The American Film Market is now underway, which means lots of casting and updates to projects that are looking to get sold over the next week. And so, let’s just dive into some of the movies that will be hawked on the sales floor….
Because normal dramas don’t get made by studios anymore, stuff like “Seal Team 666” keeps happening. Dwayne Johnson will star in the MGM movie about “an elite group of Navy Seals who battle demons and assorted threats and discover that there’s a greater supernatural force bent on destroying the world.” Believe it or not, this is actually based on a book written by Weston Ochse with a script from Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Rock’s upcoming “Hercules,” “Battle For Terra“). No director is attached yet. [THR]
In more heartening news, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden‘s “Mississippi Grind” is still moving along, adding Sienna Miller to the cast of Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn. The story will center on a man, down on his luck and facing financial hardship, who teams up with a younger charismatic poker player in an attempt to change his luck. The two set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what has been lost. Lensing will start in January 2014.
Aaron Eckhart will get trapped in his own mind in the upcoming thriller “Fade Out.” Producer Robert Salerno will make his directorial debut with the Michael Cristofer (“The Witches Of Eastwick,” “Gia“) penned film about screenwriter Jim Connelly (Eckhart), who is recovering from a nervous breakdown, and spends his days in a tropical beachfront villa being cared for by his glamorous wife Anne. He starts writing a new screenplay about a jealous husband who murders his unfaithful wife, but his intense paranoia and hallucinations cause fiction and reality to blur. As the events in Jim’s screenplay appear to materialize, he becomes a suspect in his own wife’s disappearance and must outrun the police as he pieces together the puzzle seemingly designed by his very own mind.
Don’t let the pretty awful title fool you, “La Vida Robot” is more than just a movie starring George Lopez. It also has Marisa Tomei, and the heartwarming movie is “based on a true story about four undocumented Mexican-American teenagers from Phoenix who team to build an underwater robot that wins the national robotics competition. Tomei will portray a teacher whose belief in the rag-tag team helps lead them to success; Lopez will play the teacher supervising the students.” Filming is already underway, Kleenex will not be included with your ticket price. [Variety]
Lastly, Tim Blake Nelson has rounded out the cast of his upcoming indie “Anesthesia.” Joining Kristen Stewart in the ensemble will be Sam Waterston, Glenn Close, Corey Stoll, Gretchen Mol, Michael K. Williams, Gloria Reuben, Jessica Hecht, Mickey Sumner and K. Todd Freeman in the movie about “New Yorkers whose lives come together after the violent mugging of a Columbia University philosophy professor.” [Deadline]
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden had nothing to do with Ruby Sparks. You're thinking of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris. Come on…it's called fact checking.