Casting Couch: Smith's a Fresh Pharaoh, Alba Gets Invisible, Sarandon Takes Leave

September 09 12:05:01 PM, Yahoo News

Casting Couch: Smith's a Fresh Pharaoh, Alba Gets Invisible, Sarandon Takes Leave(E! Online)

E! Online - Will Smith never struck us as a Bangles fan, but he is about to walk like an Egyptian.

The king of summer is trying his hand at being a god, signing on to star in The Last Pharaoh as a onetime ruler of Egypt.

According to Variety, Smith will play Taharqa in the long-gestating production, a pharaoh who was among the best military tacticians of his time who battled Assyrian invaders circa 677 B.C.

Not July 4, 677, mind you, but with Smith as star we can probably guess which way the battle lines will fall.

The film's battle scenes are shaping up to be ones for the history books—again—as Braveheart's epic scribe Randall Wallace is on board to pen the film, which will primarily center around the pharaoh's battles with Assyrian leader Esarhaddon.

Smith will produce the film through his own Overbrook Entertainment.

In other big casting developments:

  • Jessica Alba is making herself seen in An Invisible Sign of My Own, a modern-day fable that marks her first big screen job since the birth of her daughter Honor. According to Variety, the film centers on a young woman who withdraws from life into a world of math and numbers after becoming a second-grade math teacher. Shooting starts next month.   • Susan Sarandon and Richard Dreyfuss add more star power to Leaves of Grass, a comedic thriller written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson which already counts Ed Norton among the cast. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Keri Russell is also in negotiations to join the actor's pet project, which revolves around dissimilar twin brothers, who alternately teach philosophy at an Ivy League university and work as a small-town (and small-time) marijuana grower.   • Crime is paying for Val Kilmer. Per Variety, the actor has signed up to star in Fake Identity, a crime thriller centering on an American doctor working in Russia whose life is risked when he agrees to help a (no doubt comely) mystery woman flee from an assailant. Filming begins in Bulgaria later this month.   • There goes the Motherhood. Megan Mullally and Cheryl Hines have joined E!'s own late-night lady Chelsea Handler in the mom-centric ABC series In the Motherhood, which has received a 13-episode order in the wake of the online series' success. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the comedic duo will take over the parts played by Jenny McCarthy and Leah Remini in the internet run.   • Christmas is coming early for Muppets fans. Whoopi Goldberg, former Sopranos stars Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa, and Harry Potter's Richard Griffiths have agreed to spread the cheer and join Kermit, Miss Piggy and their cloth kin in Letters to Santa—A Muppets Christmas. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the NBC special takes place on Christmas Eve when the froggy one inadvertently detours kids' letters to Santa and races to get the info to Saint Nick in time to ensure a proper chimney drop.   • Starz is trying Tom Sizemore on for size. The actor has signed on to Crash as a recurring character, per the Hollywood Reporter, playing an unorthodox detective tasked with investigating a police shooting. The 13-episode cable series will be based on the Oscar-winning film, but feature a different cast of characters.

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