Orlando Bloom hasn’t exactly had the best time of it at the multiplex in recent years. After his successful run in the Lord Of The Rings and Pirates Of The Caribbean franchises ended, he’s had a few decent films, but nothing quite so mega. So he’ll likely be hoping for better things with Jerome Salle’s Zulu, which finds him teaming up with Djimon Hounsou. It's not to be confused with the Michael Caine classic, however.
Salle, who directed Anthony Zimmer (badly remade as The Tourist) and The Burma Conspiracy, has worked with regular co-writer Julien Rappeneau to adapt Caryl Ferey’s novel, set in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Bloom and Hounsou will play a pair of South African coppers who investigate crimes including the murder of 18-year-old Nicole Wiese, the daughter of a championship Springbok rugby player. Suffice to say, things just get darker from there.
Zulu is set to start filming in Cape Town this July. Bloom, who was last seen camping it up as the bad guy in The Three Musketeers, is getting set to appear in Roger Donaldson’s thriller Cities and will also feature as Legolas in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which arrives here on December 14. Hounsou, meanwhile, had been gearing up to act in Paradise Lost, but his schedule is a little clearer now that is back in limbo...