Fans of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road will know that – a few freaks, strays, stragglers and savages aside – the novel is pretty much a two-hander, between an unnamed father and his young son, trying to stay alive in a blackened and hostile post-nuclear America.
Viggo Mortensen has been cast for some time as the Father in John Hillcoat’s upcoming adaptation of the McCarthy novel – and today his son finally came on board.
The wonderfully named Kodi Smit-McPhee has signed on to trudge the ash-sodden highways of the US with Mortensen for the movie, which starts filming soon. Charlize Theron will also appear in the movie, as Smit-McPhee’s mother (and Mortensen’s wife), but the two big roles belong to the former Aragorn and this 11 year-old Australian.
Being 11 means that Smit-McPhee is some way older than the boy in McCarthy’s chilling yet moving novel, which might affect the dynamic between father and son somewhat. But we’re still stoked to see this.
Smit-McPhee can most recently be seen in Romulus, My Father, and is also rumoured to be playing a young Logan in the forthcoming Wolverine: X-Men Origins.