Welcome to Rumorville! Here you can learn about casting news that’s about to break in Hollywood. These speculations might be only rumors, but that doesn’t mean you can’t follow the trail all the way to the audition room.
“Freelance” may star the professional wrestler-turned-actor.
John Cena may be going “Freelance” for his next big gig. First reported by Deadline, the actor, coming off “F9: The Fast Saga,” is now in talks to star in the action-comedy feature “Freelance.” Helmed by “Taken” director Pierre Morel, the project follows “an ex-Special Forces operator (Cena) [who] takes a job to provide security for a journalist as she interviews a dictator, but as a military coup breaks out in the middle of the interview, they are forced to escape into the jungle where they must survive.” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” staff writer Jacob Lentz will make his feature writing debut. The film has yet to find its female lead opposite Cena, but additional casting is underway. Filming will begin next year in Colombia.
“Londongrad” is working on casting its lead.
The news is still somewhat undercover: “Sherlock” star Benedict Cumberbatch may soon be heading back to television. First reported by Variety, the Oscar and Emmy nominee will lead the now-in-development HBO limited series “Londongrad,” based on “The Terminal Spy” by Alan Cowell. The project will tell “the true story of Alexander Litvinenko (Cumberbatch), the KGB agent and later defector killed by poisoning with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 in 2006 in England.” In addition to starring should the deal go through, Cumberbatch will also executive produce via his Sunnymarch banner. David Scarpa will write (“All the Money in the World”) and Bryan Fogel (“Icarus,” an Oscar winner for Best Documentary) will direct at least one of the series’ episodes. Further casting remains classified at this time.
Looking to get cast? Apply to casting calls on Backstage.