Fresh from the Berlin Film Festival, we’ve got a number of casting announcements to address this afternoon.  Briefly:

Hit the jump for details regarding the aforementioned casting.

Per THR, Russell Brand, Pamela Anderson, and Mike Tyson are in talks to star in director Werner Herzog’s next film Vernon God Little, an adaptation of DBC Pierre’s novel of the same name.  The story revolves around a teenager whose world falls apart when his best friend murders their classmates at school, and the film unfolds as the teenager retreats into a hyper-real world of accusation and betrayal during questioning about the events.  Austin Abrams (Gangster Squad) is already set to lead the film opposite Sasha Pieterse (Pretty Little Liars).

Deadline reports that Saoirse Ronan and Cynthia Nixon will lead the cast of Nikole Beckwith’s feature directing debut.  Beckwith penned the Black List screenplay which revolves around a developmentally stunted young woman raised by a kidnapper who now struggles to acclimate to her actual parents 20 years after first being separated.  Nixon will play the girl’s real mother while Ronan will take the lead as the young girl.

Finally, Heat Vision reports that Jay Baruchel has signed on to star in and executive producer director Tom Holland’s (Child’s Play, Fright Night) adaptation of the Stephen King story The Ten O’Clock People.  Baruchel will play a former smoker who returns to his old habit, only to find a side effect triggered by a cessation drug in his system reveals “a frightening reality in which many people in authority are monsters.”  Production is aiming to get underway this June in Montreal.

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