Helen Mirren is circling “Trumbo,” a biopic about blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Bryan Cranston is already attached to star as Trumbo, one of the greatest screenwriters of the 20th century, whose career abruptly ended when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during their investigation into Hollywood’s communist ties. Mirren would play Trumbo’s wife and Jay Roach is attached to direct. [Variety]
Chloë Moretz’s fame is on the rise with her starring role in last year’s “Carrie” remake for Sony, and she’ll co-star with Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer” (which is testing so well that Sony’s already planning a sequel). Sony’s sticking with their girl, having just announced Moretz will star in the YA franchise “The 5th Wave.” Moretz will play “Cassie Sullivan, who survives four waves of deadly attacks against the Earth’s population. On the run to save her younger brother, 16-year-old Cassie meets a mysterious young man who may become her final hope.” [The Wrap]
On to a star who is trying to leave the YA world: Taylor Lautner is in negotiations to star in the indie movie “Run the Tide,” a story about brothers on the run from their drug-abusing mom. Soham Mehta directs a script by Rajiv Shah, and the two will produce with Tim Kwok. [The Wrap]
Gerard Butler is set to star in “Geostorm” for Warner Bros., where he’ll play a “stubborn but charming satellite designer” who has to team up with his estranged brother to save the world from a man-made storm caused by climate-controlling satellites gone awry. They take off into space but back home someone tries to off the President of the Unites States. If only the UN’s CO2 Emissions reports were this exciting. [THR]
Lastly, Keith Stanfield—an Independent Spirit Award nominee for his work in “Short Term 12“—has bagged a role in Ava DuVernay‘s Martin Luther King drama “Selma.” The movie centers on the famous Selma-to-Montgomery marches in 1965 to help get voting rights for African Americans listed in the Constitution, and already has David Oyelowo playing the Civil Rights leader, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King and Tom Wilkinson in the role of President Lyndon B. Johnson. As for Stanfield, he’ll play “Jimmie Lee Jackson, the good-natured son of Viola Jackson and the grandson of Cager Lee.” No word yet on when production will begin. [The Wrap]