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Jack O'Connell & Alice Englert Land the Leads in 'Beautiful Creatures'

by Alex Billington
February 7, 2012
Source: Variety

Not to be confused with the drama Beautiful Creatures from 2000, this project is an adaptation of another popular young adult book series titled Beautiful Creatures, written by Kami Carcia and Margaret Stohl. Alcon Entertainment is developing at Warner Bros, and they've just announced their two leads who will star in the film, along with Viola Davis who was just cast last week. Jack O'Connell ("Skins", This is England, Harry Brown) and newcomer Alice Englert (The Water Diary) will star as the two teenage lovers - a local boy, and a "mysterious new girl who uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town."

Based on the first novel in the five-book Caster Chronicles series, Beautiful Creatures will be written and directed by Richard LaGravenese (Living Out Loud, Freedom Writers, P.S. I Love You). The coming of age story will start shooting in April in New Orleans. Jack O'Connell will play Ethan, Alice Englert will play Lena Duchannes. In the first book, Ethan meets and "becomes bewitched" by Lena Duchannes, a 16-year-old whose family has moved to his small South Carolina town. The two must confront a curse that's haunted her family for generations as she comes to grips with her powers. "Beautiful Creatures is a delicious southern Gothic that charms you from the first page, drawing you into a dark world of magic and mystery." Oh boy!

Oscar nominated actress Viola Davis is also already in negotiations to play a seer who looks after the boy and his father after the death of his mother, but that's it for the cast line-up so far. Erwin Stoff (Water for Elephants, I Am Legend) will produce along with Alcon co-founders/CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove (The Blind Side, The Book of Eli) and Molly Smith (Something Borrowed, P.S. I Love You). This is obviously being setup as another potential series to slip in and take the place of Twilight after that finishes up, but there are so many of these coming, who knows which ones will turn out any good, and which won't.

Filed under Casting, Development, Movie News

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