Casting Net: Dennis Haysbert takes on Michael Clarke Duncan's role in 'Sin City 2.' Plus: Timothy Olyphant, Giancarlo Esposito, Ben Whishaw
• 24‘s Dennis Haysbert is in talks to play Manute in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, the role originated in 2005’s Sin City by actor Michael Clarke Duncan, who passed away earlier this year at 54. Haysbert will join Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Jaime King, and Rosario Dawsome, who are all reprising their roles in the first film; Jamie Chung is taking over Devon Aoki’s role. As with the first film, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are sharing writing and directing duties on the film, based on Miller’s series of Sin City graphic novels. [THR]
• Timothy Olyphant (FX’s Justified) will join Kurt Russell, Peter Sarsgaard, Richard Jenkins, and Jennifer Carpenter (Showtime’s Dexter) in Bone Tomahawk, a horror Western about four men who are tasked with saving the prisoners of a band of man-eating cave people. First time feature director S. Craig Zahler also penned the script. [Deadline]
• Giancarlo Esposito (NBC’s Revolution, AMC’s Breaking Bad) has signed onto Poker Night, about a cop who must somehow piece together the stories he’s heard at his regular poker game in order to survive a serial killer with an apparent affection for elaborate mind games. Fellow bad ass character actors Ron Perlman, Titus Welliver, and Ron Eldard costar, along with young up-and-comer Beau Mirchoff (MTV’s Awkward., I Am Number Four). Greg Francis, who made his bones directing true crime documentaries for the Investigation Discovery Channel, will make his feature film directorial debut from his own script. [Deadline]
• Ben Whishaw (Skyfall, Cloud Atlas) has joined the cast of Lilting, playing the British boyfriend of a Chinese man (Andrew Leung, Comes a Bright Day) whose sudden death leaves behind a mother (Cheng Pei Pei,Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) who does not speak English and feels helpless in the U.K. Writer-director Hong Khaou is making his feature debut with the film. [THR]
• Ryan Kwanten (HBO’s True Blood) and Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom) have joined Cut Snake, an Australian thriller about two ex-cons who torch a nightclub while people are still inside it, killing 15 people. (It’s inspired by a true story, awfully enough.) Tony Ayres (The Home Song Stories) will direct from a script by Aussie TV scribe Blake Ayshford. [Deadline]
Read more: