Casting Net: Ben Kingsley joins cast of Disney's 'The Jungle Book'

• Oscar winner Ben Kingsley will provide the voice of panther Bagheera in Disney’s upcoming film adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. The movie, directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man), will be a combination of live-action and animation with a script by Justin Marks. Kingsley joins previously announced stars Idris Elba (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Scarlett Johansson (Her), and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave) as the voices of Shere Khan, Kaa, and Rakcha, respectively, for a scheduled Oct. 9, 2015, release. [THR]

• Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) will produce and star in A House in the Sky, based on the memoir by journalist Amanda Lindhout, which chronicled her 15 months in captivity after being abducted by a Somalian rebel terrorist group. [THR]

• Saturday Night Live alum Jason Sudeikis is in talks to join Relativity’s Untitled Armored Car Project, previously called Loomis Fargo. SNL boss Lorne Michaels will produce the film with a screenplay by former SNL writer Emily Spivey and directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite). The revenge heist comedy (based on true events) will also star Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Owen Wilson (The Internship), and Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) for an Aug. 14, 2015, release. [The Wrap]

• Luke Evans (The Hobbit) and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) have signed on for High-Rise. Based on J.G. Ballard’s thriller about a luxury residential complex built on the eve of Margaret Thatcher’s England, Ben Wheatley will direct the film from an adaptation by Amy Jump (A Field in England) with previously announced stars Tom Hiddleston (Thor), Sienna Miller (Foxcatcher), and Jeremy Irons (The Borgias). [Variety]

• Will Poulter (We’re the Millers) is in talks to join Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street) in the revenge thriller The Revenant. The film, based on the Michael Punke novel, will be directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel). [Variety]

• Jack Reynor, who will be seen in this weekend’s Transformers: Age of Extinction, will play MLB player Josh Hamilton in Miracle Shot, the feature film about his life based on his book Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back. Oscar nominee Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) will write and make his directorial debut with the film, which will show how Hamilton went from a crack addiction to the top of the professional sporting world, currently playing for the Los Angeles Angels. [Deadline]

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