Casting News: Jessica Chastain for "Iron Man 3", and Mel Gibson for "Machete Kills"

Normally, we don't discuss a whole lot of casting news on this site. Trust me, we love seeing our favorite actors jump into great looking roles for them, and are always excited when the movies we've been keeping tabs on finally announce their casts. But with so much constant in & out news, and so many films to pay attention to, it's generally too trivial to focus so much time on covering every bit of news. So a line has to be drawn.

That being said, with this post, I can tell you right where I draw that line - somewhere after these two for these types of movies.

Check out full details on these bits of casting after the break.

We'll start with the lovely Jessica Chastain. I'm quite convinced that everyone in America fell in love with her at some point last year. She picked all of the right films then, and here's hoping this is just another one in that line. Deadline is reporting that the actress is now in talks to join the already impressive cast for "Iron Man 3". The role calls for her as a Sexy Scientist, opposite Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Apparently she was offered the role much earlier but there was too much of a scheduling conflict to make it work. But with a couple movies being pushed back, it's cleared up some time, and now she should have time for the film.

Along with Chastian now presumably on board, the cast expands even more. Already we knew the core players from the last film would be back, and just last week we heard that Guy Pearce was in final negotiations to join the cast as well (glad this gave me a chance to notate this bit of news).

In other casting news, Mel Gibson is currently in talks to sign on as a supporting member for Robert Rodriguez' upcoming sequel, "Machete Kills". Deadline is reporting on this one as well, and notes that no official role has been revealed yet. So we'll have to wait and see what he'll be doing, but most are already speculating that it will be a government official or arms dealer of some sort. Either way, I think Gibson will be great in the film. Here's the quick synopsis:
The new film finds Machete recruited by the U.S. Government for a mission which would be impossible for any mortal man. Machete must battle his way through Mexico to take down a madman cartel leader and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war across the planet with a weapon in space. Machete takes on an army in an effort to dismantle a plan for global anarchy.
Look, I know Gibson has done some things that people aren't very happy about. The man's made some mistakes, but I genuinely believe that he's a good guy. And regardless, I'm able to pretty easily look past all of it because I don't know the guy personally (unfortunately) and really only care what he does in front of and behind the camera. I've long been a huge fan of Gibson and I think this will be an excellent next step for him. It's a fun, silly movie where he'll be able to get a little crazy and have some fun. I think it was a huge mistake a couple years back when the producers and Zach Galifianakis freaked out and kicked him out of the cast of "The Hangover 2". Ultimately, since the film sucked, it worked out pretty well for Gibson. But if he were in it, he would have been the best part of the film - and something I was excitedly looking forward to when I first heard news of it.

So anyway, what does everyone think of these two bits of casting news? I know I'm pretty excited for both, as both of the films already looked to provide a great deal of interest to me, regardless of these moves. This is just more icing on the cake!