With the Cannes Film Festival underway, plenty of wheeling and dealing is going down, so that means lots of casting news.  Briefly:

• Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Color) is joining Idris Elba in James Watkins' Bastille Day.

• Michael Shannon will co-star with Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in Freeheld.

• Mickey Rourke, Nat Wolff, Emma Roberts, and Sarah Silverman will star in Ashby.

• Rachel McAdams and Lupita Nyong'o are circling the drama Southpaw.

Hit the jump for more on this casting news.

According to Deadline, Adèle Exarchopoulos will star alongside Idris Elba in the action flick Bastille Day.  As we previously reported, the film revolves around "a U.S. operative who is tasked with interrogating and eventually making a young American boy ‘disappear’ in order to avoid embarrassment to the U.S. government after the boy is linked as the prime suspect to an attack on the Paris metro."  When more attacks ensue, the operative realizes the boy is innocent, and the two must work together to uncover the true culprit.  Pierre Morel (Taken) was originally on board to direct, but now Watkins (The Woman in Black) has taken over, and while I'm sure Elba will knock it out of the park like always, I hope this will be a good showcase for Exarchopoulos as well.

Moving on, Screen Daily reports that Michael Shannon has joined Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in the romance-drama Freeheld.  Directed by Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist), Freeheld is based on an Oscar-winning short of the same name, and centers "on the true story of New Jersey car mechanic Stacie Andree and her police detective girlfriend Laurel Hester, who both battled to secure Hester’s pension benefits after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness."  Page has been attached to play Andree since 2010, and hopefully this new bit of casting news means the project is moving forward.

Screen Daily also reports that Mickey Rourke, Nat Wolff, Emma Roberts, and Sarah Silverman are set to star in the comedy-drama Ashby.  Tony McNamara will direct from his own script, which is about "the relationship between a high school student (Wolff) and a retired CIA assassin (Rourke) who only has months to live."  Hoo-boy.

Finally, casting is starting to ramp up on Antonie Fuqua's boxing drama Southpaw.  Jake Gyllenhaal plays a left-handed boxer who wins a title, but suffers various personal tragedies all while trying to win back the love of his daughter.  Forest Whitaker will co-star as a former fighter who now works as a trainer.  According to Deadline, Rachel McAdams is being courted to play the wife of Gyllenhaal's character while Lupita Nyong'o is being eyed to play the daughter's social worker.