Here’s your latest casting news out of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival:

• Joel Edgerton (Warrior) will join Johnny Depp in the Barry Levinson crime thriller Black Mass about Boston kingpin Whitey Bulger.
• Chris Pine (Star Trek), Amanda Seyfried (Les Miserables) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men) have joined the Tobey Maguire production Z for Zacharia, directed by Craig Zobel (Compliance).

Hit the jump for more on each casting announcement.

Though we’re a little more than halfway through the year, we’ve likely already seen the release of one of the best films of 2012: Beasts of the Southern Wild.  The magical, emotional drama is a film unlike any other, and its success is due in no small part to its force of nature star Quvenzhane Wallis, who was merely five years old when she landed the lead role.  A set photo from director Steve McQueen’s (Shame) upcoming period drama Twelve Years a Slave now confirms that the immensely talented actress has joined Chiwetel Ejoifor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Brad Pitt as part of the cast.

The film tells the true story of Solomon Northup, an educated and married black man living in 1853 New York who was abducted and forced into over a decade of slavery in the south.  Judging by this set photo, it appears that Wallis will be playing Northup’s daughter.  Hit the jump to take a look.

Benedict Cumberbatch (War Horse, Sherlock) is the latest addition to New Regency’s historical drama, Twelve Years a Slave.  In what’s shaping up to be one of my most anticipated films, Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave already features Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men), Adepero Oduye (Pariah), Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).  The story is based on the true life events of Solomon Northup (Ejiofor), a free black man who was living in New York in the 1840s when he was duped into taking a job in Washington, D.C. only to be kidnapped and forced into manual labor on a Louisiana plantation.  Hit the jump for more information on the picture, including Cumberbatch’s role.

We’ve got some Little Miss Sunshine alumni casting news today: one’s an Oscar-nominated topliner and the other is a BAFTA-nominated addition to an already phenomenal cast.  Check out the headlines below:

• Abigail Breslin is set to star in the title role of Final Girl, a thriller from debut director Tyler Shields.
• Paul Dano will join the cast of Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave, a picture that already boasts Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Adepero Oduye and Brad Pitt.

Hit the jump for more on each picture.

We have some more casting additions to report to you today. Here are the basics:

• John Boyega (Attack the Block) will join Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor in Half of a Yellow Sun from director Biyi Bandele. Boyega is also in negotiations to topline Creeping Zero, an indie sci-fi flick from Billy O’Brien, the writer/director of Invasion.
• The post-apocalyptic train-thriller, Snow Piercer, has added Kenny Doughty (Titus) to the cast. He’s also set to make his directorial debut with the British revenge thriller, Vengeance Waits.

Hit the jump for more information on each project.

Continuing on with more information out of AFM, we’ve got the first synopsis and promo poster for 12 Years a Slave. Director Steve McQueen (Shame) reteams with Michael Fassbender in this adaptation of Solomon Northup’s autobiography. Northup was a free, educated black man living in New York City when he was kidnapped and forced into slavery for 12 years in the South. Chiwetel Ejofor stars as Northup alongside Fassbender and Brad Pitt. McQueen’s Shame is garnering serious awards attention (especially for Fassbender’s performance), and brutally candid touch should make 12 Years a Slave an unflinching and emotional pic.  Hit the jump to check out the promo image and detailed synopsis.

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained isn’t the only film going into production that’s set to tackle the harsh realities of slavery. Brad Pitt is producing an adaptation of Solomon Northup’s harrowing autobiography Twelve Years a Slave through his Plan B production banner. THR reports that Steve McQueen (Hunger) is on board to direct, and British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Salt) will star as Northup. McQueen co-wrote the script with John Ridley.

Written in 1853, the autobiography tells the story of Northup, a married and educated free black man living in New York. He was approached by two men about a job offer in Washington D.C., but when he showed up he was kidnapped and put into a slave pen where he began a life of forced slavery under the guise of several owners. This is definitely some heavy material, as the book recounts the grueling realities of slavery in D.C. in vivid detail. Hit the jump to read a synopsis of the book.

