Having locked down his leading man for The Whale in Brendan Fraser, director Darren Aronofsky is building the rest of the cast for his next film. Watchmen and Downsizing's Hong Chau is the new addition.
Samuel D. Hunter's stage work debuted off-Broadway in 2012 and before it finished its run, it had won both the Drama Desk Award Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding play. He's now written the screenplay, which follows a 600-pound middle-aged man named Charlie and his attempts to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter. The two became estranged after Charlie abandoned his family for his gay lover, who later died. Charlie then turned to compulsive eating out of grief.
Chau is on to play his best friend, while Aronofsky also has his eyes on Sadie Sink (to be Fraser's daughter) and Samantha Morton to co-star. Though he also has Adrift in development with Jared Leto in the lead, The Whale seems set to be his next film, with the cameras starting to crank in March.