Check out the latest major casting news below:
- Robert Redford (The Natural) will star in The Old Man and the Gun for writer/director David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints).
- Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) has joined the cast of Wally Pfister's directorial debut, Transcendence, which also stars Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall and Kate Mara. The film is due out April 25, 2014.
Hit the jump for more on both pictures.
Heat Vision reports that Redford will star in Lowery's The Old Man and the Gun, adapted by Lowery from a 2003 New Yorker article written by David Grann. The article told the tale of Forrest Tucker, a lifelong bank robber born in 1920 who spent most of his life in or escaping from jail (including Alcatraz and San Quentin). It centered on a 78-year-old Tucker who was living in a retirement community with his third wife. Old habits die hard as Tucker was caught by police for robbery after a high-speed chase in 2000 and sentenced to 13 years; he died in 2005.
Lowery's take is expected to focus on a specific slice of Tucker's life but no details are available at this time. Lowery was recently given the task of drafting up a re-imagined Pete's Dragon for Disney. Redford, meanwhile, currently has his thriller The Company You Keep out in limited release. Directed by and starring Redford, the film also stars Shia LaBeouf, Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Anna Kendrick, Chris Cooper and Julie Christie. Redford also recently snagged a role in Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Check out the full press release on Freeman's addition to Transcendence:
MORGAN FREEMAN JOINS ‘TRANSCENDENCE’ CAST
LOS ANGELES, CA, APRIL 11, 2013 – Oscar winner Morgan Freeman is in final negotiations to join Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall and Kate Mara in Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister’s directorial debut, TRANSCENDENCE, it was announced by Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, co-founders and co-CEOs of Alcon Entertainment.
Principal photography is set to begin in May in Los Angeles. Alcon Entertainment will finance and produce the picture, which will be released via their output deal with Warner Bros on April 25, 2014.
Written by Jack Paglen, the screenplay was developed by Annie Marter and Straight Up Films, whose company principals include Marisa Polvino, Kate Cohen and Regency Boies. Polvino, Marter and Cohen will produce along with David Valdes (“Book of Eli”), Johnson and Kosove. Boies will co-produce.
Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas and Aaron Ryder are serving as executive producers.
Freeman reprised his role as Fox in last year’s “The Dark Knight Rises” on which Pfister served as cinematographer. Freeman was most recently seen in “Olympus Has Fallen” alongside Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler. He will next be seen starring alongside Tom Cruise in “Oblivion” for Universal Pictures and Summit’s “Now You See Me” which also stars Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Michael Caine, among others.
Aside from “The Dark Knight Rises,” Pfister served as cinematographer on 2011’s Best Picture Oscar-nominee, “Moneyball.” His other credits include films such as “The Italian Job” and “Laurel Canyon.”
