Casting round-up with tidbits on Monica Belliucci, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Rebecca Hall, and Stephen Root

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

– Monica Bellucci will be starring in Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s RHINOS SEASON, his follow-up to the arthouse hit NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS. The film is a “political” one, says Bellucci, spanning from before the revolution in Iran to the present. She adds that it’s also “a great love story.” The beautiful Italian actress will play an Iranian woman in the film which is expected to begin shooting in Turkey next month. [Via Variety]

– Jude Law has been cast in CITY OF GOD director Fernando Meirelles’ relationship drama 360. He joins the previously announced Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins, and Ben Foster, as well as Jarnel Debouze, Karl Markovic, Maria Flor, and Juliano Cazarre. The film – from a script by prolific scribe Peter Morgan – is inspired by the play “Reigen” from Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzler and explores “sexual morals within and between social classes, using various pairs of characters who have sexual encounters in and outside of their social classes.” [Via The Playlist]

– Stephen Root, character actor extraordinaire, has been cast in Clint Eastwood’s J. EDGAR. He will play Arthur Koehler, “an introverted man and wood specialist who helps J. Edgar Hoover piece together the mystery of the Lindbergh kidnapping case through an examination of the ladder used by the abductor.” [Via Variety]

– Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, and Rebecca Hall are being considered to play the swapped wives of former Yankee ballplayers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson in THE TRADE. The film would see the reunion of boyfriends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (with Damon at one point rumored to direct the film) playing the roles of Peterson and Kekich respectively. The two ballplayers stunned the country when they disclosed in 1973 that they were trading wives. [Via New York Post]