A few casting stories to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Chris Pine will be reuniting with his Smokin Aces director Joe Carnahan on the low-budget comedic thriller Stretch opposite Patrick Wilson.
• Homeland star and Broadway veteran Mandy Patinkin has been set in the role of Zach Braff’s father in Braff’s partially Kickstarter-funded directorial effort Wish I Was Here.
• Lust, Caution stars Wei Tang and Leehom Wang have boarded Michael Mann’s untitled cyber thriller starring Chris Hemsworth.

Hit the jump for more on the aforementioned projects.

While director Joe Carnahan’s 2011 film The Grey received some much-deserved praise from critics and a solid box office take, he’s had a bit of trouble getting his follow-up feature off the ground.  Carnahan was developing a remake of Death Wish at Paramount for the better part of a year, only to leave the project over a difference of opinion with the studio regarding the film’s casting.  Carnahan also flirted with possibly taking on a hard-boiled 1970s iteration of Daredevil at Fox, but the ticking clock due to the character rights proved to be an immovable stumbling block, and Marvel has now regained control of the superhero character.

However, Carnahan has now added a new project to his development slate, as he is currently in negotiations to write and direct an adaptation of the Chuck Hogan novel Devils in Exile for Universal called Sugar Bandits.  Hit the jump for more.

Last summer, macho director Joe Carnahan (The Grey) talked about his vision for a remake of Death Wish, but it looks like that view didn’t jibe with the studio.  As of August, Carnahan was still in the process of scripting the reboot of the 1974 movie starring Charles Bronson that kick-started a five-film franchise.  Originally based on the Brian Garfield novel of the same name, Death Wish centers on Paul Kersey, a man who becomes a vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter is sexually assaulted by muggers.  The studio wanted Bruce Willis to step into the role while Carnahan had other ideas, thus leading to a split over creative differences.  Hit the jump for more.

It sounds like Joe Carnahan (The Grey) will take on writing and directing duties for an adaptation of Undying Love, a graphic novel series created by Tomm Coker and Daniel Freedman. The story centers on John Sargent, an ex-soldier who falls in love with a Chinese woman, only to find out that she’s a vampire. The only way they can be together is if Sargent can defeat her incredibly powerful creator. We previously reported that Coker and Freedman were writing the script for Warner Bros., but Carnahan’s deal would have him writing up another draft as well as directing. Hit the jump for more on this story, including a quote from Carnahan himself.

Opening this weekend is director Olivier Megaton‘s Taken 2.  In the sequel, Liam Neeson’s character unwisely takes his family on a European vacation, only to find himself and his wife (Famke Janssen) taken hostage by the family members of the henchmen that Neeson brutally murdered in the first film.  The film also stars Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija. For more on the film, here’s four clips and all our previous coverage.

Last week in New York City I got to sit down with Neeson for an exclusive interview.  We talked about whether he was hesitant to do a sequel, what it was like to film in Istanbul, whether the script changed during production, and more.  In addition, we also talked about what it was like to host Saturday Night Live, how he was unclear regarding the nature of his role in The Dark Knight Rises or if he’d even make the final cut, whether he’ll work again with Joe Carnahan and if he knows anything about Mark Millar‘s Nemesis.  He also talked playing an air marshal in director Jaume Collet-Serra‘s upcoming action film Non-Stop, which is being produced by Joel Silver.  Hit the jump to watch.

Director Joe Carnahan is a pretty cool guy.  The man behind Narc, The A-Team, and this year’s fantastic The Grey has become a fan of social media as of late, and he’s been using Twitter to share some seriously great material with his fans.  Not only does he give frequent (and candid) updates on the status of the various scripts and projects he’s working on, but earlier this year when it became clear that Fox wasn’t able to move ahead with his take on Daredevil due to time constraints, he posted his great “sizzle reel” pitch for all to see.  Though we’ll likely never see his full feature-film take on the superhero, it was a treat to see the tone and vibe he was going for with his take.

Carnahan is now sharing more “coulda been” goodies, as he’s posting the screen tests he did with actor Frank Grillo for his Groundhog Day-esque actioner Continue.  Hit the jump for more.

Yesterday, we reported the sad news that Joe Carnahan‘s pitch for the reboot of Daredevil failed to gain any traction at Fox.  As if to make us even more disappointed, Carnahan took the sizzle reel he made to convince Fox execs and posted it online so we could get a better idea of how cool his take would have been.  We’re not seeing any period-piece superhero movies, and Daredevil would have fit in nicely with the 1970s.

As we’ve seen from his tweets and posting of the sizzle reel, Carnahan has no problem keeping people updated about what he’s working on.  With that in mind, he called in to The Radio Dan Show to talk about why he was interested in Daredevil, and why the project didn’t get off the ground (the rights will likely now revert to Marvel Studios).  He also talks about his upcoming remake of Death Wish, when it will take place, its similarity to the original, and more.  Hit the jump for what Carnahan had to say about these projects.

