The Box Office News for May 2 to May 6

Here is your lengthy box office news for the week of May 2 to 6:

Actors Dean O’Gorman (Xena: Warrior Princess) and Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies) have joined the cast of the upcoming two-part movie The Hobbit. O’Gorman will play Fili the Dwarf while Pace will play the Elven King Thrandruil. Meanwhile, actor Hugo Weaving will reprise his of Elrond in the film.

Actor Sam Claflin, who will be seen in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (which opens on May 20) is in negotiations to join the cast of the upcoming fairy tale film Snow White and the Huntsman. He will play the prince. In this version the Huntsman acts as a mentor and teaches Snow White (Kristen Stewart) to fight and survive when he spares her life after the evil Queen (Charlize Theron) orders her death. Meanwhile, actor Chris Hemsworth (Thor) is the front runner to star in Snow White and the Huntsman.

Actress Laura Vandervoort (Smallville and V) has joined the cast of the upcoming comedy film Ted. She will play Tayna, a gorgeous salesgirl and co-worker of John (Mark Wahlberg) at a rental car service who is clueless to the gaggle of men who drool over her all day.

Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) will play the mayor in Rock of Ages the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical. He will play the husband of an Anita Bryant-like advocate who wants to ban rock and roll to be played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Meanwhile, actress Malin Akerman will reportedly play Constance Stack, a journalist who is seduced by rocker Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise). Other cast members include Alec Baldwin, Mary J. Blige, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough and Diego Gonzalez Boneta. The film is expected to be released in 2012.

Hugh Dancy (Ella Enchanted and Adam) is to play the lead role in the psychological thriller called Spree that follows a handsome and affable young man whose last “fling” before his wedding nuptials spirals out of control.

Actor Sebastian Stan (Captain America and Kings) and Australian actor Socratis Otto (Home and Away) have joined the cast of the thriller called Gone that centers on a kidnap survivor who attempts to find the same kidnapper whom she believes has abducted her sister. Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer Carpenter and Wes Bentley co-star.

Actor Guy Pearce will appear in the sci-fi film Prometheus to be overseen by director Ridley Scott. His character has not yet been revealed. The rest of the cast includes Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Idris Elba. The film is to be released on June 8, 2012.

Actress Greta Gerwig (Arthur) is set to star in the romantic comedy Lola Versus that is about a woman (Gerwig) who is dumped just weeks before her wedding by her college sweetheart. She embarks on a series of encounters in an attempt to discover her place in the world as a single woman before she turns thirty. Orlando Bloom is in final negotiations to play her college sweetheart.

Actress Saoirse Ronan (Hanna and The Lovely Bones) has landed the lead role in the upcoming film Host based on the Stephanie Meyer novel. She will play Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans putting up a fight against an alien species called Souls. These parasites invade human bodies, fuse to each person’s consciousness and systematically erase their personalities. Melanie finds herself captured by the Souls and implanted by one called Wanderer, one of the more infamous of the species because she has attached herself to so many “hosts” before. Wanderer intends to use Melanie to give up the location of the remaining humans, but Melanie is relentless in her resistance to Wanderer and refuses to surrender her consciousness. In this struggle the alien apparently becomes overwhelmed by Melanie’s memories and emotions and ends up reconnecting with the girl’s old life.

Actress Rachel Weisz is in negotiations to star in the upcoming film Oz: The Great and Powerful, playing Evanorah, the Wicked Witch of the East and older sister to Theodorah (Mila Kunis), the Wicked Witch of the West. James Franco is already locked to play the title character in this story which explores the origins of the three witches and The Wizard.

Actress Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air and the Twilight franchise) and actor John Francis Daley (Bones) are in talks to join the post-apocalyptic comedy film called Rapture-Palooza that will be a comedic look at life in the fallout of a religious apocalypse. Craig Robinson (The Office) will also star.

