Anne-marieDuff Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Last summer, word hit that John Lennon's childhood was getting the feature treatment in Nowhere Boy, penned by the impressive Matt Greenhalgh, the writer behind Control. And while just about any biopic written by Greenhalgh would be music to my ears, it all depends on the cast -- which I can now share with you, courtesy of The Daily Mail.

Most important part, of course, is John Lennon, who will be played by the 18-year-old Aaron Johnson. The actor hasn't made a heartthrob name for himself yet, but you might recognize him -- whether it be as Charlie Chaplin in Shanghai Knights, the younger Ed Norton in The Illusionist, or as one of the leads in Gurinder Chadha's latest, Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging. He's a bit too cute for Lennon, but that's just the way of the silver screen. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie Duff will play Lennon's laid back mother, Julia. You might recognize her from the British series Shameless (where she happened to meet husband James McAvoy). And finally, there's the strict and proper Aunt Mimi, who will be played by none other than Kristin Scott Thomas.

TDK has a whole slew of tidbits on the film, but here's the overview: Nowhere Boy will start off with Lennon's birth, and detail how he's given to his Aunt Mimi to raise when Julia's marriage ends. Then it will skip to Liverpool in the '50s, when John is about to form The Quarrymen. There's no word on how far into Lennon's career the film will go, but it is based on sister Julia Baird's memoir, The Private John Lennon: The Untold Story from His Sister. Whatever the case, I'm sold.

When news of The Last Station first hit all the way back in 2006, it sounded pretty darned irresistible -- Anthony Hopkins as Leo Tolstoy, Meryl Streep as his wife Sofia, and Paul Giamatti as Tolstoy's supporter, Chertkov. Now, as much as I enjoy a good performance by Hopkins and Streep, I'm happy to say that there's new casting for the film, that's finally heading towards production, and still has Giamatti attached.

Variety reports that Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren have now signed on to star. Anthony is great and all, but he's no Plummer. Based on Jay Parini's novel from 1990, the film will follow the final year of the famous writer's life -- when his wife's extravagant demands clash with his "philosophy of poverty," and he flees to the house of a station-master for some peace as he dies.

Judging by the amount of work being offered to the Scottish actor James McAvoy, it looks like Hollywood might have found a new 'It' boy -- plus two Oscar nominated films in just under two years is one hell of a calling card. Variety reports that James McAvoy has signed to star in the comedy thriller Perrier's Bounty. The story centers on three unlikely fugitives who are forced on the run from a mobster bent on revenge for the death of one of his top lieutenants.

Bounty was written by Mark O'Rowe, an award winning novelist and sometimes screenwriter. Ian Fitzgibbon is in the director's seat; Fitzgibbon is a relative newcomer with a few TV credits to his name for both acting and writing. He also has another comedy thriller in production, A Film with Me in It, but so far it doesn't look he has had the same luck with casting as he had this time around. Bounty is going to be produced in the UK through Number 9 Films. There is no other cast confirmed right now, but Anne-Marie Duff is in negotiations to star alongside McAvoy.

McAvoy seems to be keeping his options open by choosing a variety of projects. The first will be the comic book adaptation Wanted with Angelina Jolie, which is probably about as far from the refined period romance of Atonement as you can get -- although I think we are going to have to wait for the box office receipts for Wanted before McAvoy's Hollywood status is cemented. Now that he is throwing in some comedy it looks like McAvoy has all his bases covered. Perrier's Bounty is scheduled to start production later this year.