AmandaSeyfried Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Be still my Shakespearian heart. Yes, I've written about ol' Will a lot lately, and now it's time for more, although with this round, the Bard is providing the inspiration rather than the story. Variety reports that Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Franco Nero will star in Letters to Juliet, an adaptation of Lise and Ceil Friedman's book. (Not to be confused with this Juliet-inspired project.)

Riffing on the book, which talks about Verona and the multitude of people who write letters to Juliet in care of the city, the story will follow a couple (Seyfriend and Garcia Bernal) who vacation in Italy and mistakenly get one of these letters. Written by Redgrave's character, the letter recounts her memories of being romanced during a trip to the country long ago. Inspired, Seyfried heads to Tuscany to find the woman's lost love (Nero). Man, she likes playing Cupid. Anyone want to make bets about how long it will take for her to star in a film AS Cupid?

The project was adapted by Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries and the upcoming On the Road) and Tim Sullivan, and will be directed by Gary Winick, the man behind Tadpole, 13 Going on 30, Charlotte's Web, and Bride Wars. I'm not sure what that will mean for this film -- fluffy romance, something more gritty, a little bit of both? -- but I do like the idea. Production begins in Italy on June 25.

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch has been a revolving door of casting and schedule conflicts. Last month, the film lost Amanda Seyfried but quickly replaced her with Emily Browning. Now, he's cast Jena Malone and Jamie Chung, who have stepped in to replace Evan Rachel Wood and Emma Stone, respectively.

Wood and Stone were both forced to drop out due to schedule conflicts and as of now, only Abbie Cornish and Vanessa Hudgens remain out of the original line-up, which was always in negotiation anyway.

But don't despair, because every casting report gives us a bit more of its grindhouse plot. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Malone will be playing Cornish's younger sister, both of whom have the unfortunate luck to be locked in this hellish mental institution. Chung will be playing Annie, "a country girl with a big heart." (I want to add "as big as all Texas" but I'm not going to jump to geographical conclusions. Maybe she's from West Virginia or Tennessee.)

There's not much more to say about the casting, except that I'm glad to see a little diversity by way of Chung, and I'm uncertain about Malone. She's certainly a very respectable young actress (and co-producer these days) but she always comes off so brittle and humorless. Maybe all she needs is a part like this where she can cut loose and have fun ... and how can you not have fun with a film like this? It's a laugh just writing about it.

Losing your lead actress might daunt some directors, but not Zack Snyder. Snyder doesn't sleep, he waits -- and he already has a replacement for Amanda Seyfried. Entertainment Weekly reports that Emily Browning will take on the role of Baby Doll in Snyder's upcoming Sucker Punch.

You probably best remember the Australian-born Browning as the young Angelina Jolie lookalike in A Series of Unfortunate Events -- and if you're a guy, you've probably been counting the days for her to grow up, which she did in this year's The Uninvited.

I haven't seen enough of Browning to say if she's a better lead than Seyfried or not. She's definitely dabbled more in the Gothic than Seyfried, who was an appealing pick precisely because she hadn't played dark and violent yet. She's the kind of girl who shouldn't land in a mental institution, whereas Browning (and I'm going purely off Unfortunate Events) looks as though she might expect it.

Shooting is still set to begin in the fall, and EW is still reporting that Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Emma Stone remain "in talks," so we could still see some faces come and go. Schedule conflicts are really killing off the cool casting this year.

Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch just lost its Baby Doll, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Amanda Seyfried had been tapped to play Baby, the unlucky girl whose sleazy stepfather locks her up in a mental institution and schedules her for a lobotomy.

The reason is one that seems to be damning a few actresses this spring -- schedule conflicts. Sucker Punch was scheduled to shoot in the fall, the same time as the fourth season of HBO's Big Love. HBO won't release her from her commitment, and apparently doesn't want to work around it. (There's a joke about fundamentalist Mormons and compounds here, but I'm not going to make it.)

It's a shame, as Seyfried really fits the "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns" theme Snyder's film is aiming for, and she's one of the most promising young actresses around. She's been picking smart scripts lately, and the idea of seeing her dabble in action was a pretty cool one.

There's no word on who might step up to replace her. Just about every other young up-and-comer (Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Emma Stone) were negotiating to join, so the pickings are slim. One of them might be able to angle for the lead now that Seyfried is gone. Or maybe Snyder should look to someone even younger -- is Emma Watson free?

Not one to take a breather, Zack Snyder is immediately launching into his next project (and his first original script), Sucker Punch.

I don't want to get all gushy and fangirly, but this might just be a film for the girls who identified with this. It might even be a film that embodies the Bechdel Rule. It's an R-rated, $100 million dollar action movie set in the 1950s, and it centers on a girl imprisoned in a mental institution by her evil stepfather. Due to be lobotomized, she loses herself in a fantasy world where she dreams about escaping with her fellow inmates. Or, as Snyder describes it, it's "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns."

