Hot sci-fi property Passengers has added British character actor Michael Sheen to its cast.
Set on a spacecraft carrying thousands of people to a new planet, Sheen will play a robot character acting alongside the human leads, played by megastars du jour Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence.
The space-set romance has had a long and varied passage to the screen since the lauded script was first written by scribe Jon Spaihts – of Prometheus and the upcoming Doctor Strange fame – in 2007.
Keanu Reeves and Rachel McAdams were originally set to star, before that version fell apart. The project was then bought by The Weinstein Company in 2012 with Reese Witherspoon attached, before eventually landing with Sony. Lawrence recently nabbed a whopping $20 million paycheck to star!
Neal Moritz and Ori Marmur will produce for Original Film, with Headhunters and The Imitation Game filmmaker Mortem Tyldum directing.
“Passengers” is scheduled for release sometime in 2016.
Sources: Variety and Deadline