Here’s today’s latest casting news:

• Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) has been cast as the Prince in Disney’s live-action Cinderella feature, directed by Kenneth Branagh.
• Callan McAuliffe (I Am Number Four) has landed the lead role in Our Robot Overlords, directed by Jon Wright (Grabbers) and starring Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3) and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files).
• Gary Cole (Office Space), Veronica Cartwright (Alien) and Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project) have joined the cast of The Town That Dreaded Sundown remake, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and starring Addison Timlin (Derailed).

Hit the jump for more on each casting announcement.

Check out the latest casting announcements below:

• Nicholas Hoult (Jack the Giant Slayer) will join Charlize Theron in Dark Places from writer/director Gilles Paquet-Brenner who adapted the Gillian Flynn novel.
• Abigail Spencer (Oz the Great and Powerful) will join Jason Bateman in This Is Where I Leave You, directed by Shawn Levy.  Timothy Olyphant (Justified) and Ben Schwartz (House of Lies) have also joined the cast.
• Addison Timlin (Derailed) will lead the MGM remake of The Town That Dreaded Sundown directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

From Jason Blum (Insidious, Sinister) and Josh Gates (Destination Truth), Stranded is the new Syfy reality series that uses the same stripped-down first-person method from Paranormal Activity to document an unconventional and terrifying paranormal and psychological experiment, in which participants are stranded at haunted location for a week and must record the entire experience themselves.  Each of the six hour-long episodes features the self-recorded footage of a group of everyday paranormal enthusiasts, combined with strategically-placed security cameras at each location.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, executive producer Jason Blum talked about how Stranded came about and why he thought it was a great fit for what he’d already done on the narrative side, the process of selecting the individuals and locations for the show, how he got some fun ideas for future movies while they were scouting possible haunted locations, and where his love for genre and horror started.  He also talked about how he expects Paranormal Activity 5 to go into production in middle to late Spring for an October release, why he and the film’s partners thought there was further story to be explored for Insidious 2, what made him want to collaborate with Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Glee) on a modern-day remake of The Town that Dreaded Sundown, that he hopes Area 51 will be released soon, and that he’s not currently juggling quite as many projects as IMDB would lead you to believe.  Check out what he had to say after the jump. 

The new Syfy reality series Stranded, which debuted on February 27^th, documents an unconventional and often terrifying paranormal and psychological experiment.  Each episode features the self-recorded footage of a diverse group of every-day paranormal enthusiasts who are left stranded at one of the most haunted locations in America and record the entire experience with hand-held cameras creating an unscripted first-hand account of their stay.

While we will share what executive producer Jason Blum had to say about the new show next week, we did want to share his updates on some of his current and upcoming feature films.  Blum told Collider that he expect Paranormal Activity 5 to go into production in middle to late Spring for an October release and that he hopes that franchise will remain ongoing, why he and the film’s partners thought there was further story to be explored for Insidious 2, what made him want to collaborate with Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Glee) on a modern-day remake of The Town that Dreaded Sundown and why he thinks that will appeal to audiences, that he hopes Area 51 will be released soon, and that he’s not currently juggling quite as many projects as IMDB would lead you to believe.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Set in 1964, the FX drama series American Horror Story: Asylum takes viewers into Briarcliff, a haven for the criminally insane, ruled with an iron fist by Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), a nun with a troubled past.  Inside this locked down facility, danger lurks around every corner, whether it’s a doctor who loves to torture, flesh eating creatures in the forest, alien experimentation or the serial killer Bloody Face, and no one is safe.  From co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, the show also stars Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Zachary Quinto, James Cromwell, Joseph Fiennes and Lizzie Brochere.

After so many twists and turns throughout this season, FX invited some reporters over to 20^th Century Fox last week to screen the final episode and do a Q&A with show creator Ryan Murphy.  During the interview, he talked about what he wanted to say with the season finale, how he feels about the alien aspect, the storyline that he had considered cutting out, what director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has added to the show, whether he’s ever thought about doing anything to connect the seasons, and that Oscar-winning actors are asking to do arcs on the show.  He also gave hints about what he’s looking to do for Season 3, and talked about the modern-day remake of The Town that Dreaded Sundown that he’s looking to do with Alfonso Gomez-Rejon directing and Jason Blum (producer of the Paranormal Activity films) producing.  Hit the jump for the interview, and be aware that there are some major spoilers, if you haven’t seen this season.

MGM’s remake of the 1976 horror film The Town That Dreaded Sundown is moving forward, and some major players have boarded the project behind the scenes.  We first learned that the remake was in development this past November, but now Heat Vision reports that Glee and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy is teaming up with producer Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity franchise, Insidious) on the project.  The original slasher film was based on five unsolved, grisly murders in 1946 Texarkana and became a cult hit.

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is in talks to direct the horror remake, which has a script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Carrie remake, Glee).  Gomez-Rejon has previously helmed a number of episodes of Glee and American Horror Story: Asylum, and is also a prolific second-unit director who most recently worked on Argo.  This new Sundown is said to keep the original film’s cinema verite style with an added procedural element akin to Zodiac.  Murphy also revealed that they’re doing a “weird meta thing with it,” whatever that means.  Production is gearing up to begin this spring.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer for the original film.

MGM is planning to remake the 1976 flick The Town That Dreaded Sundown.  The slasher flick was based on five unsolved, grisly murders in 1946 Texarkana.  “The Phantom Killer” has a memorable look as his mask is nothing more than a sack-cloth with an eyehole.  I saw the film earlier this year, and it reminded me of Wes Craven‘s Last House on the Left as it had truly horrific scenes but then awkwardly moved to comic scenes featuring inept lawmen.

The challenge in remaking The Town That Dreaded Sundown is figuring out how to make it more than a generic slasher film.  Halloween hadn’t come out yet in 1976, so the slasher subgenre was relatively lean when Sundown came out.  Now that audiences know how slasher movies work, I’m curious to see how the new filmmakers will try to get scares out of the plot.  It might be best to return to the original’s “true crime” vibe since the narration is the film’s most effective aspect.  According to Variety, MGM is “asking agents for possible takes from writers to reboot the Charles B. Pierce film.”  Hit the jump to check out the trailer.