If you have been reading the trades then you know that Australian actor Joel Edgerton has for a long been connected to the untitled Osama Bin Laden film with Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal attached. Edgerton, who is best known for starring in the Warrior has made it official – he has signed on to star.

According to the trades, Edgerton has been the number one choice since as early as May; but he had some scheduling conflicts and dealings with an unfinished script. Since Edgerton bowed out of Warner Bros. sequel to 300 and the script is now done, he’s joined the Bin Laden film, which also includes Jason Clarke.

Bigelow will direct the film from Boal’s script. The story focuses on the Navy Seal team that tracked and eventually killed Osama Bin Laden. Boal and Bigelow are well-known for their Hurt Locker collaboration – winning the Oscar for best movie.

The film is scheduled to go into production in February with a release date set for December 19, 2012.

Several roles are still open for casting. One role involves a female reporter entrenched with the Navy Seal team. Variety reports that Rooney Mara had been a possible choice, but her The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo promotion schedule ended that bright idea.

The Aussie has made a name for himself with such films as Animal Kingdom and Warrior. His next big film is The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan.

Warrior is a MMA fan’s dream come true movie about two brothers face the fight of a lifetime – and the wreckage of their broken family – within the brutal, high-stakes world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting in Lions Gate’s action and drama.

An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, (Joel Edgerton) a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family after being suspended from his day job. Even though years have passed, recriminations and betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father.

But when Brendan’s unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.

On behalf of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Screenhead is pleased host the giveaway of critically acclaimed Animal Kingdom, which will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray Tuesday, January 18, 2011.

Animal Kingdom won 2010 Sundance World Cinema Jury Prize.

First time director David Michod brings us a riveting story of a teenager as he navigates his survival in the Melbourne underworld amongst an explosive criminal family and the detective who thinks he can save him.

Evil is relative in this chilling tale of betrayal and blood starring Guy Pearce, Ben Mendelsohn and Joel Edgerton. When his mother dies from an overdose, 17-year-old Josh Cody (James Frecheville) is taken in by his grandmother (Jacki Weaver) and uncles, the most notorious criminal gang in the city.

So when tensions between the Codys and a squad of renegade cops land him at the center of a cold-blooded murder plot, Josh is forced to choose between his treacherous family and the lawless police.  Animal Kingdom is being called a shattering thriller. 

The Disc sets offer:- Audio Commentary with Director David Michod

- The Making of Animal Kingdom
- Q&A with Director David Michod and Actors Jacki Weaver and James Frecheville 
- Animal Kingdom Soundtrack 

To enter Screenhead’s giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner January 27, 2011.

Two actors, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton, are all set to star in The Thing. Universal’s next version of the shape-shifting alien who terrorizes a group of people in a remote facility.

I loved the other two versions. The 1982 John Carpenter-Kurt Russell cult movie is the most popular of the two. The 1951 The Thing from another World was directed by Howard Hawks.

Each version takes inspiration from Jack W. Campbell, Jr. 1938 short story, “Who Goes There?” published in Astounding. 

Matthijs Van Heijningen is directing the next movie from a script by Ronald D. Moore and Eric Heisserer. 

Winstead will play a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. A trapped organism is freed from the ice. The thing begins a series of attacks.  Winstead is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Edgerton) to stop the rampage. 

Production is set to start March 15, 2010 in Toronto.