Woody Allen Sets Cast for Next Film, Prometheus Gets a Mostly Positive Reception: Biz Break

Also in Monday afternoon's news round up, Outfest unveils its 30th anniversary lineup, Ashley Tisdale joins the next Scary Movie, Cannes and Sundance winner Beasts of the Southern Wild is set to open Stateside film festival, Matt Dillon and Brendan Fraser are among the cast set for a new dark comedy, Christina Ricci will join Susan Sarandon in an upcoming project and Christopher Nolan says good bye to Howard Hughes pic.

Woody Allen Sets Cast for Untitled Project
The director named his cast in alphabetical order Monday for his next film which will shoot in New York and San Francisco this summer. Joining the cast are: Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Michael Emerson, Sally Hawkins and Peter Sarsgaard. Co-stars include Max Casella and Alden Ehrenreich. It is a Gravier Productions film produced by Allen’s long time producers, Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum. This will be Allen's second film in San Francisco following his 1969 debut Take the Money and Run.

Outfest Unveils 30th Anniversary Roster
Director John Waters will be feted at the event, which will open with HBO documentary Vito on July 12th. The oldest festival in Los Angeles and one of the largest LGBT film events in the U.S., Outfest will screen 147 films from 24 countries. The festival will close with Struck by Lightning starring Glee star Chris Colfer who wrote the script. Other galas include Keep the Lights On, sexually charged Young & Wild, ACT UP doc How to Survive a Plague and Mosquito Y Mari which will screen as the fest's Centerpiece. For more info on the Outfest lineup, visit their website.

Ashley Tisdale to Star in Scary Movie 5
Ashley Tisdale has been cast as one of the leads in Dimension Films' Scary Movie 5, the latest installment in the franchise.  Scary Movie 5 production will begin this summer. Tisdale played Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical franchise. The Scary Movie franchise has made over $800 million worldwide.

Beasts of the Southern Wild to Open 16th American Black Film Festival
The Sundance and Cannes winner will bow the event taking place June 20 - 23 in Miami, Florida. Raising Izzie, which was the winner of the 2011 GMC Faith and Family Screenplay Competition, will close out the festival on Saturday, June 23. Beasts is set in a "forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee where a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality," according to the event.

Zarafa and Rabbi's Cat Head to GKids
U.S. rights to Zarafa which debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year as well as The Rabbi's Cat have been picked up by GKids. The Rabbi's Cat won the French Cesar Award for best animated feature in February.

Around the 'net...

Prometheus Arrives to 'Mixed Atmospheric Readings'
"The 87% 'fresh' audience rating on rottentomatoes.com makes it one of the year's best-received saturation-release films, and yet there's a thread of uncertainty running through even the most gushing of reviews, a sense that Scott has produced an epic entertainment without actually delivering a particularly 'good' film," writes The Guardian.

Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser Board Pawn Shop Chronicles
Also joining the cast of the project directed by Wayne Kramer are Elijah Wood, Vincent D'Onofrio, Pell James, Thomas Jane, Lukas Haas, Chi McBride, Ashlee Simpson, Kevin Rankin, DJ Qualls, Michael Cudlitz and Norman Reedus. The dark comedy centers on a man searching for his abducted wife, Deadline reports.

Christina Ricci Joins Mother's Day
She will join Susan Sarandon and her real life daughter Eva Amurri Martino in the drama. Directed by Paul Duddridge, the film revolves around the relationships between a dozen mothers and daughters, Deadline reports.

Christopher Nolan's Howard Hughes Pic is Dead
The director said the project is now gone in the latest issue of Empire Magazine, via The Playlist. "Luckily I managed to find another wealthy, quirky character who's orphaned at a young age," the director said referring to his next film which will hit theaters this summer, The Dark Knight Rises.