He’s gone from Skins to Slumdog and from being a bad guy in The Last Airbender to trying to run a ramshackle resort in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Now, following his stint in Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, Dev Patel could be headed to the land of Neill Blomkamp{
The actor is in early talks to star in the Elysium director’s Chappie, which will be loosely based on the Tetra Vaal fake police 'bot ad that Blomkamp produced back in 2004, and which you can see at the foot of the page.
While further details on the script – written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell – are being kept under wraps, the District 9 director has talked up the comedy robo-angle. If Patel does sign on, he’ll be the human lead of the film set in the impoverished slums.
Given the usually secretive nature of the director, we’ll probably have to wait for more concrete details, though he may talk about the movie as he promotes Elysium. The Matt Damon action thriller arrives here on August 23.
Patel, as mentioned, will be back in The Newsroom’s next series, which airs in the UK from next month.