Kate Winselt will star in Jason Reitman's next film!

Entertainment Weekly has the story:

Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin have committed to star as a lost, lonesome mother and an escaped convicted murderer who takes refuge with her and her young son in Jason Reitman’s adaptation of Labor Day, EW has learned.

The drama, which is part love story, part coming-of-age tale, and part thriller, has been adapted from the 2009 novel by Joyce Maynard by Reitman. The movie will shoot in 2012 in New England.

Both actors are repped by CAA, and Indian Paintbrush is producing.

The same year Maynard’s novel was released, the Thank You For Smoking and Juno director earned Oscar nominations for directing, producing and adapting the screenplay for Best Picture contender Up in the Air. The year before, Winslet earned a Best Actress Oscar for The Reader (after five previous nominations) while Brolin was a Best Supporting Actor contender for Milk.

This is the first time the trio is working together. Set in the early ’80s over the late summer holiday weekend, Labor Day opens with divorced, depressed single mom Adele clothes shopping with her 13-year-old son, Henry. They encounter a large, fearsome man — who also happens to be bleeding badly. He asks for a ride, and against all judgment, they give him one.

Are they hostages, accomplices… or just deluded? As police search town for the escaped convict, the mother and son gradually learn his true story and their options become more and more limited.

-Joey's Two Cents: So far, Reitman hasn't let me down yet, and seems to be improving with every outing, so I'm looking forward to this...thoughts?

Anthony Mackie is joining Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, and Josh Brolin in Gangster Squad!

indieWIRE has the story:

God damn if Ruben Fleischer doesn’t keep finding new ways to makes us excited about “Gangster Squad.” The “Zombieland” director is moving into more serious territory with Warner Brothers’ big-budget period actioner, and has assembled a mouth-watering cast of awards bait, with Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and “Crash” star Michael Peña all confirmed for the film, written by ex-cop Will Beall, based on a series of L.A. Times articles about an L.A.P.D unit in the 1940s.

Now, one other name thought to be circling the project is officially locked in, with Variety reporting that fast-rising actor Anthony Mackie, last seen in “The Adjustment Bureau,” has now signed on to join Penn, Brolin, Gosling and Peña. The actor was rumored to be being courted for the film six weeks back, but it looks like things are now official: the actor will play an ex-cop, Rocky Washington, ‘the Sheriff of Central Avenue,’ the first black lieutenant in the LAPD who went back to be a beat cop, only to be recruited by Gosling and Brolin’s characters for their elite unite, which aims to take down legendary mobster Mickey Cohen (Penn).

Mackie’s been on the up ever since his scorching performance in Kathryn Bigelow‘s Oscar-winning film: He might have lost out to ‘Hurt Locker’ co-star Jeremy Renner for the lead in “The Bourne Legacy,” but he’ll appear later in the year in the Anna Faris comedy “What’s Your Number” and the Hugh Jackman robot boxing flick “Real Steel,” while next year will bring high profile supporting gigs in the Sam Worthington vehicle “Man on a Ledge” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”

What’s unclear is what signing on to “Gangster Squad” means for his involvement in the Brad Pitt starrer “World War Z”—it was reported at the same time as his involvement in Fleischer’s film that he was also mulling an offer for the zombie epic. That film starts shooting shortly, while “Gangster Squad” doesn’t roll til September, so it’s conceivable that they he could do both, if the scheduling works out.

Either way, his presence in “Gangster Squad” can only be a boon for a film that’s already got one of the most promising casts of 2013, a director on the rise and a much-acclaimed script. Considering the success of similarly themed video game “L.A. Noire,” Warners must be clearing space for all the money they’re going to make on this one, and fingers crossed, some critical plaudits as well.

-Joey's Two Cents: This could actually be slowly morphing into a prestige film for the WB...thoughts?