We’ve got a couple of casting stories to report this afternoon. First up, Rufus Sewell (The Tourist) has joined the cast of Alex Proyas’s big-budget adaptation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Legendary Pictures announced that Sewell will take on the role of Sammael opposite Bradley Cooper as Lucifer and Benjamin Walker as Michael. This isn't Sewell's first film for Proyas, as he previously starred in the director's 1998 sci-fi film Dark City. For those unfamiliar, Paradise Lost centers on the battle between the two archangels when the banished Lucifer takes on the forces of Heaven. The 3D pic will feature epic action that includes “aerial warfare”. The cast for the film also includes Casey Affleck as the angel Gabriel and Dijmon Hounsou as the Angel of Death, Camilla Belle as Eve, Sam Reid as Raphael, Callan McAuliffe as Uriel, and Dominic Purcell as Moloch. Paradise Lost is being eyed for a 2013 release.

Hit the jump for the casting news of Keira Knightley in the competing Effie Gray film Untouched.

Production is currently underway on the long-in-the-works Emma Thompson­-scripted biopic of Effie Gray, Effie, starring Dakota Fanning in the title role. However, it appears that a competing biopic of Gray is now in the works with Keira Knightley poised to star. Gray married art critic John Ruskin in 19th century London, but the latter refused to consummate the marriage, leading a devastated Gray to fall in love with Ruskin’s protégé, painter John Everett Milias.

Thompson on Hollywood reports that Knightley is in talks to star in the drama Untouched. The film also centers on the love triangle between Gray, Ruskin, and Milias, and is set to be directed by House of Sand helmer Andrucha Waddington. The script was written by Aleksandra Crapanzano. The film is currently being shopped around at the American Film Market.