Chris Messina in talks to join Ben Affleck's Live By Night

Chris Messina is in negotiations to join writer, director, and star Ben Affleck‘s Prohibition-era drama Live By Night. Based on the Dennis LeHane novel, the film will tell the story of a Boston police captain’s son (Affleck) who rises through the ranks of the criminal underworld. Messina, who previously worked with Affleck on Argo, would play his best friend and partner in crime. Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller, and Zoe Saldana are also in negotiations to co-star. Warner Bros. has slated the movie for 2017. [Variety]
Bryce Dallas Howard, the high-heeled heroine of Jurassic World, has landed the female lead opposite Matthew McConaughey in the mining drama Gold, which is currently in production. Directed by Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) from a script by Patrick Massett and John Zinman, the film follows a modern-day prospector (McConaughey) who teams up with a geologist (Edgar Ramirez) to find gold in the Indonesian jungle. Howard will play Kay, the long-suffering girlfriend of McConaughey’s character, in the TWC-Dimension movie.

The man from The Man From UNCLE, Armie Hammer, is boarding Nocturnal Animals, the next big-screen project from fashion designer turned filmmaker Tom Ford. It’s an adaptation of Tony and Susan, Austen Wright‘s metafictional novel about a woman asked to read her ex-husband’s new book — and about the story within. Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kim Basinger, and Aaron Taylor Johnson are also starring in the Focus Features film, set to shoot in the fall. [Deadline]
Ryan Simpkins is shacking up in The House, New Line’s comedy starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler as a suburban married couple who blow their daughter’s college fund and then start an underground casino to earn back the money. Simpkins (A Single Man, Revolutionary Road) will play the daughter. The House is written by Neighbors scribes Brendan O’Brien and Andrew J. Cohen, and Cohen will direct. [Deadline]