With Sandra Bullock already in the lead role, the cast of post-apocalyptic thriller Bird Box is beginning to come together, as director Susanne Bier is adding John Malkovich.
Arrival's Eric Heisserer wrote the script, drawn from Josh Malerman's 2014 novel. The story, which Heisserer has been adapting since before the book hit shelves, is set in the near future, where a mother (Bullock) and her two young children are among the survivors after an alien invasion drives a large swathe of the Earth's population to bloody violence, sparked by simply looking at one of the creatures.
Facing a perilous 20 mile journey on a small rowing boat while blindfolded, the family will have to rely on her wits and her children's trained ears. Malkovich's role is not specified, so he could either be a villain or someone who could help the family.
And that's not the only role he's up for – the actor is also in talks for Peter Berg's latest collaboration with Mark Wahlberg, Mile 22. The story follows Wahlberg's CIA agent who must safeguard a compromised informant from the centre of an Indonesian city to a getaway plane waiting at an airport 22 miles away. Assuming he makes a deal to join the film, he'll shoot it after Bird Box. And yes, we're sure there will be plenty of wags on Twitter and elsewhere who will ask us if there's room in a bird box for both Bullock and Malkovich.