Grant Van-Gelder: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: After launching his Buddy Games franchise, Josh Duhamel has found his next project as he is set to direct and star in the comedy Preschool. The cast features also Michael Socha, Antonia Thomas, Charity Wakefield, Fenella Woolgar and James Cosmo. The script was written by Richard D’ovidio and is based on a story by Richard and Nicole D’ovidio. 

EXCLUSIVE: Tobias Menzies has joined the ensemble of Ruben Östlund’s next film The Entertainment System is Down. Sources say he replaces Joel Edgerton who had to part ways with the film due to scheduling conflicts. Menzies joins a cast that includes Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst, Nicholas Braun, Samantha Morton and Daniel Brühl. A24 is handling domestic distribution.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Guy Ritchie‘s upcoming series at Paramount+ with Showtime has added four new cast members. Variety has learned exclusively that Paddy Considine (“Houes of the Dragon,” “The Outsider”), Joanne Froggatt (“Downton Abbey,” “Liar”), Lara Pulver (“Da Vinci’s Demons,” “The Alienist”), and Anson Boon (“Pistol,” “1917”) have all been cast in series regular roles in the currently untitled drama. They will star alongside previously announced cast members Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren.

Nicholas Denton (Dangerous Liaisons, Glitch) has been cast as the lead in Anne Rice’s The Talamasca, the third series in AMC‘s Anne Rice Immortal Universe.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The “Blade Runner 2099” TV series at Amazon Prime Video is rounding out its cast. Previously announced series leads Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer will be joined in the sci-fi drama by: Dimitri Abold (“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”) and Lewis Gribben (“Somewhere Boy”), who will appear as series regulars, as well as Katelyn Rose Downey (“The Nun II”), Daniel Rigby (“Renegade Nell”), Johnny Harris (“A Gentleman In Moscow”), Amy Lennox (“Only Child”), Sheila Atim (“The Woman King”), and Matthew Needham (“House of the Dragon”) , who have been cast in recurring guest star roles. Exact plot and character details are being kept under wraps, though it is known the series will take place after the events of the original “Blade Runner” and the sequel, “Blade Runner 2049.” The show is currently in production in Prague, with plans to also shoot in Barcelona.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Death by Lighting,” Netflix’s upcoming series about the rise and eventual assassination of U.S. President James Garfield, is adding to its cast. Variety has learned that Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing,” “Get Out”) and Shea Whigham (“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Take Shelter”) have joined the show as series regulars.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Kurt Sutter‘s upcoming western series “The Abandons” is rounding out its cast. Variety has learned exclusively that Ryan Hurst, Michael Greyeyes, Michiel Huisman, and Toby Hemingway have all joined the Netflix series in recurring roles. Exact character details are being kept under wraps.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Kit Connor (Heartstopper) has been set to lead feature mystery-horror One Of Us, which will begin filming in Belfast, Northern Ireland later this month.

EXCLUSIVE: Joanne Froggatt is staying in business with MGM.

K.J. Yossman “Peaky Blinders” star Aimee-Ffion Edwards and “This is Going to Hurt’s” Kadiff Kirwan are set to join season 2 of Apple TV+’s “Slow Horses,” Variety can exclusively reveal.Although it has not yet been confirmed which parts Edwards and Kirwan will play, season 2 of the show about a group of MI5 no-hopers is understood to be based on “Dead Lions,” Mick Herron’s second book in the “Slow Horses” novels, which sees the addition of two new Slough House recruits: Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge.The logline for the “Dead Lion” novel reads: “As the agents dig into their fallen comrade’s circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient secrets that seems to lead back to a man named Alexander Popov, and a decades-old conspiracy with a brand-new target: London’s newest, tallest skyscraper…” As well as playing Esme Shelby opposite Cillian Murphy in “Peaky Blinders,” Edwards has appeared in “War of the Worlds,” “Blithe Spirit” and the “Four Weddings and a Funeral” television series.Kadiff, meanwhile, is best known for Netflix’s “The Stranger,” which also features Richard Armitage, and recently starred as Julian alongside Ben Whishaw in “This is Going to Hurt.” Apple hasn’t given any indication of when season 2 might drop but most of the Slough House gang from the first season – including Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Rosalind Eleazar, Dustin Demri-Burns, Saskia Reeves and Christopher Chung – are set to return as well as Kristin Scott Thomas and Freddie Fox as Slough House nemeses Diana Taverner and Spider Webb.Edwards is repped by Conway van Gelder Grant while Kadiff is repped by McEwan & Penford and Grandview.

New Line has cast the ensemble comedy The Parenting for HBO Max with a murderers’ row of TV stars including Succession‘s Brian Cox, The Sopranos’ Edie Falco, Friends star Lisa Kudrow and Breaking Bad‘s Dean Norris.

EXCLUSIVE: Longtime WME agent-turned-manager Brian DePersia has signed his first three clients under his new Cognition banner: Mahershala Ali, Caitriona Balfe and Tobias Menzies.