Some weekend casting news for you:

• Oscar Isaac (Drive) has landed the lead in Lincoln Lawyer director Brad Furman’s Pablo Escobar biopic.
• Glenn Close, Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow) and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been confirmed to join Low Down, a 1960s-set drama about a jazz musician (John Hawkes) struggling with addiction.
• Nicolas Cage will star in horror-thriller Hotel 33, based on a “real-life” mass-vanishing that took place at a Pennsylvania hotel.
• Timothy Olyphant looks set for the role of a border-town sheriff dealing with the aftermath of a cartel deal gone bad in Gonzalo López-Gallego’s crime thriller The Man on Carrion Road.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

Fresh off some much-deserved awards buzz for his work in this year’s The Sessions, character actor John Hawkes is looking to tackle another real-life role.  Variety reports that Hawkes is set to replace Mark Ruffalo as jazz pianist Joe Albany in the indie drama Low Down.  Commercials director Jeff Priess is set to make his feature film debut on the project, which tells the story of Albany’s life from the perspective of his 11-year-old daughter, Amy.  The musician found success early in his career playing with the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus, but later struggled with heroin addiction.

The film will apparently tell the story of Amy’s unconventional childhood “with a talented but strung-out father in the shadowy world of cocktail bars and transient hotels.”  Ruffalo had been set to play Albany but was forced to drop out when the production was pushed and caused scheduling issues.  Filming will begin in March 2013.

Following his Oscar nominated stint in The Kids Are All Right, Mark Ruffalo has signed on to portray legendary jazz pianist Joe Albany in the indie drama Low Down. Epoch Films partner Jeff Preiss is set to make his feature film debut on the project which will tell the story of Albany’s life from the perspective of his 11-year-old daughter. While in the 40’s and 50’s Alabany was playing with the likes of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, he struggled with a heroin addiction throughout the later years of his life.

Variety reports that the film will focus mainly on Albany’s life during the 60’s and 70’s, with his daughter watching her “charismatic but strung-out father interact with other eccentric characters in cocktail bars and transient hotels.” Topper Lilien and Amy Albany wrote the script, based on Alabany’s memoir focusing on her father. Ruffalo will also serve as an executive producer on the project. The actor is currently prepping for his turn as Bruce Banner/the Hulk in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers.