We’ve got a few casting stories for you this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Sam Elliott has joined Ivan Reitman‘s dramedy Draft Day starring Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Ellen Burstyn, and Terry Crews.

• Michael Pena will co-star in David Ayer‘s WWII thriller Fury starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, and Logan Lerman.

• Speaking of LaBeouf, he’s set to lead Villain, a psychological thriller from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later).

Hit the jump for more on all these films.

Two up-and-comers landed roles of note tonight:

• Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) signed on to star in The Garden of Last Days.  James Franco will direct and co-star in the adaptation of the novel by Andre Dubus III that “explores family and sexual values over the course a night set in a Florida strip club.”
• Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) joins Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf in the World War II tank thriller Fury, written and directed by David Ayer (End of Watch).

Hit the jump for more on both projects.

Once you have Brad Pitt set as your star, it becomes quite a bit easier to fill out the rest of your cast.  Earlier this month, Pitt committed to the lead role in End of Watch director David Ayer’s World War II film Fury.  The story takes place in 1945 as the Nazi regime collapses and the five-man crew of an American tank called Fury battles a desperate German army.  Pitt is onboard to star as an army sergeant named “Wardaddy,” and now Variety reports that Shia LaBeouf is in talks to co-star.  Further details are unknown, but LaBeouf would play a member of the Fury crew should his deal make.

Ayer wrote the script for Fury himself on spec, and with LaBeouf now onboard I’m really interested to see how the rest of the cast fills out.  LaBeouf was most recently seen in Robert Redford’s thriller The Company You Keep and the Sundance film The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.  Just yesterday, we learned that he’s attached to reunite with his Disturbia director D.J. Caruso on the espionage film Spy’s Kid alongside Robert De Niro, but with production on Fury set to begin this fall, the WWII film will likely be his next project.  Fury hits theaters on November 14, 2014.

Things are moving very quickly on director David Ayer’s WWII film Fury.  The writer/director sold his spec script to QED in February for a cool $1 million off the success of his 2012 cop drama End of Watch, and last week he landed some major starpower by way of Brad Pitt who signed on to topline the film as an army sergent named “Wardaddy.”  Now Columbia Pictures has acquired domestic distribution rights for the film and has set a November 14, 2014 release date, with production poised to begin this coming September.  The pic will open opposite Matthew Vaughn’s comic book adaptation The Secret Service and will be sandwiched between Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi pic Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

The story of Fury takes place in 1945 as the Nazi regime collapses and the five-man crew of an American tank called Fury battles a desperate German army.  Hit the jump for more, including the full press release.

It looks like Brad Pitt might be getting in the driver’s seat of a tank in Fury, the World War II pic from writer/director David Ayer (End of Watch).  Reports have Pitt in final negotiations to lead the picture, which “takes place in 1945 as the Nazi regime collapses and the five man crew of an American tank called Fury battles a desperate German army.” Ayer previously said that his goal with the film is “to bring tank combat to life in a way that lands with a modern audience.”  With Pitt possibly on board, Ayer will certainly have that audience to play to.  Hit the jump for more.

End of Watch writer/director David Ayer has made quite the sale for his spec script Fury.  Deadline reports that QED International has paid $1 million for Ayer’s script, with the filmmaker attached to direct the World War II actioner.  The story “takes place in 1945 as the Nazi regime collapses and the five man crew of an American tank called Fury battles a desperate German army.” Ayer is hoping to begin production later this fall, and his goal with the film is “to bring tank combat to life in a way that lands with a modern audience.”  I’m not entirely sure what, specifically, modern audiences crave out of a tank warfare movie, but I believe the answer is massive explosions and dubstep.

Ayer is best known for his gritty cop dramas like Harsh Times and Training Day, but he picked up considerable critical acclaim for last year’s End of Watch and most recently wrapped a thriller take on the Agatha Christie story Ten Little Indians called Ten, which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, and Terrence Howard.  QED also teamed up with Ayer on Ten, which opens next January, so they must be liking what they’re seeing from that film thus far.