Here's today's latest casting news:

  • Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) is in negotiations to join Horrible Bosses 2.  New Line has set a November 28, 2014 release date for the sequel that also stars Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey and Chris Pine.
  • Rachel McAdams (Midnight in Paris) is in talks to replace Reese Witherspoon in the science fiction picture, Passengers, starring Keanu Reeves.
  • Luke Grimes (Taken 2) has been cast in Sam Taylor-Johnson's Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation, which stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.
  • Robin Weigert (The Sessions) has signed on to Edward Zwick's chess drama, Pawn Sacrifice, starring Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Variety reports that Waltz is in talks to board Horrible Bosses 2, the Sean Anders-directed sequel that begins production in L.A. the first week of November.  Waltz and Pine would play a father-son duo who terrorize the protagonists as their new bosses.  Waltz was in the mix for this role for some time, but it looks as if concerns surrounding his schedule were smoothed out.  He'll next be seen in Muppets Most Wanted, opening March 21, 2014.

rachel-mcadams-passengers

Deadline reports that McAdams is in talks to join Passengers, the Jon Spaihts-scripted sci-fi pic directed by Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire).  The film's production in Germany gave rise to complications with Witherspoon's schedule, opening the door for McAdams.  The plot centers on a "spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet [and then] has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger (Reeves) is awakened 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger (McAdams), marking the beginning of what becomes a unique love story."  The Weinstein Company is banking on the recent success of Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity to draw in a similarly sized box office with their similarly plotted pic.

New casting for Fifty Shades of Grey comes courtesy of Variety, who reports that Grimes will play Christian Grey's brother, Elliot.  Universal Pictures and Focus Features now have their Anastasia Steele in Johnson, and their Grey brothers, but still need to cast the supporting roles of Steele’s roommate Kate, and Grey’s bodyguard.

Finally, THR reports that Weigert will join the Bobby Fischer chess film, Pawn Sacrifice, as Fischer's eccentric mother, Regina.  Also starring Lily Rabe and Liev Schreiber, "the film follows Fischer and his chess nemesis Boris Spassky (Schreiber) as they enter the 'Match of the Century.'"