We’ve got quite a bit of casting announcements to attend to as the Cannes Film Festival and market are getting underway.  Briefly:

  • Chiwetel Ejiofor and Gwyneth Paltrow will lead the crime thriller The Secret in Their Eyes, which marks the directorial debut of Billy Ray.
  • Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany is in talks to join Helen Mirren in the Holocaust drama Woman in Gold.
  • Anthony Mackie is in talks to join Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in an untitled Christmas comedy.
  • Benjamin Walker has replaced Armie Hammer in the psychological thriller 2:22.

Hit the jump for more details on the aforementioned casting.

Per Deadline, 12 Years a Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor and Gwyneth Paltrow will lead the crime thriller The Secret in Their Eyes, which will be the directorial debut of Oscar-nominated Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games screenwriter Billy Ray.  The film is an adaptation of the 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner and revolves around a former MI-5 agent (Ejiofor) who heads to Boston on a joint task force with the FBI and is obsessed with an unsolved murder that continues to haunt him.  Ray penned the script and production is scheduled to begin this fall in Berlin.

Additionally, THR reports that versatile Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany is in negotiations to join Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds in The Weinstein Company and BBC’s drama The Woman in Gold.  The pic tells the true story of a Holocaust survivor’s (Mirren) crusade to reunite with her long-lost family heirlooms, which reside with the Austrian government.  Reynolds plays the woman’s attorney, while Maslany will play the young version of Mirren’s character in flashbacks.  Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn) will direct, with filming set to begin later this month.

On the lighter side, The Wrap reports that Anthony Mackie is in talks to star alongside Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s untitled Christmas comedy for 50/50 director Jonathan Levine.  The story revolves around three friends who reunite in New York City for their annual tradition of going out on Christmas Eve.  Filming gets underway this summer with a script by Levine.  Rogen will also produce while Sony Pictures will distribute.

Finally, Deadline reports that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter star Benjamin Walker will star alongside Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies) in the thriller 2:22.  The film centers on a man whose life is derailed when an ominous pattern of events repeats itself in the same manner every day, ending at 2:22pm.  Walker replaces Armie Hammer in the pic, with Paul Currie directing.

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