Emma Watson circles back to a project she left, Werner Herzog and Nicole Kidman together at last, and are Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor returning to the new Terminator? All this and more in this extra-long casting round up of all the latest.
• Amber Heard is set to play a femme fatale and Jim Sturgess and Theo James will fall for her feminine wiles in London Fields, the murder mystery based on Martin Amis' book that began filming today. Billy Bob Thornton plays the novelist who chronicles Heard's character's actions as she sets out to discover who her future murderer is. [Deadline]
• So Katee Sackhoff may or may not end up in a Marvel movie, but she's still kicking monster ass in smaller pics to prepare for the possibility. She's reuniting with Oculus director Mike Flanagan on his next film, titled Somnia. Described as a psychological horror film, it revolves around a child whose dreams and nightmares manifest physically while he sleeps. [Deadline]
• Emma Watson is back in Your Voice in My Head, the adaptation of Emma Forrest's memoir that Watson had been attached to a few years back. She fell out, Emily Blunt became attached, but now Blunt's fallen out and Watson is back. Everything in its place. This time it may actually happen for real as a November start date has been set and a new director – Francesca Gregorini – has been hired. [Deadline]
• Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert about Gertrude Bell just can't seem to get off the ground, but is getting an extra dosage of star power that may help. Naomi Watts dropped out and Nicole Kidman is in talks to join the desert-set drama, which also stars James Franco – who replaced Jude Law – and Robert Pattinson. It's said to be on the scale of Lawrence of Arabia, so that may be one reason why financing has been an issue. [Deadline]
• Giant grain of salt alert: Quite nonchalantly, Britain's The Mirror (did I mention the giant grain of salt?) drops that not only will Arnold Schwarzenegger be back for the new Terminator, so will the original Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner: Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton. No one else has reported this, so obviously keep your expectations in check. [Mirror]
• Joan Didion adaptation A Book of Common Prayer has added Allison Janney to star opposite Christina Hendricks. They will play very different American women on the eve of a revolution in a fictional South American country. [Variety]
• Whatever your thoughts on the Fast & Furious franchise is, you have to give it kudos for always hiring just about the most diverse and international cast around. Fast & Furious 7 is no different, with India's Bollywood star Deepika Padukone lining up a role after beating out fellow Indian actors Kangana Ranaut and Chitrangda Singh. [Times of India]
• Kristen Wiig is getting nasty. She's joined the cast of Sebastian Silva's next film, Nasty Baby, which doesn't sound as bad as its title might suggest. She'll play the straight best friend of a gay couple who help them have a baby. [Variety]
• Michael Nyqvist and Olivia Williams are set to star in The Shadows, based on the Karin Alvtegen novel Skugga. A housekeeper's death leads to the reveal of dark family secrets in the thriller. [Variety]
• Multi-generational heist thriller The Forger has cast Christopher Plummer to play father to John Travolta and grandfather to Tye Sheridan. Plummer and Travolta must join forces to take down the crime syndicate who bought Travolta's character's way out of jail to spend time with his sick son. [THR]
• Bill Paxton is joining Jake Gyllenhaal in indie thriller Nightcrawler, which Gyllenhaal has been circling for years and even dropped big Disney musical Into the Woods to do, so you know it's gotta be good. Dan Gilroy (brother to Tony) will make his directorial debut, with Gyllenhaal in the role of a young writer drawn into the world of underground crime journalism in Los Angeles. [Variety]