Dev Patel links with Tarsem Singh, Eddie Murphy reunites with Dreamgirls' director, and this week's casting news

It’s been a huge month for fans of The Fall, which this writer, as one of those long-suffering fans, never thought she’d ever get to say. After spending years floating in streamless purgatory, Tarsem Sing’s divisive 2006 masterpiece finally got a home—and a long overdue 4K restoration—over at MUBI. Now, the visionary director is tapping Dev Patel for his next project, a crime thriller about a “struggling pro tennis player who is lured into an illegal match-fixing ring to support his family and finds himself trapped in a ruthless world of corruption and violence he may never escape,” per Deadline. Seems like Patel may have been training for more than just his character’s revenge in that one scene from Monkey Man. 

In other breaking news, Eddie Murphy is reuniting with his Dreamgirls director, Bill Condon, for an upcoming biopic about George Clinton, the prolific and experimental leader of the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. The film will be based on Clinton’s memoir, Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain’t That Funkin’ Kinda Hard On You?, according to Deadline. 

It was a big week for casting in general, with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars landing parts in both original projects and the sort of nostalgia-bait remakes we’ve been seeing all year. In that latter category, John Krasinski is stepping back into Jack Ryan’s gray sweater for a new movie and the Wayans brothers are going all the way back for Scary Movie 6. Check out the rest of the week’s casting news below:

• •William H. Macy landed two parts this week. (Jeez, dude, save some for the rest of Hollywood!) He’s set to star in Too Many Crooks, a crime comedy about a bank robber who interrupts an already-in-progress heist, and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, alongside Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, and more.
• •Mark Wahlberg is also doing double duty. He’ll star in By Any Means, another crime thriller co-led by Sterling K. Brown, and an upcoming sequel to The Family Plan, his 2023 film with Michelle Monaghan (also returning for the sequel) about a covert government assassin living as a normal suburban dad.
• •Uzo Aduba, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Molly Price, Lily Collias, Emory Cohen, and Tony Revolori have joined the cast of Roofman, a based on a true story crime thriller with one of the best Deadline synopses we’ve read in a while: “The film is based on the true story of Jeffrey Manchester, an inmate on the run who hides in a place no one would look for him: a toy store. When this paradise of fun becomes a prison of loneliness, he falls for the one thing that can stop him from getting away … love.” Previously announced stars include Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, and Peter Dinklage. [via Deadline]
• •Roofman does have some competition in the logline department from The Gallerist, which Deadline describes as follows: “The film follows a desperate gallerist who conspires to sell a dead guy at Art Basel Miami.” Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega are currently in talks to star, presumably as the gallerist and some supporting character and not the aforementioned dead guy. 
• •Let’s go ahead and add Margo’s Got Money Troubles to the “wild description” list too, actually. Nick Offerman has joined the Apple TV+ series about the daughter (Elle Fanning) of a Hooters waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) and an ex-pro wrestler (Offerman), who starts an OnlyFans to earn some extra cash after an affair with her professor. Nicole Kidman’s also in this one, because of course she is. [via Deadline]
• •Godolkin University is getting some new supes. Keeya King, Stephen Kalyn, Julia Knope, Stacey McGunnigle, Tait Fletcher, Wyatt Dorion, and Georgie Murphy have all joined the cast of The Boys spinoff Gen V. [via Deadline]
• •Lily James and Pierce Brosnan are going bouldering in Cliffhanger, Jaume Collet-Serra’s reimagining of the original 1993 Sylvester Stallone film. [via Deadline]
• •Jay Duplass has set his sights on a star-studded cast for See You When I See You, his first time behind the camera in over a decade. Cooper Raiff, David Duchovny, Hope Davis, Kaitlyn Dever, Lucy Boynton, and Ariela Barer will all star in the film, which was adapted from Cayton-Holland’s memoir about losing his sister to suicide. [via Deadline]
• •Guy Burnet, John Ross Bowie, Adrian Rawlins, and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson are flying to Iceland for Reykjavik, a film about the titular city’s Cold War-era summit. [via Deadline]
• •Lupita Nyong’o, John Mulaney, and Jared Leto are also going back to the Cold War. They’re set to star in Lunik Heist, a film about the US government’s plot to steal a Soviet spaceship in 1959. [via Variety]
• •Garret Dillahunt is joining HBO Green Lantern adaptation Lanterns, opposite Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, and Kelly MacDonald. [via Deadline]
• •Ke Huy Quan is set to lead a holiday action thriller called Fairytale In New York, which seemingly has no relation to the Pogues song. [via Deadline]
• •Jessica Chastain, Brendan Fraser, and Bryan Cranston are reopening the JFK conspiracy in Assassination, a film centered around Dorothy Kilgallen (Chastain), a prominent voice in media at the time. Barry Levinson is directing from a script he wrote with David Mamet and Sam Bromell. [via Deadline]
• •Téa Leoni is in the building. The Madam Secretary actor is officially on board for season five of Only Murders In The Building after a brief cameo in the season four finale. [via Deadline]
• •Cate Blanchett’s leather-clad alien biker gang is getting some new members. Dave Bautista, Steven Yeun, Zoë Kravitz, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, and Channing Tatum will join the Disclaimer actor in Alpha Gang, an extraterrestrial comedy from the Zellner brothers (Sasquatch Sunset). [via Deadline]
• •This one’s less fun. (Sorry!) Johnny Depp has somehow landed yet another role. He’ll be starring with Penélope Cruz in Day Drinker, his first major studio fare since the resolution of his case with Amber Heard in 2022. The cruise-based crime thriller will be directed by Marc Webb. Notably, this is the same film that a source incorrectly reported that Sydney Sweeney was starring in back in March, which she was not happy about. [via Deadline]
• •Gregg Araki has rounded out the cast of upcoming lusty thriller I Want Your Sex, which was previously announced to star Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, and Charli xcx. They’ll be joined by Daveed Diggs, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Johnny Knoxville, and Margaret Cho. [via Deadline]
• •We’ll surely remember Justin Long & Michael McKean’s respective turns in In Memoriam, a new comedy from Marc Maron about a veteran actor (played by Maron) who becomes obsessed with securing a spot in the Academy Awards’ in memoriam montage after receiving a cancer diagnosis. The film also stars Talia Ryder, Lily Gladstone, Sharon Stone, and Judy Greer. [via Deadline]
• •Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters keeps getting cooler. Eiza González, Poppy Liu, Taylour Paige, and Will Poulter have joined the cast of the shoplifter-focused feature, which was previously announced to include Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, LaKeith Stanfield, and Demi Moore. [via Deadline]