In a bit of clean up for Monday’s news cycle, we must acknowledge the last few casting stories to trickle out. None of them are really high-profile, but a few should gauge some interest outside of myself. The lead entrant appears to be another Kevin Costner film coming down the pipe. This actor has been red hot since his History mini-series Hatfields & McCoys, landing subsequent roles in the December’s Chris Pine spy film Jack Ryan and an NFL-branded movie Draft Day. His follow-up to the latter will be a film called Black and White with Upside of Anger director Mike Binder. Costner’s role will be that of a widowed grandfather responsible for taking care of his biracial, orphaned granddaughter in the midst of a custody battle.
The second biggest story is yet another Colin Firth pic. I started the day off with a report that the actor has booked an Arthur Newman follow-up in the form of a supporting role for Matthew Vaughn’s Secret Service. His other Monday pickup seems to be Woody Allen’s next film which Emma Stone joined six days ago. It should be an even stronger addition to his developmental slate given Allen has had a bit of a career resurgence going back to Midnight in Paris two summers ago. That report comes out of Deadline.
Wrapping things up is another Deadline story, this one places Sam Worthington in another Wrath of the Titans follow-up that is not an Avatar sequel. The project is called The Keeping Room which happens to star Hailee Steinfeld of True Grit fame (and also Ender’s Game.) Daniel Barber will direct Harry Brown from a Julia Hart script that takes place near the end of the Civil War. Worthington’s role is that of a soldier who encounters a woman and is left to fend for himself (and I am assuming by the write-up this woman as well.) Naturally, we are more interested in this actor nowadays because Avatar 2 is expected to begin filming within the next year or two.
Added 4/29: That was not all as Oblivion star and former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko (Tom Cruise’s latest love interest) has been tapped to board a feature adaptation of Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters. This is based on a Six-Volume series from author Richelle Mead designed to tap into the YA demo. Other stars include Beautiful Creatures vet Zoey Deutch and an Aussie newcomer Lucy Fry who will play Rose and Lissa respectfully. Danila Kozlovski will fill the shoes of Dimitri. Olga’s role is that of the head mistress, Kirova.
We have not seen Sean Combs in a movie for quite some time, it was Get Him to the Greek four years ago for those keeping track, but we will see him again soon enough. The actor has just signed on for Ivan Reitman’s Draft Day which already has the talents of Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Chadwick Boseman, Denis Leary, and Frank Langella. Set against the backdrop of the NFL Draft, the film follows the Cleveland Brown’s GM as he goes through a period of personal and professional choices. The National Football League has officially endorsed this film, so expect real team names here people. None of that Any Given Sunday Miami Sharks BS.
This coming holiday season (now less than 11 months away) will be graced with the presence of yet another ‘Jack’-titled actioner, but this one is a much bigger deal. Paramount has been quietly reworking the Jack Ryan franchise to create an Avengers-type spy universe based on its Tom Clancy source material. The first film out of the gate with be…Jack Ryan from Thor director Kenneth Branagh. We bring this up today because even though there is not a trailer just yet, there are new official photos that come from USA Today. These show Chris Pine as the title character as well as his CIA mentor played by Kevin Costner (who has been described as the Nick Fury of this franchise.) It is not much to show, but it should serve to remind you all that this movie is happening, and the budget is a whole lot bigger than that other Jack movie (Reacher) which
Many of you may recall that a while back Kevin Costner was attached to do an NFL-endorsed dramedy about the draft. Soon after its announcement, the project went into no-man’s land, causing us to believe that the effort would go away for good despite how bankable these types of films have proven to be in the past. According to 
Is Kevin Costner the new Liam Neeson? A veteran actor rediscovered by the masses in old age seems oddly familiar, and that is what we are seeing with Kevin Costner. While the two have beginnings that could not be more different, their current statures in the halls of pop culture mirror each other’s. Today’s news that goes a long way in driving this point forward is that Costner has joined McG’s newest action thriller coming from producer Luc Besson. Besson is the same man behind the Taken franchise, thus the obvious association just made. 
Ever since The Avengers, there has been a massive amount of jawing in Hollywood among studios and producers wanting to replicate the crossover success that Disney has achieved. While a lot of it sounds good on paper, most of it is just a pipe dream because the level of dedication that is needed to invent a franchise like that is just too much to bear for any company that lives and dies tentpole-to-tentpole.
It has been just six years since audiences last got their taste of Superman via the ill-received Brandon Routh-lead effort, and fans of the comic book icon are already being asked to embrace a new iteration from director Zack Snyder. The feature is simply titled Man of Steel and while the title does not exactly lend itself to a numerically ordered host of sequels, we realize that is ‘acceptable’ upon recognition that Warner Bros. has tapped The Dark Knight trilogy-director Christopher Nolan to produce this effort.
Kevin Costner took to The Tonight Show last night to promote his new History Channel-spawned mini-series Hatfields & McCoys in which he plays ‘Devil’ Anse Hatfield. 
In news from last week, Kevin Costner has dropped out of the role of the evil, slave-owning plantation overseer in Quentin Tarantino’s 
