DOUGLAS AS BEN FRANKLIN, & HEMSWORTH’S A VILLAIN!

Casting about: In a lightning rod flash of casting, MICHAEL

DOUGLAS, 77, will star as Benjamin Franklin in a new Apple TV+ series about the Founding Father who invented such stuff as the lightning rod, bifocals and the odometer. Meanwhile, it’s no more

Mr. Nice Guy for Marvel’s

Thor superhero CHRIS HEMSWORTH, 38, who’ll play the lead baddie in Furiosa, a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road.