Coming off this summer’s Elysium, production has already begun on Neill Blomkamp‘s follow-up Chappie, which tells the story of a robot (voiced by Sharlto Copley) imbued with artificial intelligence who is stolen by two local gangsters that want to use him for their own nefarious purposes. With Ninja and Yolandi Visser and Die Antwoord playing the two gangsters, and Dev Patel and Hugh Jackman rounding out the rest of the cast, word has come in that Sigourney Weaver will be taking a role. While there’s no details yet, we can only hope it isn’t as hammy as Jodie Foster‘s performance in Blomkamp’s last film, and we’ll find out on March 27th, 2015 when it hits theaters.
In other casting news, Jason Reitman is getting ready to shoot his next project, which will kick off before the release of Labor Day (our review). Having already lined up Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner and Rosemarie DeWitt for an adaptation of Chad Kultgen‘s novel Men, Women and Children, The Wrap reports that Judy Greer (The Descendants) is in talks to join the ensemble. The story follows a family with middle schoolers as they deal with their coming of age in a social networking world where pornography is rampant. Greer takes the role of Joan Clint, “a mom who posts alluring photos of her daughter online.”
When it comes to another piece of casting, we sincerely hope you enjoy Noomi Rapace. The actress, who broke out with the original Dragon Tattoo, is about to take on seven different roles in the next film from Dead Snow and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters director Tommy Wirkola.
According to THR, she has joined What Happened to Monday?, which comes from a script by Max Botkin that follows septuplet sisters (all played by Rapace) who strive to live in a futuristic world where the law doesn’t allow any siblings. One when of them disappears, they must band together to avert the government and solve the mystery. We quite like the concept so hopefully this will be a step up for Wirkola after not much interest was found in his January horror-action romp.
In other news, it’s been quite some time since we heard anything about Don Cheadle‘s long-gestating Miles Davis biopic, but it looks like things are gearing up again. Titled Kill The Trumpet Player, the project would mark the actor’s directorial debut, and he also plays the lead role. According to Screen Daily, Ewan McGregor and Zoe Saldana are in talks for unknown roles in the film, which is actually not an all-encompassing look at the musician’s life, but rather described as a “gangster pic” that takes place in 1979, when he wasn’t making music.
In our last bit of casting news, Keanu Reeves has found a new partner for his sci-fi drama Passengers. Once set to be Reese Witherspoon, Variety reports that Rachel McAdams has now filled in the role for the film set in the future on a spacecraft making a centuries-long interstellar voyage to a new planet. Due to a computer glitch, a single passenger (Reeves) awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he, in turn, awakens a beautiful woman. Coming from director Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire) and a script by Prometheus‘ Jon Spaihts, hopefully production gears up soon.
Which of the upcoming projects are you most looking forward to?