The forced theme of tonight’s casting report is One Word In The Title Causes Destruction:

• Ewan McGregor is in negotiations to play the villain in Jane Got a Gun, directed by Gavin O’Connor (Warrior).  Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, and Noah Emmerich co-star.
• Benicio del Toro is in talks to join Joaquin Phoenix in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice.
  
• Michael Bay cast Sophia Myles (Tristan + Isolde) in Transformers 4.  Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, and Kelsey Grammer co-star.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Bradley Cooper, that handsome devil from those Hangover movies, is the latest casualty of Gavin O’Connor’s Jane Got a Gun.  Scheduling conflicts have forced the Oscar-nominated actor to turn tail only a month after he signed on to replace Jude Law as the film’s antagonist.  A silver lining in this news is the fact that Cooper’s part wasn’t scheduled to start filming until June anyway, so the filmmakers have a bit of time to find yet another replacement.

The film centers on the estranged wife (Natalie Portman) of an outlaw (Noah Emmerich) who harbors the man after he gets shot and defects from his gang.  While the bandits hunt him down with a mind to shoot up the family farm and put him in his grave, the wife leans on a former lover and gunfighter (Joel Edgerton) to help her stand up against the threat.  Hit the jump to get this all sorted.

We’ve got casting news for every taste this evening. Here’s the latest:

• Noah Emmerich will be teaming up with Warrior director, Gavin O’Connor once again. This time for the production-troubled Western Jane Got a Gun.

• Tom Holland (The Impossible) has joined the ensemble of Ron Howard’s whaling drama In The Heart Of The Sea.

• Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) is ready for another frontier round, as she joins the cast of Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman.

Hit the jump for more details on each casting.

Although the production of Jane Got a Gun got off on the wrong foot, the Western is now getting a shot in the arm with Oscar-nominated star Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) stepping in.  Cooper would replace Jude Law who exited the picture soon after director Lynne Ramsay surprised everyone by not showing up on the film’s first day of production.  Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) soon stepped in to helm the picture instead.  If there’s as much drama and intrigue on the screen as behind the scenes, this is going to be one helluva film.

Jane Got a Gun also stars Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton.  Hit the jump for more.

The Western Jane Got a Gun has gotten off to a bit of a rough start.  The film was to begin production this past Monday, but director Lynne Ramsay abruptly left the project by reportedly not showing up for the first day of filming, leaving the pic in a state of uncertainty.  Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) was quickly brought in to replace Ramsay, but then Jude Law dropped out of the project as a result of Ramsay’s departure, leaving the film without a villain.  Natalie Portman is poised to star as a woman whose outlaw husband returns home riddled with bullets, spurring her to team up with her ex-lover (Joel Edgerton) in order to seek revenge against the man responsible (the villain role yet to be cast).

With production apparently back underway, O’Connor and the film’s producers are scrambling to replace Law as quickly as possible.  A new report has surfaced suggesting that they’re casting a pretty wide net to fill the role, as Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and Jeff Bridges are among those being considered.  Hit the jump for more. 

More bad news for the Western Jane Got a Gun.  Yesterday we learned that the film’s director, We Need to Talk About Kevin’s Lynne Ramsay, had decided to drop out of the film by not showing up to set on the first day of filming.  Warrior helmer Gavin O’Connor was quickly brought in as a replacement, but now another exit is taking place as Jude Law is dropping out of the film as well.  Law was to play the film’s antagonist, the outlaw husband of Natalie Portman’s Jane who squares off against his wife and her ex-lover (Joel Edgerton).  Now Law has apparently left the film due to Ramsay’s exit.  Hit the jump for more.

Yesterday, we reported the surprising news that director Lynne Ramsey (We Need to Talk about Kevin) didn’t show up on the first day of shooting on her new movie, Jane Got a Gun.  The film follows a woman (Natalie Portman) whose outlaw husband (Jude Law) returns home riddled with bullets. Convinced his gang will return to finish him off and destroy her farm, the woman turns to an ex-lover (Joel Edgerton) she hasn’t seen in a decade to help her defend the farm.  The reports on Ramsey’s departure make it sound like she simply chose not to show up without any word to anyone.  Personally, I think there’s more to the story.  Not some massive conspiracy, but certainly something more than the talking point of “She was lazy and irresponsible.”  Ramsey has yet to comment, and I’ll be interested to hear her side of the story.

In the meantime, the show must go on, and after a scramble to find a new director, Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) has stepped in according to Deadline.  In terms of style, you couldn’t get further apart than O’Connor and Ramsey, but O’Connor has a respectable resume, and his latest project, FX’s The Americans, has been a success.  Jane Got a Gun has a great premise and cast, so I’m glad the film hasn’t fallen apart, but the behind-the-scenes story may end up being even better.

A rather unfortunate situation has arisen on the promising drama Jane Got a Gun.  The Western drama has a Black List script by Brian Duffield and an outstanding cast that includes Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, and Jude Law, and production was set to begin yesterday with We Need to Talk About Kevin director Lynne Ramsay at the helm.  However, it appears that Ramsay has decided to announce her dropping out of the project by simply not showing up to set on what was to be the first day of filming.  Hit the jump for more on this supremely disappointing news.

The production of Jane Got a Gun, a Western led by Natalie Portman, has been delayed several times.  It was finally scheduled to begin shooting next week, but a last-minute casting swap will push production back to April.  Michael Fassbender was set to play the male lead, but his X-Men: Days of Future Past schedule creates a conflict that will pull him off the project.  Normally, that would be terrible news, but director Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) has a mighty fine backup plan.  THR reports Joel Edgerton, who was looking to play the villain, will switch sides to assume Fassbender’s role.  Jude Law will come on board to play the villain and round out the lead cast.  If you can get two out of three with Fassbender, Edgerton, and Law, you win.

Scott Steindorff (The Lincoln Lawyer), Aleen Keshishian (Our Idiot Brother), and Terry Dougas (The Box) are producing.  The script by Brian Duffield follows good girl Jane (Portman), who runs away from her outlaw husband (Law) and teams up with on old flame (Edgerton) to protect her family.  Read the full synopsis for Jane Got a Gun after the break.

Joel Edgerton (Warrior) is setting his sights west as he is in negotiations to join Jane Got a Gun, a Western directed by Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin). Written by Brian Duffield, Jane Got a Gun centers on the titular good girl married to a very bad man who turns against his outlaw gang and gets a back full of bullets for his trouble. With the outlaws still out for revenge, Jane is forced to turn to an old flame in order to bring justice to the deadly gunslingers. Natalie Portman (Black Swan) is set to star in the lead with Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) playing the ex-lover. Edgerton is in negotiations to play the outlaw husband. Jane Got a Gun is set to begin production in February. Hit the jump for more.

Steve walked the floor at the American Film Market (AFM) early this morning and managed to bring back some detailed synopses for the following films:

• Jane Got a Gun – A Western starring Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender
• Parkland – A drama about the JFK assassination starring Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Giamatti, and Jacki Weaver.
• The Green Inferno – The next directorial project from Eli Roth.
• A Walk Among the Tombstones – A crime thriller starring Liam Neeson.
• Agent: Century 21 – An action comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Benicio Del Toro.

Hit the jump to check out all the detailed synopses, which include production start dates.

Michael Fassbender is a very busy man, and he looks to be showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  This summer he’s been filming a supporting role in Steve McQueen’s period pic Twelve Years a Slave and the lead in Ridley Scott’s star-studded drama The Counselor, he recently signed on to star in and co-produce a film iteration of Assassin’s Creed, and he’s developing a pic based on Celtic warrior Cuchulainn.  Now it appears the Shame actor is looking to add Western to his varied resume, as reports have Fassbender looking at starring opposite Natalie Portman in the incredibly promising Western Jane Got a Gun.  Hit the jump for more.

Shawn Levy (Real Steel) is one of the busiest guys in the business with about twenty-odd projects currently in different stages of development.  Now he can add Monster Problems to his list.  Paramount is in negotiations to pick up the spec script from Brian Duffield with Levy producing through his 21 Laps banner.  Monster Problems has been described as a John Hughes take on a Mad Max story, meaning it’s a post-apocalyptic road movie with a love story at its heart.  Hit the jump for more on Monster Problems, Levy and Duffield.

After taking some much-deserved time off following her Best Actress Oscar win for Black Swan and the birth of her child, Natalie Portman is beginning to line up a slate of upcoming projects.  She’s set to star in two new Terrence Malick films and she’ll return for Thor 2, and now she’s attached herself to star in and produce a wildly interesting project called Jane Got a Gun.  The film, described as a Western, was written by Brian Duffield and centers on “a woman whose outlaw husband returns home barely alive and riddled with bullet wounds. She is forced to reach out to an ex-lover and ask if he will help defend her farm when her husband’s gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job.”  Hit the jump for more.

Each year, Hollywood releases “The Black List.” The list is a compilation of the “best” unproduced scripts making the rounds of Hollywood, as voted on by hundreds of film executives. Past scripts that have made their way to the list include Diablo Cody’s Juno and Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Network. This year, topping the list is Graham Moore’s script for the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game. Turning was a mathematician and codebreaker during World War II who was criminally prosecuted for his homosexuality, after which he elected chemical castration over prison, and eventually ended his own life.

The Imitation Game has been in the works for a while, and last we heard Warner Bros. was keen on getting Harry Potter director David Yates to take the helm. Leonardo DiCaprio is also said to have taken a liking to the role of Turing. Also appearing on the list is Matt Damon’s planned directorial debut Father Daughter Time and Chewie, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of Star Wars from the perspective of Peter Mayhew. Hit the jump to peruse the entire list, which includes two Pinocchio projects, a movie about catching a screening of Jurassic Park, and zombies!