Ma Bell: Thirty-year-old Kristen Bell is all signed up for Dance of the Mirlitons, an indie comedy in which she’ll play the uppity mom of a young ballerina for whom she’ll stop at nothing to make a star. Evan Greenberg, who wrote the script, will direct, and he’s currently looking for an unknown to play the daughter. So — Kristen Bell: now old enough to play a stage mother. Who’ll play the grandma, Mila Kunis? [HR]
Midnight Gets a Saleem: With the chances of a Scott Pilgrim vs. the World sequel looking kinda bad, Satya Bhaba (who plays Ramona Flowers’ first evil boyfriend in that film) should have no scheduling conflicts for his next movie. He tells the Playlist he’s won the lead role in Deepa Mehta’s screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Chlidren. He’ll play Saleem Sinai, the story’s big-nosed telepath. (Sorry, Dev Patel.) [Playlist]
First Class Books Two: Rose Byrne is in negotiations to play sexy geneticist Moira MacTaggert in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. She’d be the love interest of Dr. Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). Also, some dude named Jason Flemyng (who had small parts in Kick-Ass and Clash of the Titans) will play Azazel, Nightcrawler’s dad. [HR, Coming Soon]
Three to Rough It: Tom Felton, Ving Rhames, and Henry Simmons have joined From the Rough, the fact-based story of a women’s swim coach (the previously cast Taraji P. Henson) tasked with rebuilding the men’s golf team. Simmons will play the school’s athletic director, Rhames a maintenance man, and Felton a golf-team member. [HR]
More Wipeout: ABC has ordered a fourth season of Wipeout owing to the show’s consistently strong ratings. We certainly hope you’re proud of yourselves. [HR]
More for Road: Steve Buscemi, Elisabeth Moss, Alice Braga, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, and Terrence Howard have all joined the cast of Walter Salles’ screen adaptation of On the Road in unspecified roles. Production is already underway in Montreal, so they’d better get up there quick. [Collider]