“Who is Salt?” The ads for Salt both asked and answered. Salt was obviously the title character of the film Salt, here played by Angelina Jolie, but I guess on an existential level who she is, is still up for grabs. Evelyn Salt is a secret agent, but it turns out that she might be a mole for the Russian government, and that leads her superiors (including Liev Schrieber and Chiwetel Ejiofor) to freaking out, and trying to catch her. But the problem with catching spies is that they are trained to avoid such situations. Phillip Noyce directs this Bourne-riff like the craftsman of action he became in the 90’s. That’s both the film’s greatest strength and weakness. My review of the Blu-ray of Salt follows after the jump.

With Columbia Pictures junketing director Phillip Noyce’s  action thriller Salt in Washington D.C. this weekend, the studio has released four clips from the movie and you can check them out after the jump.  As you might imagine, the clips focus on the action and put Angelina Jolie front and center.  The film also stars Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor,  and Andre Braugher.  Salt gets released July 23rd.  Synopsis also after the jump:

Director Steve McQueen (Hunger) has been developing a biopic on Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti over at Focus Features, and Deadline reports that Chiwetel Ejiofor (Children of Men) is “formally attached” to play the Nigerian icon on screen.  Though the two projects are unrelated, the Broadway musical Fela! has enjoyed a great run (it recently earned eleven Tony nominations) and brought Kuti’s music back to the forefront of American culture.

On the set of the upcoming Angelina Jolie thriller Salt, Ejiofor started learning how to play the piano and saxophone to do the role justice, and has apparently gotten “quite good.”  Given the political bent of Kuti’s music, the considerable chops of Mr. Ejiofor, and the awards prowess of Focus Features, this biopic has Oscar written all over it.  To get a taste of Kuti’s funky brand of political activism, hit the jump.

Sony has released a bunch of new high resolution images from some of their big summer movies.  Included in the bunch are Salt (starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andre Braugher), The Karate Kid (starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan and Taraji P. Henson) and Eat Pray Love – which stars Julia Roberts, James Franco, Richard Jenkins, Viola Davis, Billy Crudup and Javier Bardem.  Hit the jump for detailed synopses and tons of high resolution images.

A new trailer for Angelina Jolie’s action movie Salt has come online.  The tagline of the marketing campaign asks, “Who Is Salt?”  After seeing this trailer, I would like to venture a guess: Salt is a woman who is framed as a Russian spy and then goes on the lam to save her kidnapped husband and clear her name.  Oh, and this woman kicks lots of ass along the way.

I’m not sure if there’s much more of a plot in there and the action doesn’t impress me as much as it does in the the new A-Team trailer, but I hope that it’s as good as the Bourne movies it looks like it’s trying to emulate.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer along with the official synopsis. Salt hits theaters on July 23rd.

The year is 1985.  The place: a fervently eroding South America plagued by the mistrust of race due to apartheid.  Nelson Mandela is imprisoned.  The end of this political game is approaching, but how will it go down?  Secret meetings are held by opposing sides of this warring country.  Sounds like a great movie plot, huh?  The most intriguing part of the story is rooted it’s reality which took place long before such a film could be made.  More after the jump:

Last month, I was lucky enough to be invited to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to cover the press junket for Roland Emmerich’s upcoming disaster flick 2012, which opens this Friday.  Some people reading this may be thinking, “Lucky to go to Wyoming? Har har!”  These people (in addition to laughing oddly) have never been to Jackson Hole, Wyoming because it is an absolutely gorgeous landscape.  There are forests, grassland, and mountains all grouped together and it provides a feeling of complete tranquility to the area.  It’s isolated but when you stop to think about how most of us are bombarded on a daily basis by technology and communications that isolation turns into an oasis.

I also got to see Roland Emmerich destroy the world real good and then talk about it with Emmerich and stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.  Hit the jump for what they had to say about the Earth crumbling like an old Chips Ahoy along with my tale of adventure in Big Sky country.  It involves bears.

Opening this Friday is director Roland Emmerich’s 2012.  As most of you have seen in commercials and trailers, 2012 is about a global cataclysm that causes massive destruction to our planet.  If you’re keeping count, this is Emmerich’s third time blowing up our planet (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) and I think he’s learned from his previous efforts to deliver his biggest ride yet.  Trust me, 2012 is loaded with some of the craziest special effects you’ll see this year and if you want to have some fun, grab a popcorn and just go for the ride.

To help promote the film, our partners at Omelete were invited to the international press day and they sent me to cover it.  So after the jump you can watch my interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor where we talk about what this year has been like for him, 2012 theories, making the movie, Salt, and a lot more.