Entertainment Weekly reports that Amanda Seyfried is in negotiations to play the lead, and that Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Emma Stone are also in talks. Production doesn't start until fall, so we could see a few of these faces shift, but I'm liking the line up so far.

But seriously, how cool is this? It's the exact opposite of the chick flicks we've been inundated with of late -- and while I don't think violence and ass-kicking automatically make a film feminist, it's a step in the right direction.
Even Snyder is cheekily aware of that: "I already did the all-male cast with 300, so I'm doing the opposite end of the spectrum."

If nothing else, it might just help Warner Bros reconsider that whole "no female leads" stance they took in 2007.

We've all seen the many ways that Jason Segel is a big dude, but now he's gearing up to see what life is like on the other side. The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's in talks to sign onto Jack Black's Gulliver's Travels along with Emily Blunt. Black's Gulliver washes up on the island of Lilliput, where people are only 6 inches tall, and befriends a wee one named Horatio (Segel). Horatio not only has the honor of having a friend who can squash him -- he's also the love interest of the island's princess (Blunt). Lucky girl.

In less lucky circles, Hilary Swank is no longer getting debonair love from Jeffrey Dean Morgan. After romancing it up in P.S. I Love You, THR posts that he's going to stalk her in The Resident. She'll play a young doc who nabs a loft in Brooklyn, only to find that her charming landlord (Morgan) is actually a psycho who pulls her into "a terrifying game of cat and mouse." They really lack the chemistry, so this should be an improvement.

Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan is certainly tackling all sides of the relationship spectrum. In June of last year, word hit that he would film a love triangle called Seven Wonders -- one that would follow a woman on the rebound who gets involved with a commercial director and her boyfriend. While there hasn't been any word on the film since, Variety now reports that he's getting busy with another film -- Chloe.

Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried are set to star in the feature, which sounds a whole heck of a lot different than Seven Wonders. Instead of sexuality-defying sex amidst the Seven Wonders of the World, Moore will play a successful doctor who thinks that her husband (Neeson) is cheating.To find out if she's right, the doc cuts out the skeezy detective middle man (that spurned wives usually use in cinematic cheating scenarios) and hires an escort (Seyfried) herself, to tempt him. "The move creates complications that put her family in danger."

While it sounds like the usual sex thriller, it certainly helps that the story was written by Erin Cressida Wilson -- the pen behind both Secretary and Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. Between her and Egoyan, it's safe to say that this won't be your run-of-the-mill sexy thriller.

The cast will freeze their butts off come February 9, when production begins in Toronto.

Whether September marks a return to the books, or a return of the school-age hellions, there's something else to look forward to -- Jennifer's Body. Box Office Mojo has posted that the horror comedy, which stars the heartbreaking Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried (the Mormon dead girl with a penchant for Abba), will hit screens on Friday, September 18, 2009. In case you don't remember -- this is the flick where a sexy cheerleader (Fox) gets possessed and taps into her inner cannibal, while her best friend (Seyfried) tries to protect the populace.

By then, we shouldn't be wondering whether writer Diablo Cody is a one-hit Juno wonder, since her television show The United States of Tara will air next month. However, it will be a chance to see how the women-led film does -- there's Cody behind the script, Karyn Kusama in the director's chair, and two female stars. (Plus the likes of Amy Sedaris, Allison Janney, Cynthia Stevenson...)

But perhaps more appropriately: It'll be interesting to note who sees this, and why. There are the fans of Cody's warped dialog, the drooling fanboys that follow Fox, the horror fans... Will you delight in Jennifer's Body come September, and if so, why?

They've both been Mean Girls, both acted for Nick Cassavetes, both appeared in wedding movies and now both Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried will have shared the honor of being the leading lady in a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. For McAdams, it was 2005's beloved weepy The Notebook; for Seyfried, rising fast after starring in the hugely popular Mamma Mia!, it's Dear John. According to Variety, the 22-year-old has been cast as Savannah, a virginal college student who falls in love with a soldier on leave (and named John, of course) immediately prior to 9/11. Kind of like Pearl Harbor but with more letters than explosions.

The soldier is being played by Channing Tatum, who will be fresh from G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra when Dear John hits theaters, likely a year from now. Meanwhile, Seyfried will have costarred in the third season of HBO's Big Love, which begins airing in January, and opposite Megan Fox in the Diablo Cody-scripted Jennifer's Body. Dear John is being directed by Lasse Hallström (Chocolat) from an adaptation scripted by Jamie Linden (We Are Marshall). Shooting begins next month in South Carolina.