Casting Net: Meryl Streep joins women's-rights drama 'Suffragette'

• Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) is in talks to play political activist Emmeline Pankhurst in the upcoming women’s rights drama Suffragette, which also stars Inside Llewyn Davis‘ Cary Mulligan. Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane) will helm the drama about a woman named Maud (Mulligan) who becomes an instrumental figure to the early feminist movement. [The Wrap]

• Australian actor Jai Courtney (Divergent) is set to take on the role of Kyle Reese in Paramount and Skydance’s upcoming production of Terminator: Genesis. Plot details for the film have not been revealed, but Variety confirms that this is the first film in a standalone trilogy. The film also stars Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, Zero Dark Thirty‘s Jason Clarke, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been confirmed to reprise his iconic role as the Terminator. [Variety]

• Ben Kingsley (Schindler’s List) will star opposite Twilight‘s Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan (Kill Your Darlings) in the upcoming drama Life. Anton Corbijn (The American) will helm the film that chronicles the friendship between famed actor James Dean (DeHaan) and photographer Dennis Stock (Pattinson). [The Hollywood Reporter]

• Elodie Yung (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) has signed on to play the goddess Hathor in Summit Entertainment’s Gods of Egypt. The actress joins Gerard Butler (Olympus Has Fallen), Nokolaj Coster-Waldu (Game of Thrones), and Geoffrey Rush (The Book Thief) all of whom star in the upcoming drama about a thief and a god who team up to go on a magical quest in ancient Egypt. [Deadline]