While we figured that Matthew Vaughn was finished lining up his cast for X-Men: First Class (boy, was that a mistake!), Bryan Singer is obviously still deep in the pondering period when it comes to finding actors for his next project, fantasy adventure Jack the Giant Killer. Now The Hollywood Reporter brings word that the likes of Kick-Ass**’ Aaron Johnson, A Single Man’s Nicholas Hoult and The Blind Side’s Lily Collins are all in the running.
The big main role, of course, is that of Jack, the lad who must rescue a princess from the land of the giants, as the peace between the two races falls apart (well, it’s not like the film’s called Jack the Giant Diplomat).
Singer, who is producing First Class, has been sneakily using that film's seemingly endless casting process to track down likely leads for Jack. While Johnson isn’t in the mutant film, he does have a strong link to Vaughn after working with the director on this year’s comic book-based gem. Hoult, meanwhile, is firmly in **First Class, **having snagged the role of Beast, and has clearly impressed the Superman Returns director.
Then there’s fellow Brit Aneurin Barnard, who has a much more limited screen CV than the others, but has upcoming roles in Ironclad and Hunky Dory, and also has plenty of stage experience, having worked on big shows such as Spring Awakening.
Let's now turn our attention to that pesky princess, who will need to be spirited away from the marauding giants. High on the list of those testing are Neighbours veteran Adelaide Kane, Year One’s Juno Temple and Collins, who appears in next year’s Paul Bettany action pic Priest and will be seen alongside professional oestrogen inspirer Taylor Lautner in Abduction.
While Singer had hoped to start shooting the film this past summer, the combination of a suddenly thriftier budget and a long pre-production design/pre-vis period has shoved the kick-off date back to March. Let the slew of “such-and-such” has scored the role” rumours begin in earnest!