Patton Oswalt Joins ‘The Circle’ With Tom Hanks and Emma Watson

The cast for James Ponsoldt’s The Circle continues to get better and better — comedian / author / actor Patton Oswalt is the latest to join the lineup, which already includes Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, Karen Gillan and John Boyega. This group of people could sit in a literal circle and play bongos and we’d still totally watch it and find it completely compelling.

Deadline reports that Oswalt is the latest actor to join The Circle, Ponsoldt’s upcoming film based on the satirical Dave Eggers novel. The film takes place in a not-too-distant or impossible future, where a major corporation known as the Circle provides customers with a singular digital identity that unites all of their personal accounts, including banking, social media, credit cards, etc., into one operating system.

Watson plays the lead role of Mae, a new employee at the corporation who quickly finds herself wrapped up in a suspenseful plot. Hanks plays mysterious older character, with Boyega and Gillan playing fellow employees. Oswalt will portray Tom Stenton, described as a “tight-lipped, Italian suit-wearing, tough-dealing throwback to a 1980s Wall Street trader who commands respect.” His character is also one of three founding members of the Circle.

Eggers’ novel is described as follows:

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.

As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

The Circle is being helmed by James Ponsoldt, who previously directed films like The Spectacular Now and, more recently, The End of the Tour.