Not much is yet known about Jeff Nichol's Mud follow-up Midnight Special, other than the fact that it has a sci-fi slant. We do know that Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton are already part of the cast, however, and they're now joined by Kirsten Dunst in a mysterious, unspecified capacity.
Midnight Special is about a father who goes on the run with his eight-year-old son, when he discovers that Junior has special powers. So you could infer shades of **Looper **from that, but it might be closer to Stephen King's Firestarter for all we know. In the Leadbelly blues song of the same name, the Midnight Special is a train that goes past a prison, making the inmates wish they were on it. This almost certainly tells us nothing.
Since she's third to be cast, we might assume that Dunst is the female lead, or possibly even a villain, which could be intriguing. Either way, it's her second indie sci-fi in two years following Upside Down (third in three if you count Melancholia). She comes to it straight from Hossein Amini's The Two Faces Of January, which should be out early next year. That means that the next time we see her will probably be Anchorman: The Legend Continues in December.
Midnight Special is another go-around for Nichols and Michael Shannon following **Take Shelter **(the actor also had a small role in Mud). Sarah Green and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones are among the producers, and shooting, we guess, will get underway shortly.