'Tetro' Actor Tapped as Replacement for 'Beautiful Creatures' Role

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Alden Ehrenreich

Just weeks before production was due to begin, Alcon has tapped Alden Ehrenreich to replace Jack O’Connell in Beautiful Creatures, the company’s adaptation of the first book from the popular series written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Richard LaGravenese wrote the adaptation and is directing.

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O’Connell, a British actor who appeared in Skins, was to have played the character of Ethan Wate but according to Alcon stepped aside “due to scheduling conflicts.”

Ehrenreich, who starred in Franic Ford Coppola’s 2009 movie Tetro, will play one of two high school teens, star-crossed lovers, who must confront a curses and dark secrets that has haunted their families for generations. The story is set in the South.

Ehrenreich now joins a cast that includes Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, Emmy Rossum, Alice Anglert and Thomas Mann among others.

Alcon’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove are producing with Erwin Stoff.

Shooting is due to begin later this month in New Orleans.

Ehrenreich, repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment, will appear in Stoker, a Fox Searchlight drama with Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman.