Mark Strong, Brian Cox, and Taissa Farmiga have joined the cast of Mindscape, the feature directorial debut of Spanish filmmaker Jorge Dorado, according to Deadline. Shooting has just gotten underway on the sci-fi flick.

The movie is about a man who has the unique ability to enter a person’s mind. He examines a young girl to determine if she is a highly intellectual sociopath, or just a misguided teenager. No character details were given for any of the new cast members, although it would make sense for Farmiga to be the teenager and Strong to be the man who can enter people’s minds.

Guy Holmes and Martha Holmes wrote the screenplay, with Jaume Collet-Serra, Juan Sola and Peter Safran producing. Jorge Dorado is best known for directing a segment of the 2007 anthology Limonchello, and his 2005 short La Guerra.

Dexter Fletcher got major kudos earlier this year for his directorial debut, Wild Bill, and now he’s plotting his follow-up, a western called Provenance, with BBC Films throwing its financial backing behind the production.

Now The Guardian reports that Mark Strong has come on board, as has Sammy Williams, the kid in Wild Bill who also featured in Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block. Apparently other of Fletcher’s old cohorts, such as Jason Flemyng, may also sign up, but nobody else it confirmed as of yet.

The movie will be about Londoners seeking their fortune in the frontier towns of the American west.

“I’ve always loved westerns but have never been able to be in one,” Dexter commented. “I tried to work a lot western ideas into Wild Bill and I feel really lucky to be able to actually get to make one of my own, in real western country.”

After Osama Bin Laden was killed, it appeared Kathryn Bigelow would be going into production incredibly quickly on a movie about the Navy SEAL team who tracked him down. However the film is still to start shooting, and has become a bit of a political football, with some accusing President Obama of giving Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal too much access to the covert mission.

However things are moving forward, with the latest news being that Deadline report Friday Night Lights and Super 8 Kyle Chandler has signed up to play a CIA agent in the drama (although his role is yet to be confirmed). Chandler joins a cast which includes Jason Clarke, Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong, and Édgar Ramírez.

It isn’t known when production will begin on the movie, although it can’t be too long now! It’s also uncertain when it’ll get a name.

The pic above is the first we’ve seen from the new Brit thriller, Welcome To the Punch, which follows in the long line of UK-based gangster movies. It’s an action thriller about a London detective (James McAvoy) and an ex-criminal (Mark Strong) who’s forced to return from his Icelandic hideaway. They become unlikely allies in a bid to expose a high-level conspiracy. The cast also includes Andrea Riseborough and Peter Mullan.

The second movie from BAFTA nominated Colin Creevy, Welcome To The Punch is due out on September 7th. If all the film is as stylish as the pic above, it’ll be one to watch out for. On the script Creevy comments, “We wanted to be as ambitious as possible. People are held back by a budget and a concept sometimes, but I knew that if I made it good enough it wouldn’t matter.” And it might well be good as the script placed third on the 2010 Brit List (the UK version of the Black List of the best unproduced screenplays).

The image comes via ScreenDaily which also has an interesting article about the making of the movie, which is worth a read is you’re interested in young filmmakers shooting for the stars.