Movie News Wrap Up: ‘Nottingham & Hood’, ‘Ben-Hur’ & More

[RoadWarrior]

Amber Heard joins The Danish Girl; Ben-Hur casts its female lead; Jane Got a Gun is delayed again; an Obama date movie is in the works; and Disney plans a Robin Hood franchise.

Amber Heard is in talks to join Les Miserables director Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl.

Although nothing is official, Deadline reports that Heard is up for the part of Oola, which is described as a “strong supporting role.” Heard just finished shooting a leading role in Magic Mike XXL with Channing Tatum.

The Danish Girl adapts the novel of the same name by David Ebershoff about Danish painters Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander). Beyond being a successful painter, though, Einar gained fame for being one of the first reported cases of sexual reassignment surgery.

Homeland star Nazanin Boniadi has been cast as the female lead in Ben-Hur.

Boniadi was the winner of a “heated competition,” and will now feature as Esther in the forthcoming reboot. Some will remember this as the same role Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot was in the running for until she had to drop out.

Esther is a pivotal character in the Ben-Hur novel, from which much of this reboot will draw inspiration. She meets Judah Ben-Hur while he is enslaved and eventually becomes his wife. With Boniadi and Boardwalk Empire star Jack Huston now on-board as the film’s leads, it appears the Timur Bekmambetov-directed film is ready to shoot.

Natalie Portman’s western Jane Got a Gun has been delayed yet again.

The film was originally slated to release on February 20th but has now been pushed to September 4th. The first weekend after summer is hardly an ideal release date, even with the Labor Day holiday, so some may say Relativity is looking to dump the film off and see if it finds some success.

There isn’t much more to say about the film, whose production struggles have been widely publicized. After losing directors and actors left and right, things eventually got on track. We’ll just have to wait a bit longer to see how everything came together.

A Barack and Michelle Obama date movie is in the works.

Southside With You tells the story of Barack and Michelle’s first date, which they describe as a magical day in Chicago. The date is said to include a visit to the Chicago Art Institute and a viewing of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, among other things.

While Barack Obama has yet to be cast, Tika Sumpter (Get On Up) is already set to player the future First Lady. Director Richard Tanne is also on-board to helm the indie flick, based on his own script.

Disney is set to give Robin Hood the Pirates of the Caribbean treatment with Nottingham & Hood.

The studio has just acquired the spec script from writer Brandon Baker and is reportedly looking to use the film as a launch pad for a new adventure franchise. It’s still early, though, so no cast or director has been announced.

Nottingham & Hood is the second Robin Hood reboot/reimagining in the works; the other being Sony’s proposed Robin Hood cinematic universe. However, after the rather lukewarm reception for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood (2010), some might be wondering what these studios see in the character, but there’s no denying his story fits the blockbuster mold.