Casting News: Five Actresses Line Up for Horizons; Oliva Wilde & Jennifer Garner Switch Chemistry; James "Lo Pan" Hong in R.I.P.D.
Posted 08.26.11 by Ryan
Director Joseph Kosinski is following his feature debut of Tron: Legacy with another futuristic adventure based on his as-yet-unpublished, illustrated, sci-fi graphic novel Oblivion. Due to the popular video game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Universal is titling the movie Horizons.
Tom Cruise is set to star in Horizons, playing a man named Jack who repairs the drones that fight the aliens who have already destroyed most of humanity. Variety reports that five actresses have tested for the movie, including Jessica Chastain (The Help, The Tree of Life), Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy, Cowboys and Aliens), Brit Marling (Another Earth), Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace). The actresses are testing for two key female roles — Jack's lover and right-hand woman Victoria, and Julia, Jack's fiancee on Earth before the invasion. Wilde would seem to have an advantage after working with Kosinski on Tron: Legacy, but nothing is certain.
Universal has been saying "no" to plenty of projects of late, including director McG's adaptation of Ouija, as well as passing on director Ron Howard's ambitious adaptation of Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series, but seems confident about Horizons, which already has a release date of July 19, 2013. William Monahan (The Departed) and Karl Gadjusek wrote the script, with Michael Arndt recently performing a script "polish".
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While it's far from a done deal for Wilde to land a role in Horizons, the actress has recently taken a role in the darkly comedic thriller Better Living Through Chemistry.
The movie stars Sam Rockwell as a small town pharmacist whose loveless marriage drives him into an affair with a trophy wife (Wilde) who introduces him to the pleasures of over-the-counter drugs. Jennifer Garner was originally cast in the role, but the actress had to be replaced after she became pregnant with her third child with husband Ben Affleck.
Michelle Monaghan will play Rockwell's wife, and Dame Judi Dench will serve as the movie's narrator. Production is slated to start this fall in Maryland under the direction of newcomers Geoff Moore and David Posamentier, who also wrote the script.
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Veteran actor
James Hong, known to many for his performances as David Lo Pan in
John Carpenter's cult hit
Big Trouble in Little China and as Hannibal Chew in
Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner, is joining Universal's adaptation of
R.I.P.D..
Based on the Dark Horse comic book, R.I.P.D. follows a recently murdered police officer (Ryan Reynolds) who accepts a job at the Rest in Peace Department in exchange for the chance to find the man that murdered him. Reynolds' partner is a gunslinger from the 1880s, played by Jeff Bridges, but apparently the two cops of the dead take a different form when viewed by humans. Yesterday, Victoria’s Secret model Marisa Miller was cast as Bridges' human avatar, and THR reports that Hong will play "Grandpa Chen", the avatar that fills in for Reynolds when his character is conducting his R.I.P.D. business. Sounds like a great visual joke potentially ruined by casting notices.
R.I.P.D. starts shooting next week under the direction of Robert Schwentke (RED). The cast includes Mike O'Malley, Mary-Louise Parker, Kevin Bacon and Stephanie Szostak.