Empire of Light
Micheal Ward (“Top Boy,” “Small Axe: Lover’s Rock”) will join Olivia Colman in the Sam Mendes-directed drama “Empire of Light” for Searchlight. Filming begins Fall next year from a script Mendes penned solo.
The love story is set in and around a beautiful old cinema on the South Coast of England in the 1980s. Cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has worked with Mendes multiple times before on movies like “Skyfall” and “1917,” is also onboard. [Source: Deadline]
Witness Protection
“Schitt’s Creek” alum Annie Murphy is set to star and executive produce the film “Witness Protection” from scribes Rupinder Gill and David West Read.
The story centers on a woman who has always defined herself by her romantic relationships, but when she is forced to enter witness protection she must try to figure out who she really is for the first time while maintaining her cover. [Source: Deadline]
The Fabelmans
Steven Spielberg has added Judd Hirsch, Jeannie Berlin, Robin Bartlett, Jonathan Hadary to the fictional family at the center of his semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans” which is currently in production with Spielberg helming.
All will play the older relatives of a young, aspiring filmmaker (Gabriel LaBelle) loosely based on Spielberg’s experiences as a kid in Arizona. Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Julia Butters, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley, Chloe East and Isabelle Kusman also star. [Source: Variety]
The First Lady
Lily Rabe (“American Horror Story”) has joined the cast of Showtime’s anthology “The First Lady” which focuses on the personal and political lives of three U.S. Presidential first ladies.
Rabe will portray Lorena ‘Hick’ Hickock, a pioneering American journalist who, by 1932, became America’s best-known female reporter and was a devoted friend and mentor to Eleanor Roosevelt (played by Gillian Anderson). [Source: THR]
