Shocking as it might seem to some given her career, **The Help **actually marked the first time Viola Davis scored the leading role in a film. But following her awards-laden performance (which may yet land her an Oscar), she’s now firmly at the top of the list for many casting directors, and has landed two plum parts, one in Ender’s Game and one in Beautiful Creatures.
We’ll tackle Creatures first: backed by Warner Bros. and Alcon, it’s been adapted from Margaret Stohl-Kami Garcia's book about two teens dealing with a curse that has bedevilled the girl’s family for generations.
Davis has snagged one of the leads, a librarian who happens to be a friend of the boy, who loves him like a mother and looks out for him.
Richard LaGravenese wrote the script and aims to start directing the film this April in New Orleans. If it’s successful, the studio is hoping it’ll spawn a new franchise, and has obtained the rights to the other books in the trilogy, Beautiful Darkness and Beautiful Chaos.
Ender’s Game, of course is also adapted from a novel – Orson Scott Card’s to be exact. Wolverine director Gavin Hood cracked the adaptation last year, and he’s already recruited Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley and Harrison Ford to star in the story of young Ender Wiggin. He’s a preciously talented youngster recruited by humanity to fight off an insect-like alien race. He and other young people are sent to a military training academy where Davis will be a psychologist who both designs the games that test the recruits and oversees their mental wellbeing.
According to Variety, Game will shoot first with Creatures set to follow later in the year once the rest of the cast has been assembled.