Update: Variety reports that the role is looking to go to Benjamin Walker. Read the original story below.
Coming off Love & Other Drugs, The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick is returning to more of his epic roots for his next project, The Great Wall. He’s nabbed likely the biggest star of next summer, Man of Steel‘s Henry Cavill, to lead the period adventure flick. Now he’s down to two actors for the other main role, both of whom have summer films this year.
Deadline reports that Battleship and True Blood star Alexander Skarsgard is up for the co-lead part, alongside Benjamin Walker, who’ll be seen in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter later this month. We’ll hopefully find out soon who official grabs this part, but I’ve got no preference here. While Skarsgard’s film career hasn’t taken off, he’s still a fine actor as evidence in last year’s Melancholia. Walker also seems to be selling his performance of Lincoln in his inherently silly project.
Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull created with the story with Max Brooks, author of World War Z, while Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz wrote the script that follows “warriors traveling through 15th Century China and happen upon the hurried construction of the massive wall. As night falls, the warriors realize that the haste in building the wall isn’t just to keep out the Mongols. There is something inhuman and more dangerous.”
Who do you think should get the part?