd Phillips’ The Hangover Part III will see her return, alongside Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and Ken Jeong.
• Alan Ritchson (Smallville) is set to play a returning tribute in Francis Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, opposite Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.
• Dawn Olivieri (House of Lies) will join Catherine Hardwicke’s erotic thriller, Plush, along with Emily Browning and Cam Gigandet.
• Mark Margolis (Breaking Bad) has been cast in director Darren Aronofsky’s biblical epic, Noah, which stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.

A bit of casting news to share with you today.  Here are the important bits:

• Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Match Point) is in negotiations to join The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the adaptation ofCassandra Clare’sYA fantasy novel.
• Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) will join Emily Browning and Cam Gigandet in Catherine Hardwicke’s indie thriller, Plush.  

Hit the jump for more details on each picture.

Here’s your latest fix for relevant casting news.  Check them out at a glance below:

• Cam Gigandet (Easy A) has joined Emily Browning in director Catherine Hardwicke’s Plush.
• James Corden (The History Boys) has boarded not one, but two projects: Can a Song Save Your Life? and One Chance.
• Cristin Milioti (Year of the Carnivore) is in talks to join the Martin Scorsese picture, The Wolf of Wall Street.
• David Lyons (The Cape) is the latest addition to Relativity’s romantic thriller, Safe Haven.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Some easy on the eyes casting additions today.  Here they are at a glance:

• Malin Akerman (Watchmen) will star as “Blondie” front-woman, Debbie Harry in director Randall Miller’s indie, CBGB.
• Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) is in talks to join Plush, a psychic story from director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight).
• Ahna O’Reilly (The Help) will star opposite Ashton Kutcher in the Steve Jobs indie picture, Jobs, from director Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote).

Hit the jump for more on each film.

Catherine Hardwicke‘s career arc doesn’t make much sense to me.  Her directorial debut was the edgy teen drama Thirteen, followed by the likeminded skater tale Lords of Dogtown.  The first major detour came in 2006 with the chaste The Nativity Story.  Next she kicked off the Twilight Saga phenomenon, but instead of returning for the sequels, moved on to the panned Twilight knockoff Red Riding Hood.  To get back on track, Hardwicke may return to her roots.  THR reports that Hardwicke is attached to direct Plush, and her Thirteen star Evan Rachel Wood is attached to star.  The script that Hardwicke co-wrote with Artie Nelson is described as an erotic thriller set in the L.A. music world.

Honestly, I tune out when I hear the phrase “erotic thriller,” but reuniting with Wood is a smart move if Hardwicke wishes to reconnect with the critical community.  Knockout, a boxing drama starring Noomi and Ola Rapace, looks to be her next project.  It sounds promising, so perhaps the director is already on the path back to critical favor.  Hardwicke is also attached to direct The Maze Runner and The Bitch Posse .  Hit the jump for a recent video interview where Hardwicke mentions the project.

Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) is set to direct a long-in-the-works biopic of the romance between Swedish singer Anita Lindblom and boxer Bosse Högberg. Screen Daily (via Thompson on Hollywood) reports that Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and her ex-husband Ola are set to star in the film. Ola has apparently been training as a boxer for four years to prepare for the role. Peter Birro wrote the script, which Hardwicke says attracted to her to the project:

”I immediately fell in love with the script – it throws us back into Swedish celebrity culture of the 1960s, where the name is more important than the person.”

Following her turn in the Swedish film adaptations of Steig Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, Rapace nabbed roles in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Filming on the untitled Lindblom/ Högberg drama is set to commence this fall.

From the outset, Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood sounds kind of… great? Seriously. Her best film is easily Thirteen, which dealt with young girls coming to understand their sexuality (and power therein), and Hardwicke brought the right temperament to the first Twilight film – she got the sexuality right and winked at the audience about the material’s inherent silliness. For Red Riding Hood, she has a great cast (Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas, Julie Christie), the idea of the wolf as sexual predator, and the same sort of romantic triangle. If the film had done anything right, it might have – if nothing else – achieved cult status. Too bad the film is garbage in any cut. Our review of the Blu-ray of Red Riding Hood (which offers an Alternate cut of the movie) follows after the jump.

