We’ve got a few casting stories to attend to this afternoon.  Briefly:

• Meryl Streep has signed on to a small but pivotal role as a historical figure in the feminist movement drama Suffragette starring Carey Mulligan.
• Sir Ben Kingsley has joined the cast of director Anton Corbjn’s drama Life, starring Dane DeHaan as James Dean.
• Paramount has set its sights on its two leads for the big-budget Monster Trucks movie in Jane Levy (Suburgatory) and Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class).

Hit the jump for more on the aforementioned casting.

Per The Wrap, Meryl Streep will play political activist Emmeline Pankhurst in director Sarah Gavron’s drama Suffragette.  Carey Mulligan plays a woman instrumental to the early feminist movement, and while Pankhurst doesn’t have a large role in the story, she gives a powerful speech at a political rally about women’s rights—and who better than Meryl Streep to give it?

Additionally, director Anton Corbjn (The American) continues to fill out the cast for his James Dean film Life.  The pic chronicles the friendship between Magnum photographer Dennis Stock and actor James Dean as the two took a journey across the U.S. for a 1955 Life Magazine assignment.  Dane DeHaan is playing Dean, Robert Pattinson is playing Stock, and now THR reports that Sir Ben Kingsley and Alessandra Mastronardi (To Rome with Love) have joined the cast.  Their roles are unknown, but filming on the pic is underway in Toronto and Los Angeles.

Finally, though Parmamount hasn’t yet given the green light to the Monster Trucks movie, the pic is casting up in the hopes of moving forward soon.  The Wrap reports that Evil Dead star Jane Levy and X-Men actor Lucas Till are being eyed to lead the big-budget pic, which is described as a gross between The Goonies and Transformers.  Ice Age director Chris Wedge is set to helm the action/adventure pic, which is scheduled to hit theaters on May 29, 2015.  Should they sign on, Till would play “a bad boy with a good heart,” while Levy’s character is described as “what one might imagine Tina Fey was like in high school.”  The studio hopes to begin filming this summer.