Casting Net: Kevin Bacon in talks for 'Jungle'

• Kevin Bacon is in talks for Jungle. The thriller is based on the true story of Yossi Ghinsberg, who penned a memoir about his dangerous trip to the Amazon jungle where he was accompanied by two friends and a mysterious guide. If the deal goes through, Bacon will play the Austrian guide, Karl. Greg McLean, whom Bacon worked with on 6 Miranda Drive, will direct. Justin Monjo adapted Ghinsberg’s 2005 book for the screen. The film will begin shooting early next year in Australia and Colombia. In addition to the film, Ghinsberg’s story also inspired the one-hour Discovery Channel docu-drama series, I Shouldn’t Be Alive. [Deadline]

• Frank Grillo has been cast as the lead in Beyond Skyline. Liam O’Donnell will make his directorial debut with the film, a spin-off to 2010’s Skyline. O’Donnell also wrote the script, and co-wrote the first film. Grillo will take the role of a detective who must save his son from an alien warship. Skyline‘s directors, Greg and Colin Strause, will produce along with Matthew Chausse. The film is a standalone, rather than a sequel. [Variety]

• Edmund Kingsley, son to Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, will take his first lead role in Capsule. Andrew Martin will direct, marking his debut, from a script he wrote. The film will star Kingsley as an experienced fighter pilot who is in charge of Britain’s first manned mission to space during the Cold War; he ultimately finds himself alone in space in a malfunctioning capsule. Lisa Greenwood and Joseph Baird also star. [Deadline]

• Ty Simpkins has signed on for The Nice Guys. Shane Black is directing the film, which stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Set in 1970s Los Angeles, private eye Holland March (Gosling) and hired leg-breaker Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) pair to solve the case of a missing girl as well as the death of a porn star; the cases are seemingly unrelated, but there’s likely more than meets the eye. Simpkins takes the role of Bobby, a young boy whose discovery brings the mystery that March and Healy must solve to light. [Deadline]

• Olivia Holt, known for Disney Channel’s I Didn’t Do It,is joining Greg Kinnear and Renee Zellweger in Same Kind of Different as Me. Based on the nonfiction book by Ron Hall and Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent, the story follows an art dealer, Hall (Kinnear), who befriends a homeless man (Djimon Hounsou) to save his marriage to his wife (Zellweger). Jon Voight takes the roll of Hall’s father with Holt as Regan, the daughter of Ron and Debbie Hall. Michael Carney will direct. He co-wrote the script with Alexander Foard and Hall. [The Wrap]