Karen Gillan Enters ‘The Circle’ With Tom Hanks and Emma Watson

The cast of James Ponsoldt’s The Circle is shaping up to be a fairly exciting lineup: Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega were previously announced for the adaptation of Dave Eggers’ novel, and now he’s gone and cast your favorite former Doctor Who companion and Guardians of the Galaxy star Karen Gillan. Ugh, this movie sounds terrible.

Kidding, of course. According to Deadline, Gillan has joined Hanks, Watson and Boyega in The Circle, based on the satirical novel by Dave Eggers. The Spectacular Now and The End of the Tour director James Ponsoldt will helm the adaptation, in which Gillan plays the role of Annie, described as a “warm, cute, goofy, old-money confident and fiercely intelligent member of The Circle.”

Eggers’ novel takes place in a world where one giant corporation called the Circle links clients’ email, bank accounts, credit cards, social media profiles, et al. together under a singular operating system — sounds dangerous, no? Emma Watson plays the lead role of Mae, a new employee at the Circle who soon finds herself at the heart of a suspenseful series of events. Hanks plays a mysterious older character, and Boyega plays a sort of wunderkind employee of the company.

Here’s how the book is officially described:

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.

Gillan recently appeared in HBO’s 7 Days in Hell, and stars next in Adam McKay’s economic crisis drama The Big Short, as well as Ti West’s western thriller In a Valley of Violence. She’s also set to reprise her role as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.