Casting Net: Julianne Nicholson to play Ethan Hawke's ex-wife

• Julianne Nicholson (August: Osage County) and Emily Mortimer (The Newsroom) have joined the coming-of-age pic Ten Thousand Saints, set in the ’80s in New York City’s Lower East Side. American Splendor directing team Bob Pulcini and Shari Berman have assembled a fairly big cast for the project including Ethan Hawke, Emile Hirsch, and Ender’s Game co-stars Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld. Mortimer will be playing Hawke’s girlfriend and Steinfeld’s mother, while Nicholson has been cast as Hawke’s ex-wife and mother of Butterfield. [THR]

• Albert Brooks,who recently appeared in This Is 40, will play Oscar Isaac’s (Inside Llewyn Davis) attorney in J.C. Chandor‘s (All Is Lost) A Most Violent Year. Co-starring Jessica Chastain, the Chandor-scripted pic is set in 1981 New York City and follows an immigrant family trying to survive amidst run-ins with the criminal underground. Isaac and Brooks both appeared in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. [Deadline]

• Crazy, Stupid, Love. standout Analeigh Tipton is set to join Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn, and Sienna Miller in Mississippi Grind. The America’s Next Top Model alum will play Miller’s roommate Vanessa in the Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden-directed gambling drama about a drifter (Reynolds) and a poker player (Mendelsohn) traveling through the south. [The Wrap]

• Anna Karenina star Alicia Vikander is in talks to join the Godfather-like thriller Alina in the lead role. Björne Larson is directing. [Screen Daily]