Casting Net: Angela Bassett, Aaron Eckhart join 'Olympus Has Fallen.' Plus: Derek Luke, Ron Livingston, Kristen Schaal

• Angela Bassett and Aaron Eckhart have joined Olympus Has Fallen, a thriller from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) starring Gerard Butler as a Secret Service agent who must save the president (Eckhart) after the White House is overrun by North Korean terrorists. Bassett will play the head of the Secret Service. If this plot sounds familiar, it is — another thriller, White House Down, has practically the same premise, with Channing Tatum as the Secret Service agent, Jamie Foxx as the president, and Roland Emmerich directing. [Variety, Variety]

• Derek Luke (Captain America: The First Avenger) will costar with Paula Patton in Baggage Claim, about a flight attendant (Patton) who goes on a month-long search for a potential husband. Director David Talbert (First Sunday) also adapted the screenplay from his novel. [Variety]

• Ron Livingston has signed onto The Pretty One, about a girl (Zoe Kazan) mistaken for her “perfect” identical twin — who happens to be dead. Jake Johnson (Fox’s New Girl) costars; first-time feature director Jenée LaMarque also penned the screenplay. [Deadline]

• Boardwalk Empire‘s Michael Kenneth Williams will play a rebellious slave in Twelve Years a Slave, the pre-Civil War drama starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (Salt) as a free man who is kidnapped into slavery. Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, and Paul Dano costar in the project, co-written by John Ridely (Red Tails) and Steve McQueen (Shame), and directed by McQueen. [Deadline]

• Kristen Schaal (NBC’s 30 Rock) will voice an orangutan in Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers, the sequel to the 2009 underrated animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Anna Faris, Bill Hader, and Andy Samberg will also reprise their roles in the film, which explores the fallout from the events of the first film, i.e. the rise of self-aware creatures made of food. Sounds delicious! Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn will direct. [THR]