Disney has been furiously casting director Rob Marshall’s (Chicago) musical adaptation Into the Woods over the past few weeks, and now a couple more exciting cast members are being added.  Variety reports that Emily Blunt is in talks to play the female lead in the film, which centers on a Baker and his wife as they venture into the woods to confront the witch responsible for putting a curse on the childless couple.  Broadway actor James Corden is set to play the film’s male lead, the Baker, while Meryl Streep is set as the witch and Johnny Depp is signed on in an unspecified role.

We learned last night that Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal are also in talks to play the love interests of Cinderella and Rapunzel in the film (yes, they’ll sing), and The Wrap adds that Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) is in talks to reteam with her Chicago director on the pic.  Production is expected to get underway this fall on what is turning out to be one hell of a musical ensemble.

Here’s today’s latest casting news:

• Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) are in discussions to join Into the Woods, the Rob Marshall-adaptation of the Broadway musical that stars Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep.
• Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) has joined Stephen Gaghan’s The Candy Store, which stars Robert De Niro, Jason Clake and Omar Sy.
• RZA (The Man with the Iron Fists) and Catalina Denis (Sleepless Night) will join Paul Walker in Brick Mansions, the Camille Delamarre-directed remake of Luc Besson’s District B13.

Hit the jump for more on each casting announcement.

Johnny Depp is looking to stretch his musical chops once more.  The Sweeney Todd actor has entered talks to join Meryl Streep in Disney’s adaptation of the Broadway musical Into the Woods, which will be helmed by Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides director Rob Marshall.  The film has been in the works for some time now, and it’s a fairy tale-infused story that centers around “a childless baker and his wife who attempt to life a family course by journeying into the woods to confront the witch that put a spell on them.”  During their journey, they encounter a number of classic fairy tale characters like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk.  Hit the jump for more.

One of the many films to premiere footage at this year’s New York Comic-Con was director James Wan‘s (Insidious) supernatural thriller The Conjuring.  The film stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as “a husband and wife team of demonologists and psychic investigators who enter the most horrifying case of their career, spirits in a Rhode Island farmhouse.”  Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor play a couple who unknowingly move into the haunted farmhouse with their kids.  For more on the film, here’s Matt’s recap of the Comic-Con panel.

Shortly before the panel started, I saw down with Wilson for an exclusive video interview.  We talked about how he got involved in The Conjuring and what attracted him to the material, what it’s like attending a comic convention after playing Nite Owl in Watchmen, what’s his favorite cut of the film, his thoughts on walking around a future convention in costume as Nite Owl, an adaptation of Caught Stealing, the status of an Insidious sequel, what it was like to do a reading for Rob Marshall‘s screen adaptation of Into the Woods, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Following the success (commercially, that is) of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, director Rob Marshall was mulling a couple of projects as his follow-up.  After his remake of The Thin Man with Johnny Depp was put on hold, the Chicago director set his sights on returning to the world of song and dance for his next film.  Marshall is prepping an adaptation of the fairy tale-themed musical Into the Woods for Disney, and he recently held a star-studded screenplay read that included the likes of Anna Kendrick, Patrick Wilson, Allison Janney, and many more.  Additionally, it sounds like he may have settled on Meryl Streep for the lead role of the Witch.

Hit the jump for more, including the full list of actors who were in attendance for the screenplay reading.

Since her breakout Oscar-nominated role as the desperately happy mother-to-be in Junebug, it’s almost seemed as though Amy Adams has put together two separate acting careers. Sometimes she’s an impossibly perky comedienne perpetually waiting to burst into song in films like Enchanted or The Muppets. And then almost as if suffering from acting bi-polar disorder, she’ll turn up in quiet and pained dramatic performances as a character actress in films like The Fighter or Doubt. Her latest turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master slots firmly into the latter category. As the coldly manipulative wife Peggy to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s twisted religious leader Lancaster Dodd, Adams delivers another one of her wonderfully dark turns and should inevitably receive plenty of attention along with the awards-bound film.

Collider got a chance to speak with Adams at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (as part of a group interview) and she talked about delving into her interpretation of the complex role, the challenges of shooting in 70mm, and working with talents like Anderson, Hoffman, and Joaquin Phoenix. Plus, we also got around to asking her about that little movie she made this summer called Man Of Steel and what it was like to put her own stamp on Lois Lane. Hit the jump for all those details and even more tasty info nuggets.

Director Rob Marshall now has a little more time to find a fitting actress to star opposite Johnny Depp in The Thin Man, as Warner Bros. has put a halt to production on the remake.  Depp was set to star as Nick Charles, one half of a married couple who solves murder mysteries while bantering back and forth and almost getting killed themselves.  This delay is, at the moment, less of a behind-the-scenes melodrama and more due to practicality.  Deadline reports that Depp is eager to take a break between films.  This also allows Marshall to move forward with his long-gestating Disney project, Into the Woods, a feature version of Stephen Sondheim’s fairy-tale musical.  Though The Thin Man was never officially greenlit, there is also some talk of budget concerns, which will likely push back the planned November start while the particulars are sorted out.

Director Rob Marshall is heading back to musicals. After helming Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Marshall signed on to direct a remake of the 1934 film The Thin Man with Johnny Depp attached to star, and now he’s set to reteam with Disney on a feature film version of Stephen Sondheim’s fairy tale-themed musical Into the Woods. Marshall got his start as a choreographer before bursting onto the scene with 2002’s Oscar-winning movie musical Chicago, and now he’s poised to return to the world of song and dance. Hit the jump for more.