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Casting Tidbits: Zooey Deschanel, Woody Harrelson, and More

by Ethan Anderton
April 19, 2010

That's no moon. It's Casting Tidbits. First up, Production Weekly says via Twitter that Zooey Deschanel is in talks to take the lead in Enchantress of Numbers, a period drama from director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) which will focus on the life of Ada Lovelace, a wholly interesting and brilliant English woman who is often regarded as the world's first computer programmer because of her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. No word on just how much of Lovelace's life the film will cover, but it sounds like this could be an interesting historical drama. Read on!

Next up, STYD reports Jonathan Lloyd Walker (Shooter) will join the already cast Joel Edgerton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the forthcoming prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing. The story is supposed to focus on the Norwegian camps in the Antarctic that were ravaged by the alien first before the Americans (in The Thing) discovered the decimated camps. Walker will play a radio operator named Colin alongside Edgerton who plays a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot named Sam Carter who teams up with a PhD candidate named Kate Lloyd (Winstead), who is part of a Norwegian research team working in Antarctica. Director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. is already shooting, so stay tuned for a trailer not too far down the road.

Also, Variety reports Noah Ringer, the lead child star of M. Night Shyamalan's forthcoming The Last Airbender (check out the trailer here), will join Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde and the recently rumored and confirmed Harrison Ford in the adaptation of Cowboys & Aliens from director Jon Favreau. No word on what character the young actor will be playing, but there's plenty of fun to be had as battling Old West settlers and Native Americans must work together to save all humanity from conquerors from the stars.

Finally, Variety confirms what Production Weekly tweeted as Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster will star in Rampart, a crime drama from director Oren Moverman (The Messenger) about the widespread corruption in the anti-gang unit of the LAPD's Rampart Division in the late 90's. Based on a story by James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia), the film will follow a single police officer during the scandal in which more than 70 officers were implicated in misconduct including unprovoked shootings, beatings, planting of evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury and covering up evidence.

Well, that's all for this edition of Casting Tidbits. Be sure to stay tuned for more casting updates on the way.

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