Ellen Page is getting busy, with a couple projects in the cooker that will be worth keeping an eye out for. First up, she’s joined the John Belushi biopic starring Emile Hirsch, taking the role of the late comedian’s wife. Steve Conrad (the writer behind “The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty” and director of “The Promotion“) is behind the camera for this one that will track Belushi’s rise, from “Saturday Night Live” through his brief film career, before his sudden passing of a drug overdose at the age of 33.
And when Page is done that gig, she’s got another movie brewing in “Queens And Country,” which has just landed Craig Viveiros to direct. Based on a graphic novel, this one “centers on a British agent Tara Chace going on the run from her own people as she tries to bring down a terrorist on English soil.” John Rogers (“Transformers,” “Catwoman“) is writing the script, so this could go any way. [The Wrap/Variety]
Dakota Johnson is slipping out of the sheets of “Fifty Shades Of Grey” to take a role in “Black Mass” which will star Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton and Guy Pearce. The actress will be playing notorious gangster Whitey Bulger’s girlfriend and mother of his six year-old son, in the biopic about the criminal. [Deadline]
With “Everest” now shifting release dates from February to a more potentially awards-friendly September, it seems it’s giving director Baltasar Kormákur time to beef up his cast. He has added Sam Worthington and Robin Wright, to the mostly bro-tacular crew of Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Martin Henderson, Emily Watson and Thomas Wright in this true story of the disastrous and tragic climb up the mountain. In 3D! [Deadline]
Lastly, Mads Mikkelsen is slated to star in the black comedy, “Men And Chicken.” The project comes from Susanne Bier‘s frequent collaborator Anders Thomas Jensen, who will be directing his first film in about a decade, telling the story of “two outcast brothers who reunite with their relatives, only to be faced with a cruel truth about themselves and their family.” Production kicks off next month. [Cineuropa]