A few casting stories to share this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Chris Pine will be reuniting with his Smokin Aces director Joe Carnahan on the low-budget comedic thriller Stretch opposite Patrick Wilson.
• Homeland star and Broadway veteran Mandy Patinkin has been set in the role of Zach Braff’s father in Braff’s partially Kickstarter-funded directorial effort Wish I Was Here.
• Lust, Caution stars Wei Tang and Leehom Wang have boarded Michael Mann’s untitled cyber thriller starring Chris Hemsworth.

Hit the jump for more on the aforementioned projects.

It’s easy to forget about it since it came out so early, but for my money director Joe Carnahan’s survival drama The Grey is still one of the best films of 2012.  It was considerably more low-key than his last pic, The A-Team, but I felt that Carnahan and Liam Neeson crafted something really special.  It looks as though the director may be sticking with “low-key” for his next project, as he’s now set to direct Patrick Wilson in the low-budget actioner Stretch for IM Global and Blumhouse Pictures, the studio behind the Paranormal Activity series, Sinister, and Insidious.

Hit the jump for more.