Casting Net: Jack Nicholson may reunite with Tom Cruise for a comedy

• Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman are reportedly courting Jack Nicholson for the Warner Bros. comedy El Presidente, about a by-the-books secret service agent assigned to protect “America’s worst former President” who boozes and womanizes with abandon. Nicholson would play the part of the President, a VP who assumed the Commander-in-Chief’s job after the President died. According to the report, the project has been in development since 2010 — originally with Jay Roach in the director’s chair. Nicholson and Cruise appeared together previously in 1992’s A Few Good Men, which earned Nicholson a Best Supporting Actor nomination. The three-time Oscar winner has not appeared in a movie since 2010’s How Do You Know. [THR]

• Tomorrow People’s Nick Eversman has been cast as a young Mick Jagger in the James Brown biopic Get On Up, starring 42’s Chadwick Boseman. The Help’s Tate Taylor is directing the Mick Jagger-produced film. [THR]

• Lake Bell (In A World…) will star opposite Simon Pegg (The World’s End) in the romantic comedy Man Up. The 2011 Black List script (written by Tess Morris) centers on Bell’s character Nancy and what happens when Pegg’s character mistakes her for his blind date. Ben Palmer (The Inbetweeners) is set to direct. Bell is starring opposite Jon Hamm in Disney’s Million Dollar Arm (out May 16, 2014) and is currently filming the thriller The Coup with Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan. [Deadline]

• Ender’s Game star Asa Butterfield is in talks to go head to head with Clive Owen (Children of Men) in the comedy King of the Kastle. Writers Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka will direct the movie which also stars Silver Linings Playbook‘s Jacki Weaver. [Variety]

• Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), William H. Macy (Shameless), Mike Epps (The Hangover), John Leguizamo (Kick-Ass 2), Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond the Pines), and Paul Sparks (Mud) are all starring in Stealing Cars — an ensemble drama about the ripple effects of a tragic car accident. Documentary filmmaker Bradley Kaplan (The Love We Make) is making his feature debut on the project, which Mark Wahlberg is executive producing with Steve Levinson.

• Annabeth Gish (The Bridge) will join Kate Bosworth (Big Sur) and Thomas Jane (Hung) in the thriller Somnia, about an orphan whose dreams become reality when he sleeps. Oculus helmer Mike Flanagan is directing. [Deadline]

• Leigh Whannell, a co-creator of Saw and Insidious, has signed on to act in the thriller Home Invasion, opposite Chandler Riggs and Bella Thorne. [THR]

• Rachel Boston, who appeared in (500) Days of Summer, will star in and produce the indie romantic comedy A Ring By Spring about a woman whose psychic tells her she’ll be engaged by the spring. [THR]

PREVIOUSLY: Yes, Virginia, R2-D2 will be in ‘Star Wars Episode VII’