James Spader, Carla Gugino, Ryan Phillippe Join Cast of 'By Virtue Fall'

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James Spader, Carla Gugino, Ryan Phillippe, Treat Williams and Kim Coates have joined the cast of Sheldon Turner's By Virtue Fall. Eric Bana is already attached to play one of the two leads.

Turner, who most recently co-wrote the Oscar-nominated Up in the Air screenplay, has been working to pull together his directorial debut for months, with several lead actors, including Colin Farrell and Jeremy Renner, in various talks to take the other lead. While Farrell has moved on to Columbia's Total Recall remake, Renner is still a possibility, though his immediate schedule already contains Paramount's Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and Marvel Studios' The Avengers.

The Hurt Locker producer Voltage Pictures was once on board to finance By Virtue Fall, but now QED International (District 9, W.) looks to be handling foreign sales and putting up at least part of the money for production.

Turner's script tells the story of a pair of ATF agents who end up enemies after one frames the other for a crime. The writer-director is producing with Jennifer Klein.

Repped by WME and Lauren Bergman Management, Bana has an opening in his schedule after he finishes shooting the 2929 Entertainment crime thriller Blackbird.

The ICM-repped Spader has spent much of the last decade on TV, in The Practice and Boston Legal, though he appeared in the feature Shorts in 2009.

Repped by CAA and Untitled, Gugino most recently appeared in Sucker Punch, Faster and Elektra Luxx. She has the Fox comedy Mr. Popper's Penguins coming to theaters in June.

Repped by WME and the Schiff Co., Phillippe most recently appeared in The Lincoln Lawyer, The Bang Bang Club and MacGruber.

Williams, repped by APA and the Schiff Co., recently appeared in 127 Hours and Howl. He co-stars with Bana in Blackbird.

Repped by the Kohner Agency and OAZ, Coates recently appeared in Resident Evil: Afterlife, and he's a regular on the FX series Sons of Anarchy.

The L.A. Times' 24 Frames blog first broke much of the casting and financing details.