Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said: Lee Daniels (The Butler, TV's Empire) dropped out of directing a Richard Pryor biopic earlier this year, citing his increasingly packed schedule. Now his availability issues have been resolved and Daniels has returned to the director's chair, with production expected to begin early next year. Mike Epps will star as the famed and troubled comedian, alongside Oprah Winfrey as his grandmother and Kate Hudson as his widow. Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) wrote the script. [Variety]
Mary Poppins Returns: Emily Mortimer has joined the star-filled cast of Mary Poppins Returns. Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda are the headliners for the sequel, which takes place 25 years after the events in the original movie. Mortimer will portray the grown-up Jane Banks, one of the children in the 1964 original; Rob Marshall will direct. The movie is scheduled for release on December 25, 2018. [Variety]
The Beguiled: Young actress Angourie Rice, who more than held her own opposite Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in this year's The Nice Guys (above), will star in Sofia Coppola's version of The Beguiled. It's based on Thomas Cullinan's novel, which was first produced in 1971 with Clint Eastwood in the lead role of an injured Union soldier who charms women at a Confederate boarding school. Colin Farrell will play the soldier, with Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst already set to portray residents of the school. [THR]
The Take Trailer: In the first trailer for action-thriller The Take, a former CIA agent (Idris Elba) forcibly enlists the services of a pickpocket on an antiterrorist mission. Richard Madden and Kelly Reilly also star; the movie opens in theaters on November 18. [Movieclips]
