Casting Net: Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe to lead 'The Great Wall'

Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal and Willem Dafoe will star in the The Great Wall, a film set in 15th-century China which revolves around soldiers searching for gunpowder who come across the construction of the famous wall, and learn that its hurried construction isn’t just to keep out the Mongols, but mystical creatures as well. Chinese actors Andy Lau, Jing Tian, Zhang Hanyu, Eddie Peng, Lu Han, Lin Gengxin, Zheng Kai, Chen Xuedong, Huang Xuan and Wang Junkai will make up the rest of the cast. The film is set to be the largest film to ever shoot entirely in China for global distribution. [Variety]
James Bloor (The Total Princess) is in final negotiations to join Sam Strike in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel, Leatherface. The film is set to be a mystery about three teenage psychopaths, one of whom will grow up to be Leatherface. Bloor will play Ike, an emerging young maniac who, like Strike’s character, also grows up with the potential to wield the chainshaw. [The Wrap]
Tara Buck (True Blood) has joined Paul Reubens in Judd Apatow‘s Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday. The film is a revival of the Pee-Wee Herman franchise and will be released globally by Netflix. Production is now ramping up. [Deadline]

Tyler Labine (Deadbeat) will be starring opposite Kristen Bell in Melissa McCarthy‘s Michelle Darnell. He will play Claire’s (Bell) boyfriend Mike, who teams up with Claire and Michelle (McCarthy) to help them save their brownie business. [Deadline]
The Boy has rounded out its cast with Jim Norton (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), Diana Hardcastle (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Ben Robson (Vikings), Rupert Evans (Hellboy) and James Russell (Blue Bloods) set to join lead Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead). The film centers on a young American woman (Cohan) who, looking to escape her past, takes a job in a small English village as a nanny for a wealthy couple’s (Norton and Hardcastle) 8-year-old son while they are on vacation. But she quickly discovers that things are very off with this couple when she discovers that son is a porcelain doll who replaced their real son after he died. Robson will play Cole, Cohan’s character’s boyfriend, while Russell plays a character named James. Evans will play the grocery delivery man. [The Hollywood Reporter]

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