I have a great deal on casting for you.  Three for the price of one:

  • Cynthia Nixon is attached to play legendary poet Emily Dickinson in the biopic A Quiet Passion, written and directed by Terence Davies.
  • Twilight star Peter Facinelli joined Gallows Hill, a supernatural horror movie directed by Victor Garcia.
  • Tom Wilkinson will star opposite Joel Edgerton in Felony, an Australian thriller that Edgerton wrote.  Matthew Saville will direct.

Hit the jump for details on each project.

emily dickinson movie biopic

A Quiet Passion will follow Dickinson's life "from precocious schoolgirl to the tortured recluse who saw only seven of her more than 1,000 poems published in her lifetime."  Davies gushed to THR:

"I wrote the screenplay with Cynthia in mind.  It was the kind of dream casting you hope for.  I never, for a moment, imagined my wishes would materialize.  Cynthia has such a strong feeling for the work -- and now she is our Emily Dickinson. I’m over the moon."

THR reports Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos, Carolina Guerra, and Diego Cadavid co-star in Gallows Hill.  The script by Richard D'Ovidio centers on a widow (Facinelli) who flies to Bogota with his new fiancée (Myles) to bring back his teenage daughter: "After a car accident leaves them stranded in a rundown isolated inn, they discover the old innkeeper has locked a young girl in the basement and their decision to set her free has unintended consequences."  Shooting will begin later this month in Colombia.

For all the details on Felony, here is an excerpt from the press release.  The synopsis is in bold.

Two-time Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson (upcoming THE LONE RANGER, THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, MICHAEL CLAYTON) joins the thriller FELONY opposite the previously cast male lead Joel Edgerton (upcoming ZERO DARK THIRTY, THE GREAT GATSBY), it was announced by The Solution Entertainment Group’s (“The Solution”) founders and partners, Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel, and producers Rosemary Blight of Goalpost Pictures Australia and Edgerton for Blue-Tongue Films.

The feature film, set to start lensing in late October, will be directed by Matthew Saville (NOISE) from a script by Edgerton.

The Solution arranged the financing for the film, with Wilson and Nestel serving as executive producers. The company is representing the international rights to the film and is actively selling the title at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival.

FELONY will be distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Roadshow Films.  CAA is handling US rights.

Driving home after a celebration drink with his team after the long waited bust of a major gang, a decorated police officer (Edgerton) runs a young cyclist off the road.  As he gives CPR to the child, fellow officers arrive to take his statement.  In a split second decision he tells them a lie about the accident which will change all their lives in this edge of your seat thriller.

Wilkinson will play Detective Carl Summer, the lead police investigator who arrives on the scene following the accident.