Two noteworthy casting announcements that I missed earlier in the week…

First, a new project from Amazon Studios titled “Jean-Claude Van Johnson” which will star martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, operating under the alias of “Jean-Claude Van Johnson” to serve as the most dangerous undercover private contractor in the world. Amazon calls it a comedy-action series; it’s not a film.

Joining Van Damme in “Jean-Claude Van Johnson” is Phylicia Rashad, although Amazon doesn’t say what her role in the series will be. But she’s certainly an interesting choice for a Van Damme comedy-action series.

The team behind the camera is certainly noteworthy: executive producers will be Peter Atencio (“Key and Peele”), Ridley Scott (“The Good Wife”), and David W. Zucker (“The Man in the High Castle”).

Van Damme will also serve as exec producer.

Also in the cast are Kat Foster and Moises Arias.

From Scott Free Productions, the pilot is directed by Atencio.

Second, filming is under way in Turin for “Ulysses – A Dark Odyssey” by Italian filmmaker Federico Alotto, a feature film based on Homer’s classic with an international cast featuring Danny Glover and German actor Udo Kier.

The announcement of Glover’s attachment has been covered well by the press in Turin this week, as you can see in the image above. It’s just one of a few articles I found online today.

Glover and Kier are joined in the cast by Turin-born actor Andrea Zirio (who will star in the film as the title character), as well as Anamaria Marinca, Cassandra Gava, Gianni Capaldi, Jessika Polsky and Christopher Jones.

Zirio plays a modern Ulysses who is described as “a solider by profession who returns from the front line bearing scars from the war on his body and soul… The Odyssey of his journey brings him to a Turin of corrupt and psychedelic beauty, full of bewitching animals, inner demons, and mysterious figures that follow him right up until his last inevitable choice.”

The film is being produced by Turin-based company Adrama S.r.l.

And like Rashad in the Van Damme project, no word on what role exactly Glover has signed up to play in “Ulysses – A Dark Odyssey.”

Two veteran actors of African descent in projects to look out for in the coming year…