The bunny is almost here, giving me a reason to overindulge in hardboiled eggs, but right now, it's still the work week, and here are some casting nibblets from Variety:

• Chinese singer and actress Josie Ho has nabbed herself her Hollywood debut in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Unfortunately, although production has begun in Thailand, there is no word on who she's playing. (She also discusses her casting on her blog, but doesn't mention her role.) You might have caught the actress in Johnny To's Exiled back in 2006, or more recently, as Sina in last year's drama, The Drummer. She's also one of the top 20 Most Intriguing Heiresses, being the daughter of Stanley Ho and all.
• Emily Rios wowed audiences with Quiñceanera back in 2006 (Kim had reviewed it from Sundance). After a handful of roles since, she's picked up a gig in the upcoming Helen Mirren-starring prostitution story, Love Ranch. She will, of course, play a young call girl in the film. Other than casting announcements, not much is coming from set. However, in a discussion over at IMDb, they've linked to Bai Ling's blog, where she posts self portraits of her character.
  
• Lastly, we've got a little testosterone to throw into the mix. Norman Reedus, who recently played detective Norman Reilly in American Gangster, is about to get musical. He's joined the cast of the Adrien Brody-starring Cadillac Records. Will he be a music great, or just some passerby? Hopefully we'll see who is filling the roles of the other classic musicians soon.

Between brothels and blues, here are some new bits of casting:

• First up, there's Love Ranch, the film we've been telling you about that focuses on the first legal brothel in Nevada. After the initial casting of Joe Pesci and Helen Mirren, the roster has slowly grown, adding likes of people from Bai Ling to Bryan Cranston. Now The Hollywood Reporter says that sex-goddess Gina Gershon is also spending some time at the Love Ranch. She will play, not surprisingly, a veteran at the brothel, working alongside a newcomer played by Scout Taylor-Compton. But the real story is in a "dangerous love triangle" with Pesci, Mirren, and Sergio Peris-Mencheta, who plays a South American boxer. Cranston (playing a senator) somehow gets "entangled in their sordid affairs."
• Meanwhile, THR also reports that the cast for Chess, the dueling Leonard Chess biopic, is slowly coming together. Aside from Alessandro Nivola, whose casting I told you about earlier this month, there's also David Oyelowo and Jon Abrahams. While Jeffrey Wright is playing Muddy Waters in Cadillac Records, Oyelowo will tackle the icon in this production. He hasn't built up the same cred yet, but he certainly isn't a shoddy casting move -- aside from The Last King of Scotland, Oyelowo is known for being the first black actor to play an English monarch for the Royal Shakespeare Company (he played Henry VI). Jon Abrahams, well, you might not know his name (I didn't recognize it) but there's a good chance you're familiar with him -- Kids, Boiler Room, Meet the Parents, Boston Public, House of Wax, or any of his other roles. He will play Chess' younger brother Phil, "who worries when Leonard becomes involved with a singer who has been signed to their label." I'm still more intrigued by the other film in the works, but again, I think a lot will bank on Etta James and the rest of the casting.

Superbowl surprises, a new month, a new week, and these casting bites from Variety:

• Even if you don't watch soap operas, there's a decent chance that you've seen Eden Reigel. She made waves in the world of soaps (and beyond) when her character on All My Children, Bianca Montgomery (Susan Lucci's daughter), came out as a lesbian. Now she's nabbed herself a role in the new Harold Ramis comedy The Year One. Unfortunately, there's no word on who she'll play -- maybe a cute love interest for Michael Cera?
• After a whole ton of teeny tiny roles like "waiter, "raver," or "restaurant host," Vincent De Paul has been breaking into roles with actual names over the last few years. Now he's wrapped production on a film called Oak Hill, with Sally Kirkland. He plays "a homeless man sleeping in a shelter," but he's also got a lovely name -- Moose. The film is about three women from different backgrounds who live together and struggle with co-existing in a flop house. It's not a huge role, but the guy also has What Just Happened? on the way, which ain't bad at all.
• Last, but not least, there's Bryan Cranston. The dad from the uber-quirky Malcolm in the Middle has signed on to Love Ranch, the latest film from Taylor Hackford (Against All Odds), which centers on the first legal brothel in Nevada. Cranston will play "a conniving state senator" -- but there's no word on what he does that makes him get that title. The actor is joining powerhouses like Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci, the new Laurie Strode, Scout Taylor-Compton, and Taryn Manning.

