First titled “Oblivion,” then for a moment “Horizons” the Tom Cruise starring, Joseph Kosinski directed sci-fi film is currently untitled, but more importantly, undergoing a bit of a casting switcheroo.
Jessica Chastain has found she can’t do everything, and having recently joined Kathryn Bigelow‘s Osama Bin Laden assassination drama, scheduling has forced her drop out of the film. In her place? Another Terrence Malick veteran in Olga Kurylenko, and not only that, rising British thesp Andrea Riseborough has slotted into the second female lead, besting reported contenders Hayley Atwell, Diane Kruger and Kate Beckinsale.
Based on Kosinski’s own graphic novel with Karl Gajdusek rewriting a script first penned by William Monahan, the picture is set in a future where the Earth’s surface has been irradiated beyond recognition and the remnants of humanity live above the clouds, safe from the brutal alien Scavengers that stalk the ruins. But when surface drone repairman Jack (Cruise) discovers a mysterious woman in a crash-landed pod, it sets off an unstoppable chain of events that will force him to question everything he knows. Kurylenko will play Cruise’s wife, with Riseborough as the mystery woman who arrives on the uninhabited planet.
Kurylenko had originally tested for the role way back in the summer, and Cruise was impressed enough then that he called her back up when the part became open again. For Riseborough, this is a big career leap into a major tentpole project. Filming begins very soon. [Variety]