Clooney assembles monumental MONUMENTS MEN cast

Deadline nearly blew up the Internet yesterday with its exclusive scoop on the cast George Clooney has wrangled so far for his next directorial effort, a WWII movie called THE MONUMENTS MEN.

Current (and my favorite) 007 Daniel Craig, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU ship/cast mates Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin (who flapped his arms to an Academy Award for THE ARTIST), John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville, and Bob Balaban are all up to bat for a March 1 production start in Europe.

From Mike Fleming’s article:

The drama, which was scripted by Clooney and partner Grant Heslov, confronts the final chapter of Germany’s rule, which came down to the absolute destruction of everything that makes a culture keep its standing, including the lives that are lost and the sacrifices that are made. All of this is in danger of being lost forever as Hitler and the Nazis try to cover the tracks of a murderous regime. A crew of art historians and museum curators unites to recover renown works of art that were stolen by Nazis before Hitler destroys them.

Even without that cast, it’s an original idea I’d love to see. Definitely looking forward to this.

I’m going to pretend Clooney got Bill Murray’s number from their mutual FANTASTIC MR. FOX boss Wes Anderson. And I may not even have to pretend, because that’s probably what happened.

Sterling K. Brown’s number is up on PERSON OF INTEREST

The same Deadline article that gave us our previous headline is working overtime today, having also revealed that Sterling K. Brown has signed on for several episodes of the excellent CBS series PERSON OF INTEREST.

I’ve never seen any of Mr. Brown’s work, but you can check out his film and television credits here. His character, Cal Beecher, is a “no-nonsense narcotics detective” and potential romantic interest for Taraji P. Henson’s equally nonsense-free Detective Joss Carter.

I’m loving the deeper team dynamics on the series this season, and someday soon I’ll post short reviews of the four awesome episodes that have aired so far. It’s one of the best shows around, with lots of courage, heart, muscle, morality, and a central premise bordering on science fiction, created by Jonathan Nolan (who helped propel his brother Christopher’s Batman films to box office billions) and including none other than J.J. Abrams among its executive producers. Please check it out Thursdays at 9 on CBS!

Mazzello joins JUSTIFIED as Harlan’s new holy man

Deadline exclusively reported this morning that Joseph Mazzello (IMDb), who’s worked consistently in film and television since the early ’90s (including playing little Tim Murphy in JURASSIC PARK), has joined JUSTIFIED’s fourth season as Preacher Billy, a holy man whose dedication to “saving” drug addicts may be riddled with the kinds of ulterior motives that tend to happen in Harlan County.

For more about the upcoming season, including information on other new characters who’ve yet to be cast, click here to read other recent coverage! JUSTIFIED returns in January.