Casting bites: Colin Firth, Kevin Spacey

Here's your dose of casting updates for May 20, 2009:

• Colin Firth and Kevin Spacey are in talks to star in Hugh Hudson's big-screen adaptation of "Catalonia" by George Orwell. The story follows Orwell's journey to Barcelona, where he joined the Anarchist brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Bob Ellis wrote the script. (Variety)

• Camilla Belle ("Push") and Tom Wilkinson have joined the English remake of Susanne Bier's "Efter brylluppet" (After the Wedding). Michael Caton-Jones ("Shooting Dogs") will direct the flick, which centers on a social worker who works in a Mumbai orphanage and receives a mysterious but huge donation from a businessman. (Variety)

• Chris Pontius, whose credits include "Wildboyz" and "Jackass," is set to star in Sofia Coppola's upcoming "Somewhere," about an actor who lives an extravagant lifestyle at the Chateau Marmont until he gets an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter. Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning co-star. (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Vincent D'Onofrio, Vinnie Jones, Paul Sorvino, Fionnula Flanagan, Laura Ramsey, Steve Schirripa, Linda Cardellini and Bob Guntonhave boarded Jonathan Hensleigh's "The Irishman," a crime drama about Danny Greene, a notorious mobster. Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer co-star. (The Hollywood Reporter)