We’ve got a couple of casting stories to share this afternoon.  First up, Bill Paxton is lining up a big project to follow the success of his History Channell miniseries Hatfield & McCoys.  Variety reports that Paxton is in talks to join the crime actioner 2 Guns.  Based on the graphic novel by Steven Grant, the film stars Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington and centers on a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who unknowingly investigate each other as each is stealing money from the mob.  Contraband director Baltasar Kormakur is onboard to direct, and we recently learned that Paul Patton is also in talks to star.  Paxton will apparently play a high-ranking CIA operative.Hit the jump for promising casting news concerning the West Memphis 3 film Devil’s Knot, starring Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth.Additionally, impressive casting continues for director Atom Egoyan’s drama about the West Memphis 3, who were convicted of killing three boys in Arkansas in 1993 despite the absence of physical evidence; they were released in 2011.  Witherspoon is set as one of the victims’ mothers, Firth is playing a private investigator, and now Variety reports that Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan and Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) are in early talks to join the cast.Should their deals work out, Ryan would play Firth’s soon-to-be ex-wife while DeHaan would play “ a teen who had some history with the three murdered boys.”  Alessandro Nivola was recently cast as Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the young victims and a key person of interest in the crime.