Despite the backing of Legendary boss Thomas Tull, who co-created the basic idea and intends it to help his business in China and beyond, The Great Wall hasn’t exactly been the easiest film to develop. It appears things are running a little more smoothly now, as Willem Dafoe has joined the cast, and will co-star with Matt Damon{
And with The Hollywood Reporter’s news on the casting comes a few more details about the film, which will see Dafoe and Damon as part of a group of mercenaries in an unspecified historical period travelling to China in order to bring back gunpowder. A nasty encounter with some mystical beasts leaves all but the two men dead, and caught in a war between a warrior clan and the creatures.
Zhang Yimou is set to direct the film, for which World War Z novelist Max Brooks helped flesh out the story, with Ed Zwick (at one point attached to call the shots), Marshall Herskovitz and Tony Gilroy all contributing to the screenplay. The cameras should finally be rolling in April.
Dafoe had a solid 2014 between The Grand Budapest Hotel, A Most Wanted Man and John Wick (the Keanu Reeves hitman thriller finally reaching these shores legally on April 10). He’s at work on drama My Hindu Friend and will be lending his vocal talents to **Finding Nemo **sequel Finding Dory, which is scheduled for July 29 next year.