The Random: The Escape of Prisoner 614, Robert Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, The Hummingbird Project, Jamie Dornan and more

The Escape of Prisoner 614

– Saban Films has picked up North American rights to The Escape of Prisoner 614, the upcoming crime thriller starring Ron Perlman (Hellboy) and Martin Starr (Knocked Up). The film – in which two naïve recently fired sheriff’s deputies go after an escaped convict in the hope of getting their jobs back, only to find he’s innocent – is the feature-length debut of writer-director Zach Golden. Jordan Yale Levine (King Cobra, Shotgun), Jordan Beckerman (Shotgun, Green Dolphin) and Shaun Sanghani (Blood Heist, The Pretenders) produce – THR

– Scott Eastwood has joined Morgan Freeman in The Manuscript. Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) will direct from a script by Louis Rosenberg and Joe Rosenbaum. The film follows a jailed genius (Freeman) who writes and sends chapters from a mysterious novel to an aspiring young writer (Eastwood), ensnaring him in a high-stakes ploy to recover $100 million in stolen diamonds – The Tracking Board

– Tessa Thompson (Creed, Thor: Ragnarok) has signed on to portray Doris Payne, a woman who gained notoriety for her luxury jewellery heists from stores around the world.The film is conceived as a high-concept action-drama in the vein of “Catch Me if You Can” and “The Thomas Crown Affair.” Codeblack Films’ Candice Wilson will oversee the project. In her six-decade long career, Payne, who is now 87, would enter jewellery stores posing as a well-to-do woman looking for a diamond ring and ask to see an assortment of items. Using her charm, she would eventually cause the clerk to forget how many pieces were outside the cases and leave with one or two pieces – Variety

– Tony Cavalero (School of Rock) is in talks to play Ozzy Osbourne in Netflix’s Motley Crue biopic The Dirt. Jeff Tremaine is directing the long-gestating film about the iconic hair metal band, which is slated to star Daniel Webber (The Punisher) as frontman Vince Neil, Douglas Booth as Nikki Sixx, Machine Gun Kelly as drummer Tommy Lee, and Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) as guitarist Mick Mars. Based on the bestselling autobiography written by Motley Crue and author Neil Strauss, the film will follow the band’s rise to the top of the music business in the ’80s, and will feature no shortage of sex, drugs, and rock and roll – The Tracking Board

– Robert Rodriguez is working on a new VR action series entitled The Limit. Shot in a first-person POV and short-form style, The Limit will centre around Michelle Rodriguez’s main character as a genetically enhanced individual who was designed to be a weapon of mass destruction. The story will weave around her personal mission to take down the covert agency behind her creation – VRHeadsets3D

– Jamie Dornan has signed on to Borderland. Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) is set to co-star in the film, which Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones) is directing from a script by Ronan Bennett (Public Enemies). Set in London in the 1970s, Borderland is described as a high-octane, character-driven thriller in the vein of Michael Mann’s Heat. Dornan will play a member of the IRA whose wife is accidentally shot dead in Ireland, leading him to take over an Active Service Unit in London. Their mission is to cause chaos and destruction, while his personal mission is to hunt down his wife’s killer — an SAS captain (Claflin) who is also hunting him – The Tracking Board

– Salma Hayek plays the nemesis to Alexander Skarsgard’s bald high-frequency trading scammer in this first look at the actress in The Hummingbird Project, from director Kim Nguyen (War Witch, Two Lovers and a Bear). The film also stars Jesse Eisenberg. The film Eisenberg and Skarsgard play cousins who inhabit the high-stakes world of high-frequency trading and hatch a multimillion-dollar plan that involves plenty of danger if they fail. Hayek plays their arch-enemy, their brilliant but ruthless former boss – THR

The Hummingbird Project

– Tim Blake Nelson is set to star in the indie “Tribe,” written and directed by Sabrina McCormick and Soopum Sohn. Gretchen Mol and Marcelo Olinto also star. Nelson executive produced the project alongside McCormick, who also produced. The story starts after an Amazonian chief’s 12-year-old daughter gets lost and kidnapped. While she is in the hands of a dishonest government official, the chief mistakenly captures an American banker only to find that he is behind the construction of a massive dam destroying his people. Nelson will play the kidnapped American banker – Variety

– Robert Pattinson has joined Willem Dafoe in the fantasy-horror movie The Lighthouse, which will be directed by Robert Eggers (The Witch). All we know right now is that the film will be set in the world of old sea-faring myths – The Tracking Board

– Sabrina the Teenage Witch series at Netflix has cast Chance Perdomo and Michelle Gomez (Doctor Who) as series regulars. Gomez will play Mary Wardell, Sabrina’s favorite teacher and mentor at Baxter High. When she is possessed by the Devil’s handmaiden, Madam Satan, Ms. Wardwell turns into a sultry, cunning manipulator, always trying to lure Sabrina down the Path of Night. Perdomo, in his first American screen credit, will play Ambrose Spellman. Ambrose is Sabrina’s warlock cousin from England. Placed under house-arrest by the Witches Council, Ambrose is forbidden from leaving the funeral home where he lives with the Spellman women. Witty, puckish and pan-sexual, he is one of Sabrina’s partners in crime, always up for mischief. Lucy Davis (Wonder Woman) has been cast as Hilda Spellman opposite lead Kiernan Shipka for the upcoming adaption. Hilda is known as being the more nurturing and kinder of Sabrina’s two witch aunts with her sister, Zelda, taking more of an authoritative role in the young witch’s life – Variety

– Below is our first look at Robert Pattinson in High Life, the English-language debut by French filmmaker Claire Denis (Trouble Every Day). The film also stars Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin and Mia Goth. The synopsis for the sci-fi drama is “a father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space.” The Tracking Board also found out that the ship is inhabited by criminals who are on a suicide mission towards a black hole to find an alternate energy source “while being sexually experimented on by the scientists on board.”

High Life

– Jamie Lee Curtis has finished filming on the new Halloween movie.

So sad to leave all my new friends in Charleston. Thanks to @kuduchs for the friendship and morning noon and night caffeination and carbohydrates, @hajsalon for my much-needed wash and trim, @dogwashcharleston for my little dog’s much-needed wash and trim, the stylish folks @hampdenclothing for my new kicks and mostly to everyone @thedewberrycharleston for their hospitality and elegant, comfortable care. #halloweenmovie @halloweenmovie

A post shared by Jamie Lee Curtis (@curtisleejamie) on Feb 15, 2018 at 10:31am PST