Role Call: The Woman in Black….is Back!

We finally get our greedy eyes on some set photos from Dad’s Army, get a peek at Domhnall in Unbroken, and just in time for Halloween, we also get to throw our hands up in front of our faces as we try to hide from The Woman in Black sequel! All that and more in this week’s Casting News!

Emma Thompson is rumored to be taking reworking the screenplay on the third installment of the Bridget Jones series, according to Huffington Post. The recent announcement of Hugh Grant leaving the production hasn’t stopped the film, however. Fans of Bridget and her love Mark will be rejoicing as producers have nixed the idea of killing off one of the characters as author Helen Fielding did in Mad About the Boy, the third book of the series.

We now know a little more about Brendan Gleeson‘s role in Heart of the Sea, a film based on a true story. The film, scheduled for a March release, follows Brendan’s character, Thomas Nickerson as he tells about his life as a cabin boy on a whaling ship. Through a series of flashbacks, the audience experiences Nickerson’s adventure which is the origin and inspiration of the story of Moby Dick. The film also stars Frank Dillane (young Tom Riddle in HBP).

Fiona Shaw‘s production of The Marriage of Figaro returns to the English National Opera this month and is already earning great reviews. She previously brought her play to the stage back in 2011, but with the new cast, the production is said to be “everything that ENO should be in a city that also houses the Royal Opera: a theatrical performance whose dramatic currency just happens to be song; an ensemble event in which voice is an extension of character rather than a replacement for it; an English-language production whose libretto translates the spirit instead of the text of the original.” You can learn more about the production and purchase tickets here.

Among the many roles we’ve heard about in the last few months, this is one we are a little unsure of. Jim Broadbent has joined the cast of a new thriller, London Spy. Nothing is known about his role in the five-part series, except that filming is set to begin next month and stars Broadbent’s Paddington co-star Ben Whishaw. Digital Spy released a brief synopsis:

The series will be set on a London street that houses the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service on one side and the headquarters of the gay clubbing scene on the other.

A short film that premiered and won Best Narrative at the Tribeca Film Festival and stars Broadbent was also posted this week – you can view the film, The Phone Call, on IndieWire, which is now in the running for Best Live Action Short Academy Award because of its win. Jim is also slated to participate in a holiday recording of poems called Christmas Words For You – the album will be available from Sony on November 17.

A new trailer for Unbroken surfaced last week, showing us a bit more of Domhnall Gleeson‘s character, Russell Alan Phillips. The film is based on the true story of Olympian Louis Zamperini and two of his crew who survived in a raft for 47 days after their plane was shot down in WWII and end up being captured and taken to a Japanese POW camp. Take a look here:

Sir Michael Gambon continues to make the rounds on various sets as he tackles multiple roles. Announced earlier this week, Gambon is set to voice a character on a hidden camera prank show called Bad Robots for E4 in the UK. The series is set to air in November in six installments. In addition, photos of Gambon, Toby Jones, and Bill Nighy have also surfaced this week as the trio began filming on Dad’s Army. See the photos below:

Shooting on the Coen Brothers film Hail Caesar, starring Ralph Fiennes, is set to begin in less than a month and has added new cast members, although Ralph’s role is still unknown. Below is the synopsis of the film, which hopefully means we’ll get to see Ralph in another well-tailored suit:

The plot is set in 1950s Hollywood and centers on Eddie Mannix (George Clooney), a “fixer” who works with all of the major movie studios to keep the stars in line and to cover up any scandals. He is tasked with tracking down a major movie star who suddenly disappears in the middle of shooting a new movie.

A teaser trailer for the new season of Downton Abbey has been released by PBS in anticipation of the premiere in the US in January. You can view the trailer below, which features modern music set against some very dramatic scenes for the Grantham family, including Dame Maggie Smith, as well as some of those working downstairs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YnPcUJyigA

A new short film starring John Hurt is slated to begin filming. Break will film at the end of this month and is directed by Nick Moss, who worked with Hurt on the film Hercules.

Fresh from what appears to be a whirlwind tour to promote his return to directing with A Little Chaos, Alan Rickman is rumored to be appearing in a new thriller surrounding the use of drones. The film, Eye in the Sky, has begun filming in South Africa and will also star Helen Mirren. You can read a synopsis below, although the depth of Rickman’s part as Lieutenant General Frank Benson is still a mystery:

The hot button thriller follows the complicated chain of authority that is firmly yanked when a new wrinkle enters a drone mission. The focus is on a few characters involved, including military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren), remotely commanding a drone operation to locate terrorists in Nairobi. When the team discovers that their targets are planning a suicide mission, the targets are marked for death instead. Then, just as pilot Steve Watts (Paul) is set to destroy the safe house, he spots a nine year-old girl entering the kill zone and must pass the request for confirmation of the next step up to the highest levels, including our own foreign secretary (Glen).

Timothy Spall gave a radio interview in which he talks about his film Mr. Turner and how he prepared for his role for two years so that he could paint a complete replica of Turner’s work. The interview also included clips of Timothy and a clip from the movie, which you can view here.

Updates are here on Helen McCrory‘s haunting sequel to Daniel Radcliffe’s The Woman in Black. The film, set 40 years after the original, has moved forward with a January 2 release date (previously, it was slated for a January 31 release) and a new (creepy!)  trailer for the movie has been released this week. Check it out below, if you dare (and we recommend one hand in front of your eyes towards the last few seconds)!

In addition to the highly anticipated Fantastic Beasts trilogy, David Heyman has taken on another producing role in a biblical film, Methuselah. Variety reports the film has now nabbed a writer for the screenplay which will focus on the biblical character “who ages slowly and has used his time to develop an incredible set of survival skills”.

That’s all for this week’s Casting News! Did you enjoy seeing the new trailers and photos from the various projects that we have to look forward to this coming year? Tell us which project is your favorite and why by commenting below, posting on Facebook or sending us a Tweet!