The movie ‘Beautiful Creatures’ seems to be moving forward at full speed with each day bringing new news of casting developments. Yesterday, Alcon Entertainment announced in a press release that two time Oscar winner Emma Thompson will be joining the cast.

Thompson will be playing dual roles: Mrs. Lincoln, who is a small town religious firebrand and Sarafine, the dark witch who possesses her.

She joins Jack O’Connell, Alice Englert and Viola Davis in the “hauntingly intense coming of age story set in the South (about) two star-crossed teenage lovers, Ethan, a local boy, and a mysterious new girl, Lena, who uncover dark secrets about their families, their history and their town.”

Although Thompson won her Oscars for dramatic roles, she’s no stranger to the sci-fi/fantasy genre having starred in such films as the ‘Harry Potter’ movies and both ‘Nanny McPhee’ films which she also wrote. She can be next seen playing Agent Oh in the upcoming ‘Men in Black 3’ movie coming out in May.

‘Beautiful Creatures’ already sounds intriguing and the casting seems to only amplify the great potential of the film. Alcon Entertainment has already optioned the rights to all three books in the series and hopes that ‘Beautiful Creatures’ will be the start of a possible franchise.

There is no official release date for the film but since filming is scheduled to begin in April in and around New Orleans, we can assume the movie will be released sometime in 2013.