New casting and production info on “Me and Orson Welles”

More news from Variety (dated 31 January 2008) on Zac’s movie “Me and Orson Welles” today. Production as well as casting news…

Upfront the casting news: Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan, Leo Bill, Imogen Poots and Aidan McArdle. While I have to admit I’m not familiar with them, I’m still impressed with the casting of Zac’s co-stars. Looking at their IMDb pages – many of them are award-winning (stage) actors.

Claire Danes joins Linklater film

‘Me & Orson Welles’ stars Zac Efron

By ADAM DAWTREY

Claire Danes has joined Zac Efron in the cast of helmer Richard Linklater’s “Me & Orson Welles.”

CinemaNX, the new production venture backed by the Isle of Man film fund, is producing and financing the project, which starts shooting later this month in England, the Isle of Man and New York.

Adapted by Holly Gent Palmo and Vincent Palmo Jr. from Robert Kaplow’s novel, the movie is a coming-of-age romance set in the New York theater world of the 1930s.

Efron plays a teenage student who stumbles into a minor role in the Mercury Theater production of “Julius Caesar,” directed by the 22-year-old sensation Orson Welles (played by newcomer Christian McKay).

Ben Chaplin, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan, Leo Bill, Imogen Poots and Aidan McArdle round out the cast.

Marc Samuelson is producing for CinemaNX alongside Linklater and Ann Carli. Exec producers are Steve Christian of CinemaNX; John Sloss of Cinetic Media, who is handling North American sales; and Steve Norris of Framestore Features, which is co-financing the movie.

Odyssey Entertainment and Cinetic jointly handle international sales.

I’ve already started last night to put a post together on all the producers, financing and their connections but it’ll take me a while to finish that.. there are several links.

Update

Several other publications have also picked up the news in the meantime. It’s basically the same content, but I’ll post them here for completeness sake.

From the Hollywoodreporter (dated 1 February 2008):

New recruits sign on for ‘Orson Welles’

LONDON — Claire Danes, Eddie Marsan, Leo Bill and Imogen Poots have joined the cast of RIchard Linklater’s “Me and Orson Welles,” an adaptation of the period coming-of-age novel by Robert Kaplow.

They join Zac Efron and Ben Chaplin in the cast for the 1937-set movie, which centers on a high school student (Efron) who, while strolling the streets of New York, happens upon the yet-to-open Mercury Theatre and is noticed by its mercurial founder, Orson Welles.

He lands a bit part in “Julius Caesar,” the production that catapulted Welles to the top, and spends the next week learning about life and love.

Newcomer Christian McKay plays Welles, and Chaplin (“Water Horse: The Legend of the Deep”) has been cast as English film and stage actor George Coulouris.

The script was penned by Holly Gent Palmo, who worked on Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused,” and Vince Palmo, who is a long time collaborator with the director.

Ann Carli is producing the film, which is scheduled to shoot on the Isle of Man, London and New York beginning in February.

With backing from the Isle of Man Film Commission and Framestore Feature, the title is produced by Marc Samuelson (“Stormbreaker,” “Wilde”), Carli and Linklater with Steve Christian, John Sloss and Steve Norris taking executive producer roles.

Cinetic Media will handle domestic sales, and Cinetic Media and Odyssey Entertainment are jointly appointed to rep foreign sales on the project.

From ComingSoon.net (dated 30 January 2008):

Cast Rounded Out for Me & Orson Welles

Claire Danes, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan, Leo Bill, Imogen Poots and Aidan McArdle have joined Zac Efron, Christian McKay and Ben Chaplin in Me & Orson Welles, reports Variety.

Directed by Richard Linklater, the drama starts shooting in England, the Isle of Man and New York in late February.

Adapted by Holly Gent Palmo and Vincent Palmo Jr. from Robert Kap-low’s novel, the movie is a coming-of-age romance set in the New York theater world of the 1930s.

Efron plays a teenage student who stumbles into a minor role in the Mercury Theater production of “Julius Caesar,” directed by the 22-year-old sensation Orson Welles (McKay).

It’s also in a whole bunch of other publications which I’m not going to post here. However, not surprisingly they can’t even make a summary/re-write of a news items without introducing some stupidity. Since when is a movie automatically a romantic comedy only because he contains a storyline where a protagonist falls in love with a woman?!?! Admittedly I haven’t read the book yet but from all the summaries I’ve seen, this is not a romantic comedy and that is nowhere mentioned in the original articles either. But I guess that would require those “magazines/websites” to use their brain and/or do a 5-second research which I assume is too much to ask.