Casting News for “Me and Orson Welles”

January 31, 2008   •   Entertainment, Film Gecko, News

image Claire Danes (pictured), 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, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

The stellar cast joins Zac Efron and Ben Chaplin in 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 founder, Orson Welles.

He lands a bit part in “Julius Caesar,” the production that catapulted Welles to fame, 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. The movie is scheduled for a 2009 release.

I’ve appreciated Linklater’s work as director of “School of Rock” and “Fast Food Nation.” And is Zac Efron headed for super-stardom or what?

I’ll definitely be checking out this movie.

Image: Mandalay Entertainment

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