Paul Mescal in “advanced talks” to re-team with Ridley Scott, and this week's casting news

It’s a big month for Paul Mescal. Gladiator II is just weeks away, a bunch of lads in mini shorts honored him with his very own lookalike competition in Dublin, and now, he may get to start in yet another project with Ridley Scott. According to Variety, Mescal is in “advanced talks” to lead the Gladiator director’s next film, The Dog Stars, which was adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel of the same name. 

Per the outlet, a synopsis of the film reads as follows: “A civilian pilot lives a lonely life on an abandoned Colorado airbase with his dog and a tough ex-marine, in a near future where an unnamed pandemic has decimated American society. The two men couldn’t be more mismatched but depend on each other to fend off roaming invaders. When a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside the pilot that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail.”

Elsewhere this week, it was announced that Macaulay Culkin would be taking a trip to the wastes in Fallout, and a bunch of other projects rounded out their supporting casts. Check out the rest of this week’s casting news below:

• •Ted Lasso‘s Phil Dunster has landed his next Bill Lawrence series. Dunster will star opposite Steve Carell in the still-untitled HBO comedy series Lawrence is producing with Matt Tarses (Scrubs) and Warner Bros. According to Deadline, the series “is set on a college campus and centers on an author’s (Carell) complicated relationship with his daughter.” 
• •It’s a good thing Patrick Dempsey played a doctor for a decade, because he’s about to star in a film called The Household Guide To Dying with Minnie Driver. According to Deadline, the film follows a household influencer who is forced to confront the fact that “dying well is not as simple as laundry.”
• •Splitsville may be about a divorce, but right now it’s adding even more players to the family. Nicholas Braun, David Castañeda, and O-T Fagbenle round out the cast of the comedy, which also includes previously announced stars Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, and Kyle Marvin. [via Deadline]
• •Chris Hemsworth may (potentially) be playing Prince Charming, but the other Hemsworth is also getting his flowers. Luke Hemsworth is set to star in season two of Prime Video’s Deadloch, an Australian whodunnit comedy.  
• •Alex Pettyfer and Karl Markovics are starring in the Holocaust drama Kristallnacht alongside Clive Owen, who was previously announced. The film follows the true story of the assassination of a German officer which was wrongfully branded as a “Jewish terrorist attack” on the brink of World War II. [via Deadline]
• •Dominic West was hired by The Agency. He’ll appear in a guest role in the upcoming Paramount+ spy thriller, along with Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith, Katherine Waterston, John Magaro, and more. [via Variety]
• •Brat Summer may be over, but Charli xcx’s acting career has just begun. The singer will also appear in Sacrifice, Romain Gavras’ English language debut. The movie—loosely based on the story of Joan of Arc—has already landed a pretty impressive cast. Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault and Sam Richardson are set to star, along with Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Ambika Mod, Jade Croot, Jeremy O. Harris, Miriam Silverman, and rapper Yung Lean in his acting debut. [via Deadline]
• •We’ve officially reached Batman overload. We’re even doing knockoff Batman now with Bunny-Man, a film about “an anonymous multimillionaire superhero who strikes against evil forces while wearing a rabbit mask,” that somehow isn’t being sold as a parody. Michele Morrone, Franco Nero, and Ana Golja will all star in that, along with previously announced cast members Mike Tyson, Bella Thorne, and James Franco. [via Deadline]
• •John Wick: Chapter 4‘s Scott Adkins is joining the Matt Damon/Ben Affleck show. He’ll star as Affleck’s character’s brother in RIP, the pair’s upcoming Miami cop thriller. [via Deadline]
• •James Gray has assembled a cast of powerhouses for his next film, Paper Tiger, about the failure of the American dream. Jeremy Strong, Adam Driver, and Anne Hathaway will all star.  
• •Get Out‘s Lil Rel Howery is set to make his directorial debut and star in Haunted Heist, a film about an attempted heist that gets interrupted by a very real ghost. Tiffany Haddish is also set to star. [via Deadline]
• •Heist thrillers are hot right now, apparently. Gabriel LaBelle and Isabela Merced have joined Dutch & Razzlekhan, a film based on a true (and presumably ghost-free) crypto heist from 2022. LaBelle and Merced will star alongside Chloë Grace Moretz, who was previously announced. [via Deadline]
• •Samuel L. Jackson, Andra Day, and Edgar Ramirez are honestly starring in The Honest Liar, written and directed by Wayne Kramer. Per Deadline, “the film will see Jackson star as an award-winning actor tasked with teaching rookie undercover cops how to act like criminals so they can save their own lives when on the job.” 
• •Felix Mallard (Ginny & Georgia) is set to star in the worst type of horror movie (to this writer at least)—one about spiders. He’ll lead Nest, a film about “a young family terrorized by a new species of deadly arachnid.” [via Deadline]
• •Four more actors are about to know what you did last summer. Lola Tung, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Austin Nichols, and Gabbriette have joined the cast of Sony’s I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel, along with previously announced stars Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Sarah Pidgeon, Tyriq Withers, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Jonah Hauer-King. [via Deadline]
• •Kedar Williams-Stirling, Yara Shahidi, Keith Powers, and Renée Elise Goldsberry are all in talks to star in Bloom, a coming-of-age romance following a young artist living in Tuscany.
• •The Sound Of Freedom team is back for more. Director Alejandro Monteverde has set Bethlehem, a film which “re-imagines… Herod’s slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem as a profound spiritual thriller,” as his next project. Sam Worthington, Ben Mendelsohn, Gael García Bernal, and Deva Cassel will star. [via Deadline]
• •Distract yourself from the 80° November we’ve been having with White Mars, Lucy Hale’s chilly upcoming thriller. According to Deadline, the film follows a microbiologist stationed in Antarctica (Hale) “as she fights to save her fellow crew members from a malevolent entity whose sole intention is to extinguish them all.” 
• •An incredibly stacked cast including Judy Greer, Sean Astin, Bryan Cranston, and John Goodman are all set to star in Chili Finger, and if you thought that was about anything other than exactly what it sounds like, the joke’s on you. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Chili Finger “tells the story of a recently empty-nested mother (Greer) who discovers a human finger in her bowl of fast-food chili. When she blackmails the restaurant for a cash payout, the situation spirals out of control and her life descends into chaos.” Yep. 
• •Comedian Nate Bargatze is going to the big screen. He’s set to both produce and star in a comedy called The Breadwinner. [via Deadline]
• •Isabel May is set to star opposite Teo Yoo in Karoshi, a film Deadline describes as “a corporate thriller with a samurai twist.” 
• •Alan Ruck has joined the cast of Marc Maron’s In Memoriam, which follows a dying actor (Maron) who becomes obsessed with securing a spot in the Academy Awards’ In Memoriam montage. The cast also includes Talia Ryder, Lily Gladstone, Sharon Stone, Judy Greer, Justin Long and Michael McKean. [via Deadline]