Or how about Leonardo DiCaprio? George Clooney? Apparently, all three are eying Martin Scorsese’s biopic about the crooner. Hmmm, I might have to agree with Cinematical’s Elisabeth Rappe about going with an unknown in the role. It’d be tough for such A-listers as those three to embody an icon like Sinatra. I mean, someone like Ray Liotta can play him in the HBO movie The Rat Pack and that works. But Johnny Depp? It would be hard to see Old Blue Eyes played by Capt. Jack Sparrow. Or Howard Hughes. Or, well, George Clooney. Keep looking, Marty.
In other casting news: Steve Carell is going to get his golf swing in order. He’s set to star in Missing Links, a golf comedy based on a novel by ESPN’s Ricky Reilly, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Carrell would play the leader of a small band of amateur players who are tired of their rundown municipal golf course and scheme to get into the nearby elite club. Reilly, who has been a columnist for both Sports Illustrated and now ESPN magazine, also wrote Leatherheads. Guess the guy knows his sports.
Variety reports Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are both in talks to star in the Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit, with Jeff Bridges already approached to play the gruff U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn, originally played by John Wayne, who won an Oscar for his role in the 1969 film. The story concerns a 14-year-old girl traveling into dangerous territory with Cogburn and a Texas Ranger (Damon) in search of the man who murdered her father (Brolin). At least we know the Coens can do Westerns.
Anne Hathaway, Neil Patrick Harris and Rodrigo Santoro could possibly lend their voices to the next Blue Sky Studios/Fox Animation movie called Rio. According to the Reporter, it’s about a nerdy macaw who escapes his small-town Minnesota cage and goes on an adventure to Rio de Janeiro for the Summer Olympics. Madcap fun, no doubt.
And finally, Mad Men‘s January Jones and Inglourious Basterds‘ Diane Kruger have joined Liam Neeson in the thriller Unknown White Male. Neeson plays a man who wakes from a coma to realize his identity have been taken by someone else – and no one BELIEVES him. Jones will play Neeson’s wife, who gets caught up in a conspiracy regarding her husband. Kruger will play a Berlin taxi driver and Neeson’s unexpected ally. Oh man, I don’t think you want to piss Neeson off. Have you seen Taken? That guy kicks major ass.