Two rising young stars are getting the chance to shine in lead roles, by starring in a true life thriller. Kate Mara (“House Of Cards“) and David Oyelowo (“Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes“) will feature in “Captive,” for helmer Jerry Jameson. An adaptation of the best-selling book “An Unlikely Angel,” the script from Brian Bird and Reinhard Denke, chronicles the saga of Brian Nichols (Oyelowo), who “broke out of a courthouse jail and shot dead the judge assigned to his case as well as a court reporter, sheriff’s deputy and FBI officer. While eluding a statewide manhunt, Nichols took Ashley Smith (Mara), a single mother struggling with meth addiction, hostage in her own apartment. Over the course of her ordeal, Smith used a book she had been given, Rick Warren‘s ‘The Purpose Driven Life,’ to reason with her captor, with surprising results.” Production begins this month. [THR]
Another true story, kidnapping thriller for you, this one coming with a bit of an interesting flavor. Anthony Hopkins, Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten, Mark van Eeuwen and Tom Cocquerel will star in “Kidnapping Freddy Heineken.” Daniel Alfredson, the helmer behind the Swedish versions of “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” will direct the movie about “the grandson of the founder of the Heineken brewery and his driver [who] were kidnapped in 1983 and released only after a ransom of 35 million Dutch guilders was paid, the largest ransom ever paid at the time.” Production on this also starts this month. [THR]
Ashley Judd, Patrick Wilson and Whoopi Goldberg will star in the romance “Big Stone Gap.” Based on the novels by Adriana Trigiani—who will also make her directorial debut—”the story centers on middle-aged spinster Ave Marie Mulligan finding love and a sense of self amid the eccentrics in a small Virginia coal town.” Aww. Sounds like your Aunt and Grandma will like this. Shooting begins this Saturday. [Variety]
Frank Grillo, Bella Thorne and Kyra Sedgwick are headed to the “Big Sky.” The thriller will follow “a mother and daughter who, on their way to a desert facility to help the teen deal with her paralyzing agoraphobia, find themselves attacked by a gunman. The girl has to fight her own demons for the duo to survive.” Jorge Michel Grau (“We Are What We Are” ) directs. [Variety]
Lastly, Peter Sarsgaard and Liev Schreiber are moving their rooks to “Pawn Sacrifice” with Tobey Maguire. The Ed Zwick directed film tells the story of American chess player Bobby Fischer and his 1972 victory over Russian chess champ Boris Spassky which saw him take Spassky’s world champion title in a match billed as a “Cold War battle.” Maguire has the part of the eccentric grandmaster Fischer, with Sarsgaard as a priest he consults with and Schreiber as the his opponent. Filming is now underway in Montreal. [THR]