JesseJohnson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

For this, the week before Christmas, Variety has a whole slew of little casting nibbles:

• He got to play Shia LaBeouf's adventuresome sidekick in Disturbia, and now Aaron Yoo has nabbed himself a lead role in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist as Thom. You might remember the project from our recent coverage here and here. The film is about some bridge-and-tunnel kids who have a sleepless, love-filled night in New York City. He was pretty amusing in Disturbia, so I imagine this will be the start of much more work for the actor. The film also got even more competition for it's opening slot, as Patrick Walsh recently blogged -- now the film is up against Valkyrie as well as RockNRolla... but something tells me the Playlist crowd won't be swayed by a German Tom Cruise.
• Marty Papazian, who guest stars on a whole slew of television shows and last popped up on the big screen in Jarhead, has gotten a part in Charlize Theron's The Burning Plain -- the flick that also happens to be written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga. It's not a bad score for the actor, but unfortunately, he doesn't have a huge part -- his role is that of a "Young Man."
• Jesse Johnson, who has recently popped up in the indie flicks Redline and Prey, has scored the lead role in the upcoming indie My Life: Untitled. He'll star as Bobby in the project, which is based on the true story of a kid who struggles with drug addiction. The cast also includes W.I.T.C.H. star Kelly Stables and a certain ex-model Rachel Hunter.
• Not only is she co-starring in the upcoming thriller The Box Collector, but new actress Lyne Renee has scored the co-lead spot in the upcoming drama, The Hessen Affair, which puts her opposite the ever-loved Billy Zane. She'll play Lt. Kathleen Nash, who works with Zane's Durant to fence the Crown Jewels of Germany in New York City. According to the IMDb synopsis: "With double-crossing gangland figures trying to control the gems and the army closing in on them, will Kathy Nash and Jack Durant stay true to one other and their plan? Or will one sell the other out?" Now I ask you: is this tacky in a fun way, or a bad way?
• Finally, there's Marisol Nichols, who you might know from Big Momma's House 2, a stunning cinematic achievement, or her role on 24. Like Renee, she's nabbed a part that places her opposite two pretty well-known actors. This time around, it's Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff. She's gotten herself the co-lead in Felon, a film about a man who is convicted of killing an intruder and has to face "the violent penal system." She's playing Laura Porter, which I assume is Wade Porter's (Dorff) wife. Not a bad gig, I must say.

Us poor humans are prey all over the place. Last year, In the real world, we suffered freak stingray attacks. This year, on the fictional front, we started off with some abysmal lion Prey on DVD, and now there is some new people hunting down under... also called Prey. The Aussie horror flick seems to be borrowing from the Blair Witch, according to their MySpace page. In the 80's, two North Americans went out on some 4WDs into the desert and disappeared, although their vehicles and supplies were found untouched. A few years later, the men were both found dead back in North America. They'd died of natural causes on the same day, 1000 miles apart. "Twenty years after the original incident," three couples who go to the same desert and get picked off one by one as "preconceived assumptions about friendship, undiscovered sexual liaisons, and false leadership come apart." You'd think movie characters would learn by now that sexy behavior and remote locales just don't mix.

The movie stars Aussie pop singer and former Neighbours star Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Jesse Johnson, whose name might not ring any bells unless you know that he's the 20-something offspring of looking for a Heartbeat, Miami Vice heartthrob Don Johnson. The Sydney Morning Herald now has an image from the film, as well as some other details. You can click on the pic to the right to see it in all of its glory: "Bassingthwaighte plays a medic who gets caught up in a mysterious and somewhat violent episode involving American tourists in outback Australia." According to an insider: "Even her medical skills won't save them when the group confront the supernatural evil in the desert." I would sure hope not. It'd be a pretty boring movie if she followed the killer(s) around, patching up every victim and saving their lives. And, is it just me, or is she hiding something behind those eyes?