Actors Clive Owen and Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire and 24) will star in the financial thriller called Cities that will interweave stories of a New York hedge fund manager, a young London couple looking to buy their first home and a Mumbai cop fighting corruption.

Actor Bokeem Woodbine (Devil) has landed a role in the remake of Total Recall that stars Colin Farrell. The story is an updated version of the original which follows Douglas Quaid, a man who believes he is a secret agent on a Martian colony. Woodbine will play Quaid’s best friend who is more like a big brother to him than anything.

Actor Bradley Cooper is reportedly interested in the role of Lucifer in the film adaptation of the John Milton epic 17th-centry poem Paradise Lost that tells the story of Lucifer’s fall from grace, his temptation of Adam and Eve, and the first couple’s subsequent banishment from the Garden of Eden. No official offer has yet to be made to Cooper, though.

Actors Josh Duhamel, Bruce Willis and rapper-actor Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson are expected to appear in the independent film called Fire With Fire that centers on a fireman in the witness protection program. When he’s threatened by the man he plans to testify against, he takes matters into his own hands to save his love.

Actress Dana Delany (Body of Proof) has joined the independent crime drama film called Freelancers that is to star Robert De Niro, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Beau Garrett in the story of the son of a murdered police officer who has succumbed to the “culture of corruption” that’s infected the force. Delany will play a woman from his past.

Actor Hugh Grant will provide his voice for the animated film The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists. He will voice a bearded Pirate Captain who travels far and wide in a quest to win the much coveted Pirate of the Year Award. Other cast members include Martin Freeman, Selma Hayek, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Brendan Gleeson, Brian Blessed and Ashley Jensen.

Actor Wes Bentley (American Beauty) has joined the cast of the adaptation of the Suzanne Collins novel The Hunger Games. He will play Seneca Crane, the “Head Gamemaker” of the 74th Hunger Games. Meanwhile, more newcomers have been added to the cast include Sam Ly, Leigha Hancock, Samuel Tan and Mackenzie Lintz who are set to portray the unnamed tributes from Districts 7 & 8 as well as Kara Petersen and Ashton Moio who will play the tributes from District 6.

Actor Nathan Lane and British has joined the cast of the upcoming film Snow White. He will play Brighton, a servant to the Queen.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tommy Lee Jones have joined the cast of the long-gestating biopic Lincoln from Steven Spielberg, joining the already cast Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field in this historical drama about our nation’s 16th president. Gordon-Levitt will play Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest son of Abraham (Day-Lewis) and Mary Todd Lincoln (Field), the only child of theirs to live past their teenage years. There are no specific details on Jones’ role.

Looks like actress Laura Linney (The Big C) is making a deal to play Eleanor Roosevelt opposite Bill Murray, who will play Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in the upcoming film Hyde Park on the Hudson. The story is set during a visit by King George VI to Hyde Park, the upstate New York home of the Roosevelts. The visit took place in 1939, as momentum toward WWII was building, and also as it was becoming clear that FDR was having an affair with his cousin Daisy.

Actor Joel Edgerton has signed on to play a special operative in the upcoming Kill Bin Laden to be directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film will center on an elite Black Ops team’s attempt to assassinate bin Laden almost a decade ago, an effort that came very close to succeeding.

Michael Kelly (Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior) has joined the cast of the sci-fi thriller film called Chronicle that revolves around three Portland teens who develop powers from exposure to a mysterious substance. Kelly will play the father of one of the teens.

Actor David Boreanaz (Bones) will star in the independent film called Officer Down that is to tell the story of a doctor and security guard whose dreams consist of what each other did during the day. They meet when the security guard murders his wife, is then hit by a car and brought into the doctor’s emergency room. Boreanaz will play a humorless and ambitious rival detective to another cop played by Stephen Dorff. The cast also includes Dominic Purcell, Stephen Lang, James Woods and AnnaLynne McCord. Also, actor Walton Goggins (Justified) has been cast as the prime suspect in the sexual assault of a young woman, a case being investigated by Dorff’s character.