Toby Kebbell & Brian Cox To Star In 'The Veteran'

Toby Kebbell has joined Brian Cox, Ashley Thomas, Adi Bielski and Tom Brooke in “The Veteran,” a British indie film scheduled to shoot later this month.

Directed by Matthew Hope (the British indie, “The Vanguard”), the film centers around a young soldier (Kebbell) returning here from Afghanistan tasked to be a clandestine operative to monitor suspected terrorists in the U.K.

The picture was written by Hope, Adam Tysoe (“Safe Haven”) and Robert Henry Craft who is an actual former SAS counter-terrorism specialist. While Kebbell hasn’t totally peaked yet, he is an actor that we have had our eye on for years and included him in our 2007 Breakout & Breakthrough Performances Of The Year feature after his hilarious turn as Joy Division manager Rob Gretton in “Control.”

He also shined in Shane Meadows’ “Dead Man’s Shoes,” Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” and Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla,” where he played a junkie rock ‘n’ roll star (and the already-skinny actor emaciated himself for the role; we dug his performance so much we included him on our 2008 list as well). He also will be seen as John Wilkes Booth in Robert Redford’s upcoming drama “The Conspirator,” which is probably aiming for a 2011 release at this point. He also has a role in “Passion Play” with Mickey Rourke and Megan Fox which is also likely a 2011 picture. [THR]