In brief: Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun join Ben Affleck-directed ‘Animals’ and more

Kerry Washington and Steven Yeun are joining Ben Affleck and Gillian Anderson in Animals, a new thriller film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Affleck will direct the film for Netflix, with shooting slated to begin in LA in April. Its story follows a mayoral candidate, played by Affleck, and his wife, played by Washington, whose son is kidnapped, leaving them no choice but to get their hands dirty to save him. Yeun will play the political campaign manager while Anderson will play a fixer …

Miles Teller and Casey Affleck are teaming up for a new thriller from director Jason Hall. Variety reports that the movie, called Wild Game, comes from a script adapted by Hall from the bestselling book of the same name by Frank Bergon. It’s based on true events, and follows a Fish and Game officer, played by Affleck, who joins a routine poacher arrest where he has a deadly encounter with a man named Claude Dallas, played by Teller …

Hannah Cruz has joined Richard Linklater‘s adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along. Deadline first reported that the actress will play Gussie, the wife of Paul Mescal‘s Franklin Shepard, in the musical film. Linklater is shooting the film over the span of 20 years, similar to how he made the Oscar-nominated film Boyhood, which he shot over the course of 12 years. Ben Platt, Beanie Feldstein and Mallory Bechtel also star in the movie-musical …