Inspired by the beloved fairy tale, Red Riding Hood is a dark and edgy take on a classic story, that’s full of passion, mystery and danger. Taking things one step further, the DVD/Blu-ray combo pack (due out on June 14^th) contains an alternate cut of the film that features an all-new ending not seen in theaters, along with filmmaker and actor commentary, behind the scenes features, casting tapes, rehearsals, deleted scenes, a gag reel and music videos.

During a recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke talked about her decision to do an alternate cut of the film, instead of just including deleted scenes, why she thinks commentary is such a useful learning tool, what she enjoys about the casting process and finding the perfect actor for a role, and the impression that the story of Red Riding Hood made on her, when she first heard it as a child. She also talked about what it means to her to have been a part of something that was emotionally meaningful for people, as the director of Twilight, and how she’s in development on The Bitch Posse,which follows a trio of high school friends into adulthood, as their lives are torn apart by a terrible secret. Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke will again tackle teen angst with an adaptation of Martha O’Connor’s The Bitch Posse. Deadline reports that Hardwicke will direct from a script by Tristine Skyler (Getting to Know You). The film covers familiar territory for the director as it focuses on a group of three high school friends. A terrible incident occurs that changes their dynamic forever, and the book switches back and forth between the girls’ high school years and present day, which finds one of them in a mental institution, another in a loveless marriage, and the third a promiscuous failed writer.

Miranda Bailey and Matthew Leutwyler are producing the flick through their Ambush Entertainment banner. Hardwicke most recently helmed Red Riding Hood, which was released last month to middling reviews. Hit the jump for a synopsis of O’Connor’s novel.

There’s a strangeness that creeps along the edges of Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood.  It’s a PG-13 teen soap opera that wants to sneak in some surprisingly R-rated content like cannibalism and torturing the mentally handicapped.  But what’s surprising and creative in the film is always smothered beneath convention, simplistic design, and insulting themes.  There are directors who could blend a classic fairy tale with a teen drama and a modern attitude, but Hardwicke is not one those directors.  Red Riding Hood feels unbalanced and its stranger elements never feel organically blended into the larger narrative.  The result is an off-putting affair that owes more to Twilight than it does to the Brothers Grimm.

In the mystery thriller Red Riding Hood, actor Shiloh Fernandez plays Peter, a poor woodcutter in the village of Daggerhorn, who is in love with the beautiful Valerie (Amanda Seyfried). However, Valerie’s parents (Billy Burke and Virginia Madsen) have arranged for her to marry Henry (Max Irons), the blacksmith son of the town’s wealthiest family. In love with him since she was very young, Valerie is not willing to be forcibly separated from Peter, and the two plan to run away together, until the village’s feared beast – the werewolf – takes the life of Valerie’s sister, changing their lives forever.

During the press day for the film, Shiloh Fernandez did this exclusive interview with Collider and talked about how he had wanted to work with Catherine Hardwicke since auditioning for Twilight and Hamlet, what it was like to work with Amanda Seyfried, and why he thinks fairy tales endure for generations. He also talked about working with Ashley Greene on Skateland (which opens in theaters in May), how he’d like to branch out and do a comedy like 21 Jump Street, for which he recently read the script, admitted that he would like to do a musical, and said he hopes to do a film that his friend, actor Thomas Dekker, will be directing. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

In the supernatural thriller Red Riding Hood, the people in the small village of Daggerhorn have maintained a decades long truce with the werewolf who prowls at every full moon, by offering the beast a monthly animal sacrifice, hoping that it will leave the people of the village alone. When the wolf takes the life of one of their own, the village goes into a panic and turns to famed werewolf hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) to kill the beast, once and for all. As the death toll rises and no one is above suspicion, everyone’s lives are quickly turned upside down and the population of the once close-knit village begins to turn on itself.

While at the press day for the film, director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) did this exclusive interview with Collider, where she talked about being a fan of this particular fairy tale since she was a little kid and would dress up like the character, the changes and tweaks that she made to the script once she signed on to be at the helm, how important it was to get the look of the red cape just right, and why she identifies so well with coming of age stories. She also talked about the development of Hamlet, Maximum Ride and Maze Runner, all of which she’s looking to make, at some point. Check out what she had to say after the jump: