Chris Pine Joins STRETCH, Mandy Patinkin Set for Zach Braff’s WISH I WAS HERE, Wei Tang and Leehom Wang Board Michael Mann Thriller

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Chris Pine Joins Joe Carnahan’s STRETCH, Mandy Patinkin Set for Zach Braff’s WISH I WAS HERE, Wei Tang and Leehom Wang Board Michael Mann Thriller

By Adam Chitwood

Published May 14, 2013

Chris Pine will cameo in Joe Carnahan's comedic actioner Stretch, Mandy Patinkin joins Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here, and a duo joins Mann's thriller.

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.

Though Star Trek Into Darkness opens domestically this weekend, star Chris Pine certainly isn’t above taking on a smaller role in another film. The Wrap reports that Pine will appear in a cameo capacity in The Grey director Joe Carnahan’s next film, the low-budget actioner Stretch. In keeping with the limousine trend as of late (Holy Motors, Cosmopolis), Patrick Wilson stars in the film as "a down-on-his-luck chauffeur looking to relieve his debt by driving around a mysterious billionaire who drags him to hell and back." Pine’s role is being kept under wraps, but it’s reasonable to assume that he’ll pop up in the back of the limo at some point. Jason Blum (Insidious, Sinister) is producing.

Additionally, Zach Braff has announced the first big name for his next directorial project, Wish I Was Here. Braff stars as a struggling actor, father and husband who is working to find his identity and purpose at 35 years old, and Patinkin has joined the cast as Braff’s father. Somewhat controversially, Braff funded part of the film through the crowdsourcing site Kickstarter in order to retain creative control and allow for more elaborate fantasy sequences in the pic. Production is slated to begin later this year.

Finally, Michael Mann has cast Lust, Caution stars Wei Tang and Leehom Wang in Legendary’s upcoming cyber thriller. The untitled film takes place within the world of cyber-theft and cyber-attacks and stars Chris Hemsworth in the lead role. THR reports that Tang and Wang will play a brother/sister duo in the pic, with Tang acting as Hemsworth’s love interest. Scripted by Mann and Morgan Foehl, the film is said to have an international focus with portions of the pic slated to shoot in Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Viola Davis also stars.