With Chloë Moretz in place as the lead in Brain On Fire – taking over from a suddenly busy Dakota Fanning – the rest of the cast is being announced. Richard Armitage and Carrie-Anne Moss are the latest recruits.
Brain On Fire has been adapted from Susannah Cahalan’s memoir, which was subtitled My Month Of Madness. The book chronicles Cahalan’s real-life experiences being diagnosed with a mystery illness that left her labelled psychotic, violent, and a dangerous flight risk. She woke up alone in a hospital room confined to the bed, unable to speak or move and with no memory of what happened. In the maelstrom, she’d lost everything: a promising newspaper career and her first serious relationship, and it took an intuitive doctor, a lot of strength and the support of her family to get through it.
And now we know who will be making up the key components of that family, as Armitage is playing her father, Tom Cahalan, while Moss is her mother, Rhona Nack. Gerard Barrett is calling the shots on the film in Vancouver, with Charlize Theron involved as a producer via her Denver & Delilah production house, alongside Foundation Features. It should be in cinemas next year.
Armitage will next be seen as the terrifying Francis Dolarhyde, AKA The Red Dragon, on the current and sadly likely final season of TV’s Hannibal. Moss has worked on horror thriller Frankenstein (not the James McAvoy/ Daniel Radcliffe film) and is part of the cast for Marvel/ Netflix’s next superhero show, Jessica Jones.