Here are today’s casting updates:

• Kevin Macdonald’s (The Last King of Scotland) new feature Black Sea, a hot ticket item coming up for Cannes, has Jude Law set to star.  Focus Features has snapped up worldwide rights to the film.

• Nicki Minaj will jump from her American Idol hosting duties to the big screen, making her live-action debut opposite Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, and Nickolaj Coster-Waldau in the Nick Cassavetes-directed The Other Woman.

• Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum), Scott Speedman (Last Resort), and Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta) will star in the supernatural thriller Out of the Dark, from Spanish director Lluis Quilez.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

The first clip from director David O. Russell’s (The Fighter) new film Silver Linings Playbook has gone online.  The pic was launched into the Best Picture conversation following a rapturous response to its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival (read Matt’s review here) where it won the People’s Choice Award.  Bradley Cooper stars as a man who’s recently been released from a mental hospital after having a nervous breakdown as a result of walking in on his wife sleeping with another man.  However, he’s resolved to get his wife back, but along the way he meets the equally-damaged Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who’s recovering from her husband’s death.  This clip showcases the strong performances from Cooper and Lawrence as they bond over the various medications they’ve been on over the years, and we get a good sense of Russell’s blend of comedy and drama.  This is definitely one to keep on your radar this fall.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, and Chris Tucker.  Silver Linings Playbook opens November 21st.

The Weinstein Company has released new images from David O. Russell’s upcoming drama, The Silver Linings Playbook.  Bradley Cooper plays a former teacher who, after spending four years in a mental institution, moves back in with his mother and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.  However, he strikes up a relationship with a neighbor (Jennifer Lawrence) who’s also mental problems.  Although the trailer played a bit corny, I liked what I saw from the cast, which also includes Jackie Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, and Robert De Niro.  The movie is definitely one of my must-see flicks at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The Silver Linings Playbook opens November 21st.

[With The Bourne Legacy set to open this Friday, we'll be taking a look back at the original Bourne trilogy.  These reviews will contain spoilers since the movies have been out for years.  Click here for my review of The Bourne Identity and click here for my review of The Bourne Supremacy.]

In 2004, the post-9/11 American had begun to take shape and The Bourne Supremacy reflected that change.  It provided a conscious subtext, but the movie remained first and foremost an action-thriller.  But by 2007, the change in our country was no longer worthy of a simple observation.  The change had produced a feeling, and that feeling was anger.  We had been misled into a war, and the government was taking extraordinary powers against Americans in the name of protecting Americans.  The Bourne Ultimatum is unapologetically political, which is its greatest weakness and its greatest strength.  Director Paul Greengrass still delivers a pulse-pounding blockbuster that retains the same intensity of Supremacy, but he pushes audiences to not only recognize the seismic shift in our country, but to confront our complicity in it.

[With The Bourne Legacy set to open this Friday, we'll be taking a look back at the original Bourne trilogy.  These reviews will contain spoilers since the movies have been out for years.  Click here for my review of The Bourne Identity.]

The identity of the Bourne franchise begins in the third act of The Bourne Identity.  It’s when the character’s strengths and weaknesses begin to arise, and The Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass took note of where not only the character was going, but where America was going.  The Bourne Identity came out in June 2002, and the sense of our country’s post-9/11 world was still hazy.  By the time The Bourne Supremacy arrived on July 23, 2004, the reverberations were clear.  We had been led into a war based on faulty intelligence that was cherry-picked so that we could attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  Greengrass wasn’t obligated to insert the subtext into his spy thriller, but he was savvy enough to leave the political commentary simmering underneath an intense action flick that not only boosted Matt Damon‘s credibility as a kick-ass hero, but found a way to use hand-held cinematography to its full effect rather than a lazy shortcut.

The first trailer for David O. Russell‘s Silver Linings Playbook has gone online.   Bradley Cooper plays a former teacher who, after spending four years in a mental institution, moves back in with his mother and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.  However, he strikes up a relationship with a neighbor (Jennifer Lawrence) who’s also mental problems.  I really like what I’m seeing from the cast, especially Cooper and Lawrence.  The trailer does make the film look a little sacchrine, but Russell has never skewed towards the mawkish, so I’m going to assume the heavy-handed feel-good stuff is designed to make the film appeal to a larger audience.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Jackie Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, and Robert De Niro.  Silver Linings Playbook opens on November 21st.

Production is set to begin next week on the untitled international suspense thriller starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall, and Working Title has announced a few additions to the cast.  Julia Stiles, Jim Broadbent, Ciarán Hinds, Riz Ahmed, Kenneth Cranham, and Anne-Marie Duff have been added to the cast, with John Crowley (Boy A) set to direct.  The story centers on two ex-lovers who “find their loyalties tested and their lives at risk when they are joined together on the defense team in a terrorism trial.”  Not much else is known plot-wise, but Crowley has assembled a fine international cast and I’m looking forward to seeing how the suspense thriller plays out.

Hit the jump to read the full press release.

NBC has cast the lead in their drama/mystery pilot, Midnight Sun. Julia Stiles will play FBI cult specialist, Leah Kafka, as she leads an investigation into the disappearance of Midnight Sun, a cult-like, communal group living in Alaska. Stiles is joined by Emma Bell (Frozen) who plays Rory, the daughter of the cult’s leader (played by Titus Welliver of Lost). Daniella Pineda (Newlyweds) is also on board. From Deadline, the pilot, written by Lisa Zwerling (Awake), is the first series for Stiles, who has previously done a season-long guest starring arc on Showtime’s Dexter.

In other TV series news, star of Hawaii Five-O Alex O’Loughlin will be taking a short break from the CBS series reboot. Hit the jump to find out why.

We’ve been sent the first images from the drama Between Us starring Melissa George, Taye Diggs, David Harbour, and Julia Stiles.  The film “explores the bittersweet friendships between two couples who meet as old friends and discover their lives are tarnished by money, success, sex, and children.”  If anyone wants to tarnish my life with the first three, go right on ahead.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film is currently in post-production and being shopped around the Berlin Film Festival for domestic distribution.

The Weinstein Company has set the release date of David O. Russell‘s The Silver Linings Playbook for November 21, 2012.  Based on the novel by Matthew Quick, the movie centers on a former high school teacher (Bradley Cooper) who returns home after four years in a mental institution to live with his mother (Jackie Weaver) and win back the affection of his estranged wife.  The movie also stars Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, and Robert De Niro.  Silver Linings sounds like it could be awards material and now TWC can put “From the Oscar-nominated Director of The Fighter” on the poster.

The Weinsteins will probably take Silver Linings out for a spin on the awards circuit before its November 21st release.  Of course, the Thanksgiving Day weekend is always crowded and so far the date also belongs to Alfonso Cuaron‘s sci-fi drama Gravity, the family comedy Parental Guidance, the Keanu Reeves‘ action-adventure 47 Ronin, and the animated film Rise of the Guardians.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of The Silver Linings Playbook. [Release date via Box Office Mojo]

Chris Tucker and Julia Stiles have joined Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jackie Weaver, and Robert De Niro in David O. Russell’s adaptation of Matthew Quick’s novel The Silver Linings Playbook.  Cooper plays a former high school teacher returning home from a four year stint in a mental institution to live with his mother (Weaver) and woo back his estranged wife, but instead falls for an unstable woman (Lawrence).  According to Deadline, Stiles will play Lawrence’s older sister.  Last month, we reported that Tucker was in negotiations to play Cooper’s friend from the mental institution who escapes multiple times to visit his pal.  He was also in talks to lead Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (the role ultimately went to Jamie Foxx) and to co-star in the Ben Stiller-Vince Vaughn comedy Neighborhood Watch.

Silver Linings will be Tucker’s first role since 2007′s Rush Hour 3.  As for Stiles, she’s co-starring in the indie films Seconds of Happiness, Between Us, and It’s a Disaster.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of the novel.

Showtime’s Dexter is an enormously popular show, another of those “dark thriller/comedy/crime” hybrids that’s been doing gangbusters business on TV over the past half-decade or so (Breaking Bad is another such series).  But after watching the first two seasons of Dexter, I found myself growing bored, so I dropped out.  A few years later, I heard that John Lithgow had joined the show, elevating it to levels of awesomeness it hadn’t previously reached.  Intrigued, I returned to Dexter and found it much improved by Lithgow’s presence.  And so, when season four wrapped (taking Lithgow with it), I had to wonder:  would the show remain better than it’d been in years, or would it start sucking again?  The forthcoming (or just-released, depending on when you’re reading this) Dexter: Season Five Blu-ray set answered that question for me.  Find out what I discovered after the jump, folks…

We’ve got a couple of casting stories regarding some indie films for you this evening. First up, Julia Stiles and America Ferrera have signed on to star in Todd Berger’s (Scenesters) comedy It’s a Disaster. Deadline reports that the film centers around four couples who meet up for Sunday brunch when they’re suddenly stranded in a house as the world may be coming to an end. Berger himself and fellow The Vacationeers comedy troupe-mates Kevin M. Brennan, Jeff Grace, Blaise Miller will also star. Berger wrote and will direct the pic, which starts filming this fall.

Additionally, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ivan Sergei (Crossing Jordan) are set to star in the film adaptation of the book and stageplay Jewtopia. The story centers on two childhood best friends who reunite as adults when one needs the other to help him pretend to be Jewish in order to woo a woman. Variety reports that Sergei will play the wannabe-Jew, while Hewitt will take on the role of the woman he’s in love with (she’s still appealing, right?) The tone is likened to Wedding Crashers and My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Bryan Fogel is directing from a cript he co-wrote with Sam Wolfson.

We have some assorted casting news for you this afternoon.  First up, Lindsay Lohan has dropped out of the role of Victoria Gotti in Gotti: Three Generations.  According to TMZ “money was an issue, but the various demands of her management team just got out of control.”  Apparently no one told Lohan’s management team that their client’s work was going straight-to-DVD and that a supporting role alongside John Travolta and Joe Pesci might be a worthwhile career boost.  The news of Lohan’s departure comes on the heels of director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) leaving the project earlier this week.

Hit the jump for casting news regarding Nicholas Stoller’s Five Year Engagement and an adaptation of the off-Broadway production Between Us.

[Update: THR now reports that Lohan will be appearing in Gotti, but not as Victoria. She'll now take on the role of John Gotti Jr.'s wife.]

Director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) has stepped in to replace Neil LaBute in an adaptation of LaBute’s collection of short stories, Seconds of Happiness.  The frame of the narrative takes place on an airplane and examines the interconnecting lives of various passengers through vignettes.  Clearly, this will be just like Lost.  Deadline also reports that Brendan Fraser and Kristen Scott Thomas will be joined by Christina Hendricks, Julia Stiles, and Matt Dillon.  Hendricks will play a woman who catches her husband (Fraser) in a “compromising position.”  Because I’ve never read LaBute’s book but have seen every episode of Lost, I imagine Fraser’s position has something to do with pushing a button every 108 minutes.  LaBute is still on board to produce and shooting is expected to begin this summer.

Hendricks recently signed on to star in the ensemble comedy I Don’t Know How She Does It while Dillon is attached to co-star in Roman Polanski’s God of Carnage and Matthew Weiner’s You Are Here.  Stiles recently co-starred on Showtime’s Dexter.   Hit the jump for the synopsis of Seconds of Pleasure.