Although Neill Blomkamp‘s sci-fi drama Elysium is struggling to hit the $100 million domestic mark and was not as well-received as his debut, District 9, it didn’t take long for the South African helmer to put his next project together. Once again adapting one of his earlier shorts, Chappie tells the story of a robot imbued with artificial intelligence who is stolen by two local gangsters who want to use him for their own nefarious purposes.
With Sharlto Copley taking the lead role of our robot, performed through motion-capture, Ninja and Yolandi Visser and Die Antwoord as the two gangsters and Dev Patel in an unknown role, some A-list talent has now come aboard. At a recent press conference for Prisoners, Screen Daily picked up the news that Hugh Jackman will also take part.
“I am doing a role in Neill’s new film, called Chappie, which we shoot in Johannesburg,” the Les Misérables actor said. While we don’t know any specific details yet, don’t expect it to be a major one, as he said he’s just “there for a couple of weeks at the beginning of next year.” As we await to see what his character entails, check out the 2003 short the film’s based on, Tetra Vaal.
Chappie arrives on March 27th, 2015 and Jackman can next be seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past next summer.