Brad Pitt, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling — what more do you need? Well, when it’s a studio-driven drama about the housing bubble and financial crisis that features no superheroes, you’ll take as many people as you can get. And thus, Steve Carell has joined the Adam McKay-directed "The Big Short." The adaptation of the Michael Lewis bestseller will find the Oscar-nominated "Foxcatcher" actor playing "Steve Eisman, a money manager who shorted subprime mortgages" in a movie that "chronicles multiple storylines and juggles various characters against the backdrop of the housing and credit bubbles of the 2000s that led to the 2007-08 global financial crisis." No word yet on when filming will begin. [THR]
Legendary Pictures is developing an adaptation of the 2011 Rolling Stone article "American Drug Lord" as a vehicle for Charlie Hunnam. Oscar-nominated Jason Hall ("American Sniper") will pen the screenplay about "Edgar Valdez, a high school football player from Texas who would become the only U.S. citizen to rise to the level of cartel leader in Mexico." [Deadline]
Michael Bay is making a movie about the Benghazi incident with one of the actors from "The Office." Really. John Krasinski has joined "13 Hours" which will tell the story of "the six-man security team that fought to defend the many Americans stationed at the U.S. State Department Special Mission Compound in Benghazi after it was attacked on Sept. 11, 2012." And yes, Jim Halpert is the lead in the movie. [THR]
Matthew McConaughey is lending his sweet, Southern tones to a new, untitled movie from Illumination Entertainment. The project will be helmed by Garth Jennings ("Son Of Rambow," "The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy") and while plot details are being kept wrapped up, it’s said to be "a music-driven event comedy." [THR]
Flying high on a Golden Globes win and Oscar nomination for "Birdman," Michael Keaton is in talks to star in "The Founder." John Lee Hancock ("The Blind Side") will helm the movie that will tell the story of the early days of McDonald’s, and "how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire." And this won’t be a Happy Meal — the movie is described as a cross between "The Social Network" and "There Will Be Blood." Damn. [THR]
Juliette Binoche is dancing her way into "Polina," the feature film debut of famed choreographer Angelin Preljocaj. The movie "opens in Moscow in the early 90’s and follows the journey of Polina, a gifted ballerina from a modest background who joins the prestigious school of Professor Bojinsky and becomes a Bolshoi dancer at 18. Pic turns on Polina’s love story with a French dancer who initiates her to contemporary dance and leads her to travel to different parts of the world." Production will begin next winter. [Variety]