Just as it seems to be having real trouble settling on a name, having tried out both Oblivion and Horizons without luck, the new film from Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has been taking a while to lock in female leads to star opposite Tom Cruise. Now Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko are signing on.
The film, as you might remember, finds Earth as a ruined, inhospitable wasteland and the human race living above it in the clouds. Cruise will play Jack (assuming his name hasn’t changed in the multiple script drafts), a soldier stationed on the planet who repairs drones that fight off alien life.
Jack’s one real connection to the people above is his partner and lover (Kurylenko) who remains in radio contact with him. She’s somewhat understandably disturbed when he meets and falls for a woman (Riseborough) who has somehow crash-landed on Earth. And that’s not the only change, as the new arrival forces him to change his worldview considerably.
Whatever it ends up being called, the project has been through many changes itself. Originally set up at Tron studio Disney, it was jettisoned when the studio bods became nervous that it wouldn’t fit with their family friendly brand. Universal swooped in to pick it up and Kosinski has overseen script work from Karl Gajdusek, William Monahan and, most recently, Michael Arndt. And though Jessica Chastain was in position to star as one of the women, she had to jump ship for one of the hundreds of other films she’s working on at any one time.
Assuming there are no more delays, Kosinski should be able to start shooting this thing in a couple of months, aiming for a July 2013 release date.
Riseborough has seen her career leap into gear of late, and can be seen this week in Madonna’s W.E. Kurylenko is still best known as Camille from Quantum Of Solace, but has also appeared in Centurion and Max Payne. She’s currently at work on Seven Psychopaths.