Here’s an actor/director pairing we’re not sure many would have seen coming even a couple of years ago, but now it certainly could happen: Christopher Nolan has apparently offered the lead in his next big project, Interstellar, to Matthew McConaughey.
McConaughey has enjoyed some well-deserved praise for a real career resurgence in the last couple of years, with great performances in The Lincoln Lawyer, Magic Mike, Killer Joe and the upcoming Mud. He’s also part of old mate Richard Linklater’s Bernie, which is finally about to arrive over here.
Still, while he’s now clocked up collaborations with directors including Lee Daniels, Steven Soderbergh and Martin Scorsese, the chance to work on a big Christopher Nolan film is another big opportunity. Deadline reports that as of right now, it’s only an offer, so McConaughey’s connection with the film remains as a rumour for the moment.
As to what the movie’s really about? It’s Nolan, people – of course it’s being kept quiet. But we do know that McConaughey's potential character is called Cooper and the film features a space voyage and plenty of high concept sci-fi themes. Originated by Steven Spielberg back in 2006 when he became interested in Caltech physicist Kip Thorne’s theory about wormholes, the script was first written by Nolan’s brother Jonah. Now Chris has worked on a new version that blends Jonah’s ideas with some original thinking of his own. How much do we want to see this thing already? We’re not sure the equipment has been invented to measure it sufficiently yet. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.
McConaughey will be back on our screens when Bernie lands on April 26, then in Jeff Nichols’ Mud on May 10. Following that, he’s part of The Wolf Of Wall Street, which doesn’t yet have a set UK release.
Did Interstellar leave you baffled and confused? We explain Interstellar in detail here.