Guy Pearce has signed on to star in an Australian crime drama called Animal Kingdom. In it, he will play a cop who helps a 17 year old who becomes involved in a crime family.
Pearce has been busy making hotly anticipated Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road, as well as the comedy Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler.
But he has found time for a return to Oz, with Animal Kingdom, and also a rumoured role in Last Man, about an Australian special forces unit in Vietnam.
Pearce will join fellow Aussies Ben Mendelson (The New World), Joel Edgerton (Smokin' Aces) and veteran actress Jackie Weaver (Picnic At Hanging Rock) for Animal Kingdom. It will be the first feature for director by David Michod and will be part of a group of five films funded by Screen Australia.
Pearce also has the rumour-mills spinning out of control with talk of a hook-up with Memento director Christopher Nolan. Fans are pitching him as a likely candidate for The Riddler in the next Batman outing.