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Casting Tidbits: Kyra Sedgwick, Steve Carell and Jenna Fischer

by Ethan Anderton
November 7, 2010

God of Rock, thank you for this chance to kick ass. We are your humble servants. Please give us the power to blow people's minds with our high voltage Casting Tidbits. In your name we pray, Amen. First up, Deadline reports Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer") has landed a role in Summit Entertainment's thriller Man on a Ledge. The story follows a disgraced cop (Sam Worthington) who stands on a ledge atop a high rise threatening to kill himself, but the suicide threat is really a distraction from a diamond heist happening elsewhere. Sedgwick will play a reporter trying to figure out if the cop's threats of suicide are genuine or if he has an ulterior motive.

Second, Vulture reports Steve Carell will team up with writer Dan Fogelman again (who wrote the forthcoming romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid Love featuring Carell and Emma Stone) for another project as Warner Bros. Imagine follows a sixty-something Bruce Springsteen-type rocker discovers a long-unopened letter addressed to him from John Lennon; after reading it, he’s shocked to learn that he actually fathered a son (Carell). The project is actually being set up as the directorial debut for Fogelman who previously wrote Bolt and Cars for Disney.

Next, a press release over the weekend announced Jenna Fischer ("The Office") will star in and produce The Giant Mechanical Man, an offbeat romantic comedy following a misunderstood street performer and the soft spoken zoo worker who falls for him. Topher Grace (Predators), Malin Akerman (Watchmen) and Chris Messina (Julie and Julia) also star in the film. Messina plays the aforementioned street performer while Akerman is playing Fischer's character's sister who tries to set her up with a pompous motivational speaker (Grace). Lee Kirk will write and direct the film which starts shooting later this month.

Also, Vulture reports Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)is set to star in Love and Honor, an indie drama about Catherine the Great. Tatum would play an American calvaryman named Kieran Selkirk dispatched by Benjamin Franklin to Russia to pose as a British mercenary. The story is based on Randall Wallace's historical fiction piece of the same name. Apparently an offer is out to Anne Hathaway to play Beatrice, an attendant to a princess in Catherine's court and Tatum's love interest, but no one is yet lined up to play Catherine.

Finally, THR reports Hayden Panettiere ("Heroes") and Nikki Reed (The Twilight Saga) are attached to the high school thriller Downers Grove, an adaptation of Michael Hornbergs's novel of the same. Bret Easton Ellis is adapting the novel with Nelson McCormick (Prom Night) directing the story set in the high school of a Chicago suburb where every year, one senior dies a bizarre death before the end of the school year. Rebecca De Mornay (Risky Business) will also star in the film that sounds like just another in the long history of terrible teenage thrillers.

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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