No, Sharlto Copley has not discovered a fun new hobby of leaping into graves so see what happens. But the District 9 star will be forced into one for his latest film, Open Grave, which will be directed by Apollo 18 megaphone man Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego.
The director is gearing up to shoot the film this month in Hungary, with Copley playing a man who wakes up in a pit full of rotting bodies with little memory of how he got there. Before he can conclude it’s all an elaborate stag night prank, he starts having horrific flashbacks of himself murdering people and starts to believe he’s the killer. He’ll have to sort out what really happened.
While that one sounds like there will be room for doubt, Copley will definitely be getting dangerous for another future project, as he’s also now signed a deal to play the villain in Spike Lee and Mark Protosevich’s remake of Oldboy.
Copley will be Adrian Pryce, a shady, nasty billionaire who tries to destroy the life of Joe Douchett (Josh Brolin). Not content with imprisoning Douchett for 15 years without explaining why, Pryce then threatens the life of Elizabeth Olsen if Douchett can’t figure out the reason.
After a long casting hunt that went through the likes of Will Smith, Christian Bale and Colin Firth, Lee can finally start planning to shoot, aiming to kick off in September. Copley will next be seen in District 9 cohort Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi follow-up Elysium, which is set to arrive on March 1, 2013.