Some casting news for you this afternoon:

  • Dakota Fanning has joined Ewan McGregor and Jennifer Connelly in Phillip Noyce’s adaptation of the Philip Roth novel, American Pastoral.
  • Geoffrey Rush will star in The Daughter, which marks the directorial debut of Simon Stone.

Hit the jump for more on these casting stories:

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First we have Dakota Fanning joining Jennifer Connelly (who was just recently cast this week) and Ewan McGregor in American Pastoral. Fanning will play the pivotal role of “Merry Levov”, the daughter of McGregor’s “Swede Levov” and Connelly’s “Dawn." Here’s the official synopsis of the John Romano-scripted prestige pic:

American Pastoral follows Seymour “Swede” Levov, a legendary high school athlete, who grows up to marry a former beauty queen and inherits his father’s business.  Swede’s seemingly perfect life shatters when his daughter rebels by becoming a revolutionary and commits a deadly act of political terrorism during the Vietnam War.

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Image via Universal

Next up is Jamie Dornan.  After Valentine's Day of next year, everyone will likely know him as Mr. Grey from 50 Shades of Grey.  Which certainly can't hurt The Siege of Jadotville. The film finds commercial director Richie Smyth making his feature debut.  Per Deadline, here's the synopsis:

The story is based on the 1961 siege of 150 UN Irish troops led by Quinlan in the Congo after pro-western leader Moise Tshombe took control of the Katanga region and killed the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. In a show of extraordinary bravery, Quinlan and his battallion held out against a force of 3,000 local troops led by French and Belgian Mercenaries working for the mining companies.

Last but not least, Variety reports that Geoffrey Rush will star in alongside Ewen Leslie in  The Daughter, the first film from stage director Simon Stone.   The story follows a man who returns home to discover a long-buried family secret, and whose attempts to put things right threaten the lives of those he left home years before.

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