God Particle

The cast of God Particle is shaping up to be a great one, and if nothing else, the upcoming sci-fi thriller from Bad Robot and J.J. Abrams will have no shortage of talent. The latest additions to the stellar interstellar lineup include Chris O’Dowd, Zhang Ziyi, Aksel Hennie (who recently starred in another space-centric film — The Martian) and John Ortiz. Let’s just hope God Particle can live up to its ensemble.

For an actor, the tough thing about becoming famous for playing a single character for nearly a decade on a long-running TV show is that you eventually become identified with that persona, rather than as yourself. So, for instance, if you’re John...

J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot’s God Particle is picking up some steam, and following last year’s recruitment of newcomer Julius Onah to direct the long-developing sci-fi thriller, the project has found a pair of impressive actors. Selma’s David Oyelowo and Beyond the Lights star Gugu Mbatha-Raw will play the lead roles in God Particle, which will finally begin shooting sometime this year for a 2017 release.

When Roberto Orci exited the third Star Trek movie, star Simon Pegg stepped up to co-write the screenplay for director Justin Lin, working with veteran TV writer Doug Jung. It seems that Jung’s work on Star Trek Beyond has impressed the folks at Paramount and Bad Robot, as the studios have tapped him to rewrite the screenplay for a new, original sci-fi project titled God Particle.

Last week, the news broke that the ever-wonderful Cate Blanchett was close to joining director Mark Romanek's 'Cinderella' in the role of the evil stepmother, firmly establishing it as the Hollywood Revision Of A Classic Fairy Tale to watch out for. It still feels odd that the director of 'One Hour Photo' and 'Never Let Me Go' is making a Cinderella movie, but putting quality actors on the screen is the first step in giving us hope. On the heels of the Blanchett news, Variety reports that the short list for the title role is down to three actresses: Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander and Gabriella Wilde. You'll probably recognize Ronan from 'Atonement,' 'The Lovely Bones' and 'Hanna' and if you were unlucky enough to see 'The Three Musketeers' you may remember Wilde, but Vikander seems to be a newcomer, making this role her potential big break and her own potential Cinderella story. Life imitating art and so forth.

J.J. Abrams is one busy guy in Hollywood. Not only is he hard at work on 'Star Trek 2,' but his production company, Bad Robot, is busy signing on other projects for the director/producer to look at. And they may have a new reason to go back into outer space.