How quickly things change. Almost four months after rising star Sam Clafin landed the lead role in “The Seventh Son” Variety reports that talks fell apart, and now a new name with a bit more tentpole experience has arrived to save the day.
Ben Barnes, best known as Prince Caspian in “The Chronicles of Narnia” movies, takes on the part of Tom in the movie. Based on Joseph Delaney‘s popular “The Last Apprentice” series, the story centers the seventh son of a seventh son in the 1700s who discovers he has the ability to see creatures of the dark, and trains to become a ‘Spook’ in order to fight evil. Jeff Bridges will play Master Gregory, a grizzled witch-hunter who trains Tom, while Julianne Moore is lined up as the villain, Mother Malkin, who sucks the blood out of young women to keep her youth. Alicia Vikander will play Alice who joins tom in his journey.
“Mongol” director Sergey Bodrov will stand behind the camera for the project that is gearing up to shoot late summer/early fall. This is not really our cup of tea, but the presence of Bridges and Moore hamming it up in period garb means we’ll be watching this anyway. As for Clafin, no need to worry about him, he’s just fine. He’s landed on his feet in “Snow White And The Huntsman,” also gearing up to shoot later this year for release next year.