After reporting this morning that Joe Carnahan’s pitch to Fox for Daredevil “went up in smoke,” the director decided to share those sizzle reels with Twitter.  It’s clear that I’m not cut out to be a studio executive, because Carnahan’s hardcore, 70′s take on the Man without Fear seemed spot on to me.  Granted, sizzle reels aren’t composed of actual footage; they are spliced together pieces of film stock, bits of soundtrack, some concept art and, in this case, comic book panels that are meant to give the viewer a sense of tone and theme.  Carnahan’s Daredevil would have been closer to a Frank Miller film: tough, ballsy and fearless.  It’s a shame we’ll probably never see the vision on the big screen. Hit the jump to watch two versions of the Daredevil pitch.

Last week, we reported the exciting news that Fox was looking at director Joe Carnahan (The Grey) to reboot Daredevil.  The studio needs to get a reboot of the Man without Fear into production by October 10th or else the rights for the character will revert to Marvel Studios.  There was even word that Fox, in order to hold onto the rights a little longer, was willing to make a trade with Marvel.  This report was later denied, and we learned that Fox was still lukewarm on rebooting Daredevil.  Carnahan was still involved, but now that may have changed as well.

Hit the jump for more including two very cool updates:

With the rights to Daredevil set to revert to Marvel on October 10th, 20th Century Fox is anxious to start production on a reboot.  With director David Slade having exited, Fox is now looking at Joe Carnahan (The Grey) to helm.  While solidifying a director is a step in the right direction, the deadline still looms.  Luckily, Fox has been in talks with Marvel for a character swap of sorts, an arrangement that, if both studios agree, could keep the “Frank Miller-esque, hardcore 70s thriller” version of Daredevil at Fox while bringing some big players back to Marvel.  Hit the jump to find out who.

Though it’s still a little hard to believe, director Joe Carnahan’s The Grey remains one of the best films I’ve seen so far this year.  The “Liam Neeson fights wolves” movie blindsided me as a surprisingly introspective and meditative look at survival, life, and death, anchored by an emotionally gut-punching performance from Neeson.  The film did well at the box office for an R-rated survival pic, taking in over $75 million.  Hot off the film’s commercial and critical success, Carnahan committed to directing a remake of the 1974 action pic Death Wish, and it now looks like another one of his passion projects is moving forward: an action spin on the Groundhog Day premise called Continue.  Hit the jump for more.

Just the other day, we reported that The Grey director Joe Carnahan was set to helm a remake of the 1974 actioner Death Wish. The revenge pic kicked off a wave of actions films and catapulted Charles Bronson to stardom. Very little was known about Carnahan’s version at the time we heard about his involvement, but the director recently took to Twitter to talk about his vision for the pic. He says it’s set in present day Los Angeles, and his goal is to capture an unseen version of L.A. a la Michael Mann’s gritty 2004 thriller Collateral. Hit the jump to hear more from Carnahan.

As Joe Carnahan’s latest directorial effort, The Grey, is poised to be the number one film at the box this weekend, the director has now landed another high-profile project. Carnahan is being hired to write and direct a remake of the 1974 action pic Death Wish. The original served as the breakout film for star Charles Bronson, and kicked off a wave of action movies. The story was loosely based on a novel of the same name and centers on a liberal architect who sets out for vengeance after his wife and daughter are attacked. It’s basically a one-man revenge tale, and Carnahan seems an absolute perfect fit for the material. Hit the jump for more. [Update: Carnahan recently commented on his vision for the project. His thoughts are included after the jump]

With director Joe Carnahan’s (Narc, Smokin’ Aces, and The A-Team) awesome survival-action flick The Grey now playing, I recently got the chance to talk with the cast and Carnahan about making the movie.  Starring Liam Neeson, Dallas Roberts, James Badge Dale, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, Nonso Anozie, and Joe Anderson, The Grey is about a group of oilmen who have crash landed in the hunting zone of a rogue pack of wolves in the Alaskan tundra.  If you’re a fan of the cast, Carnahan, or just well made movies, The Grey will not disappoint.

During the press junket I got to talk to Carnahan twice. The first time was just about making The Grey.  However, when we spoke the second time, we talked about deleted scenes, what his friends and family screening told him about the movie (especially what he learned from Warrior director Gavin O’Connor), why Liam Neeson is a great action star, what’s up with Mark Millar‘s Nemesis (and how Neeson would be a perfect Blake Morrow), Killing Pablo, and reveals that he’d written the opening of the The A-Team Sequel that he planned had the first film done better commercially.  Hit the jump to watch.

So, after two weeks of talking about it, I finally caught Steven Soderbergh‘s Haywire. My thoughts? I was satisfied. Not blown away. Not shaking my head in disappointment. Satisfied. Soderbergh’s fight scenes were as beautifully executed as can be reasonably expected. In my opinion, though, there just weren’t enough of them. David Holmes’ score was fantastic when set behind said fight/chase/action sequences so, by default, there just wasn’t enough of it. The same could be said for much of the ensemble cast. In large part, their screen time was time well served. There just wasn’t enough of it to go around. So, do I recommend Haywire? Sure. As long as you go in with the expectation of seeing a slick action/thriller that is somewhat light on action and thrills. Now, onto business…

…After the jump, you’ll find that this week’s “Top 5″ is comprised of the 2012 Oscar nominations, interviews from our Chuck series finale set visit, a number of interviews for both The Grey and Man on a Ledge, and an ode to all of our 2012 Sundance coverage. A quick recap and link to each follows.