Casting : Janssen, Biel, Newton, Harden, Breslin, Findlay

“X-Men” star Famke Janssen and Bill Skarsgard will star in Eli Roth’s new series, debuting on Netflix in early 2013. “Hemlock Grove” starts with the body of a young girl, mangled and murdered in the shadow of the former Godfrey steel mill. Some suspect an escapee from the White Tower, a biotech facility owned by the former steel magnates. Others believe the killer could be Peter, a 17-year-old Gypsy kid from the wrong side of the tracks, who tells his classmates he’s a werewolf. Or it could be Roman (Skarsgard), the arrogant Godfrey scion, whose sister Shelley is disturbingly deformed and whose mother, Olivia (Janssen), the otherworldly beautiful and controlling grand dame of Hemlock Grove. As the crime goes unsolved and outlandish rumors mount, Peter and Roman decide to find the killer themselves, confronting unspeakable truths about themselves and Hemlock Grove as the mystery unfolds.”

Jessica Biel (“Blade Trinity”) has joined the cast of director Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock biopic, largely surrounding the making of the filmmaker’s most popular movies. Biel will play the role of Vera Miles, who played Lila Crane in the 1960 classic. (Deadline)

Thandie Newton will star in DirecTV’s new 10-episode drama series about “an undercover cop (Newton) who takes on a gangster after her young son is killed in a drive-by shooting.” (Deadline)

Marcia Gay Harden (“Mystic River”) will star in Dylan Kidd’s latest, which “involves four recent college grads hitting the job market for the first time. Harden will play a demanding vice president at an executive-placement firm.” The cast also includes Bryan Cranston and Anna Kendrick. (THR)

Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) is joining Halle Berry for the dark thriller. Brad Anderson directs the film, set against the backdrop of a 911 call center, which “finds Berry playing an emergency operator who must face her own fears in order to save a teenage girl (Breslin) from a disturbed killer.” (Variety)

Jessica Brown Findlay is set to star in Akiva Goldmsan’s “Winter’s Tale”, the story of “Peter Lake, a turn-of-the-century Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young heiress whom he encounters in robbing her house, and who eventually will die young and in his arms. His love for her, and a gift of grace, will allow him after the most extraordinary and painful explorations and discoveries to stop time and bring back the dead. To follow him, his predecessors, his inheritors, and his companions is to experience one of the great stories of American literature.” “Downtown Abbey” star Findlay plays Penn. (Deadline)