It's Monday, and we have a whole week of work ahead of us, as well as these casting bites, courtesy of Variety:

• Paz Vega, the brown-eyed Spanish beauty from Spanglish and Fade to Black, has found herself her next gig. Aside from The Spirit and The Six Wives of Henry Lefay, she will star opposite Simon Baker in the upcoming Not Forgotten -- replacing Jordana Brewster, who left the project. The film is about a couple (played by Baker and Vega) whose daughter is kidnapped, forcing them to face their troubled pasts and consult a Latina soothsayer.
• I have to say, any gig that isn't CSI: Miami, unless you have a weakness for all things seriously silly, is a step up, and Brooke Bloom is making one. Most recently, she popped up as a grocery shopper in The Brothers Solomon (along with other bites actor Johnson), and now she's joining He's Just Not That Into You. If you've followed Cinematical's coverage of the comedy, you'll remember that it's jam-packed with celebs from Jennifer Aniston to Scarlett Johansson, Justin Long to Ben Affleck. The best part for Bloom -- it's not some no-name part, but the role of Aniston's soon-to-be married sister.
  
• She played Myca in The Crow, was put on ice in Angel, got to be a Serpentine in Southland Tales, and now Chinese actress Bai Ling is going to delight in the joys of a Nevada brothel. She has signed on to co-star with Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci in Love Ranch. And it is, most definitely, a ranch of love, or at least, of sex. It sounds pretty goofy, like The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, but is actually a drama about a couple who opened the first legal brothel in Nevada.
  
• This last casting bite is my favorite, or at least, it will be as long as Variety has a picture of Growing Pains alum Ashley Johnson up. She's not the star of this gig -- sorry Ashley fans -- it's African-American actress Nicole Randall Johnson -- Mad TV comedian, Louise in License to Wed, and the birthing instructor in The Brothers Solomon. She's now joined the cast of Little Big Men -- the new Ken Marino/David Wain flick starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott. While they act as Big Brothers, Johnson will play some woman named Karen.

More than two years ago, Erik wrote a post titled "Joe Pesci Returns!" and we were all excited. Of course, that return -- Pesci's first film role since 1998's Lethal Weapon 4 -- was just a tease. Fortunately, for those of us who couldn't get enough of him with that bit part in The Good Shepherd, the Oscar-winning actor is finally back for a starring role. And it isn't even a bad comedy a la Gone Fishin' or 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag. It's a new film from Taylor Hackford, whose last film, the biopic Ray, earned the director two Academy Award nominations. This one, titled Love Ranch, will also star Hackford's wife, Helen Mirren, who he last worked with on 1985's White Nights. The drama is about Joe and Sally Conforte, a couple who opened Nevada's first (and eventually largest) legal brothel, Mustang Ranch. Scripted by Mark Jacobson (The Believer), the movie will deal with the couple's problems with infidelity. Maybe we'll get to hear Pesci yell the line "You f***** my wife!" at whoever plays boxer Oscar Bonavena, who was shot dead by Mustang Ranch bodyguard Ross Brymer in 1976, allegedly because he was sleeping with Sally.

Hackford begins shooting Love Ranch in Albuquerque in late January and hopes to have the film ready for the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. He told Variety that he is mostly excited to direct his wife again, and that he had to beg her to make time for this. I bet she finally saw him fit to direct her after getting those Oscar noms (even though he has a statue for a 1979 short film he directed). Hackford also mentioned that Pesci was his first choice for Joe and seems fortunate to have convinced the actor, who apparently isn't too interested in doing movies much anymore. Certainly Pesci is a perfect choice to play this seedy "godfather of legalized prostitution," as Hackford calls him. Now, can Hackford please try to get DeNiro in for a cameo?