Role Call: New Projects Underway for HP Stars!

Emma Thompson (Sybill Trelawney) has signed on to the comedy-thriller The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson. The story will follow a Scottish barber “through a series of accidental events…into the world of serial murder.” Thompson is slated to play Barney’s mother, who is constantly on his case and picking him apart. Her next projects include Jason Reitman’s Men, Women, and Children and another thriller, Survivor.

Earlier this month, French composer Alexandre Desplat gave an interview to Reuters, shedding light on the process he follows when composing a score for film. In addition to the scores for both Deathly Hallows films, he has composed the upcoming score for Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, starring Ralph Fiennes. Of composing for Anderson’s film, he had this to say:

“Wes'[s] movies are of another world. They come from Wes'[s] world, which is a very specific and special work of his own. […] Musically we enter in another dimension, a fifth dimension. So I use my imagination in the same way that he does and try and create first an instrumentarium – a bunch of instruments that would be toys that we play together – and then we decide together if it’s a dark melody, a happy melody, no melody … but again it’s very much the picture we work with because Wes'[s] directing is very precise, very detailed. And the music has to be as precise as the picture.”

You can read the entire interview here.

More films are in the works for Frank Dillane, who played the young Tom Riddle in Half-Blood Prince. Announced only three days apart, Dillane will appear in two films. The first is an as yet untitled film directed by Gerardo Naranjo alongside Dakota Fanning, who will play a roadie for a punk band sometime in the ’80s. His role in the feature is not clear at this time, but we will follow the film closely and bring you more information as it is released.

The second film, Maestro, will showcase Dillane in a leading role as Paul, an aspiring pianist who moves to northern Australia. He is forced to undergo lessons from a mysterious Viennese refugee, Herr Keller, who is known to the people of the area only as “Maestro.” Filming is set to begin in early spring 2014 in both Vienna, Austria, and northern Australia.

While the film was released in the UK in 2012 and was shown in limited release in the US last year, we’ve just gotten our hands on the trailer for Shadow Dancer, in which Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley) has a role. The trailer, which can be seen below, seems to be non-stop action and suspense and only shows one second of Gleeson’s role as Connor in the film. To learn more about the film, you can visit the official website, or you can purchase the film via Amazon.

Gary Oldman’s (Sirius Black) film, Flying Horse, is moving along in regards to casting but still needs financial backing. The film will be Oldman’s second as a director, with Amanda Seyfriend and Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) set to star. In an interview earlier this month, he revealed the reason he thinks it has not been backed, yet.

“The script doesn’t fit their model…You need someone who will actually be a risk taker. It’s set in San Francisco, but you could save yourself $100k if you do three weeks in Romania, and then you get a tax subsidy if you do a week in Ireland. It’s…eye-crossing!”

The story follows the true story of photographer Eadweard Muybridge, played by Fiennes, who murders a theater critic who has an affair with Muybridge’s wife. Oldman was slated to play Muybridge’s attorney in the film in addition to directing the biopic. Filming was set to begin early this year, but those plans have been stalled due to the lack of financing.

David Thewlis (Remus Lupin) has joined a production of Macbeth, which started principal photography in Scotland in February. His role in the film has not yet been announced, but the synopsis on this version of the film was released earlier this month as “a thrilling interpretation of the dramatic realities of the times and a truthful reimagining of what wartime must have really been like for one of Shakespeare’s most famous and compelling characters, set in war-torn 11th century Scotland.”

Will he forever be cast as the film baddie? Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) joins the film production of Stockholm, Pennsylvania as a kidnapper who has held his victim for over twenty years. The film is based on the play of the same name, which won acclaim on the 2012 Black List and won the 2012 Nicholl Fellowship through the Sundance Screenwriting Lab.

In a documentary on contemporary Russian writers that aired on the Intelligent Channel in December, Stephen Fry, the voice of the Harry Potter audio books for the UK as well as some of the video games, hosted Russia’s Open Book: Writing in the Age of Putin. The documentary is now available for viewing, and we’ve included it below.

Finally, HP producer David Heyman has been attached to two new projects – a television series for SyFy called DMZ, based on a graphic novel of the same name from the DC Comic world, and a film called Testament of Youth, starring Kit Harrington of Game of Thrones fame.

DMZ will be a television series about a young man trapped in Manhattan in the near future, after a second civil war erupts in America.

Keeping with the war theme, the film Testament of Youth is set during World War I and is an adaptation of an autobiography of a woman who served as a nurse during the war and how the aftermath of it affected her. No word on when either of the projects will begin filming.

If you were a casting director, what project would you cast your favorite HP alum in? Let us know by commenting below!