LATEST NEWS

Casting Tidbits: Alec Baldwin, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds

by Ethan Anderton
May 11, 2011

Well, it's Groundhog Day…again. And that must mean that we're up here at Gobbler's Knob waiting for the forecast from the world's most famous groundhog weatherman, Punxsutawney Phil, who's just about to tell us how much more Casting Tidbits we can expect. First up, Deadline reports Alec Baldwin has dropped out of Adam Shankman's musical Rock of Ages. Once confirmed to play Dennis Dupree, the owner of the Bourbon Room, the Sunset Boulevard nightclub in the film, Baldwin has now asked to be replaced. It's not clear why, but Baldwin is also slated to be in Woody Allen's next film, so maybe that's why. More below!

Second, Deadline reports that Maggie Gyllanhaal (Away We Go) and Viola Davis (Doubt) will star in Still I Rise, a drama inspired by recent headlines about two mothers who channel frustration into action and join forces to transform an inner-city public school. It's a familiar story that we've seen countless times on-screen, but there's a certain audience who eats them up almost every time. Daniel Barnz (Beastly) will direct the film and he also rewrote Brin Hill's screenplay as well.

Also, Deadline has a small bit of casting buried in a story about a new TV production company from Allan Loeb (the writer behind Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) and actor Ryan Reynolds. Apparently the actor is attached to a film script which Loeb wrote called A Boy Named Sue. What is presumably a comedy would see Reynolds pulling a Tootsie as a guy who decides to disguise himself as a woman to win his ex-girlfriend back. If there's one guy I'd like to see in a role like this, it's Reynolds, but it's probably still early in development and the actor is busy as hell over the next couple years.

Finally, THR has word on the final franchise cast member returning to American Reunion, the fourth theatrical sequel in the raunchy sex comedy series that started with American Pie. Thomas Ian Nicholas (who came on my radar as a kid in Rookie of the Year) is the final piece of this reunion puzzle that will also bring back Jason Biggs, Eugene Levy, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Chris Klein and Eddie Kaye Thomas for their ten year high school reunion. I'm pretty sure Stifler's Mom will also be back in the equation somehow too.

That's all for this edition of Casting Tidbits. Be sure to stay tuned for even more casting news on the way.

Find more posts: Casting Tidbits, Movie News

3 Comments

New comments are no longer allowed on this post.