We thought we might have heard the last about the big-budget alien movie Oblivion from Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski and Tom Cruise. But the feature is moving forward, with a brand new title and a spectacular leading lady casting rumor.
According to Variety Universal is testing five actresses this weekend for the role of female lead for their newly named Horizons picture (Oblivion was scratched out due to the similarity to a video game). Here’s the impressive list of women vying for the part: Olivia Wilde, Noomi Rapace, Olga Kurylenko, Jessica Chastain (The Help), and Brit Marling (Another Earth). Which is almost every female buzz name in the business. So clearly, there’s something good about this script (which was adapted from the upcoming graphic novel Oblivion). Then again, working next to Tom Cruise in an a tent-pole production might also be appealing as well.
Variety has also shed some light on the film’s storyline. Cruise plays:
Jack, a man who lives in the clouds above Earth and heads to its surface to repair drones that essentially keep the planet safe from an alien race that has all but wiped out humanity. There are two key female characters — Victoria, Jack’s right-hand woman and lover who serves as his eyes and ears while he’s on repair missions, and Julia, his fiancee on Earth before the alien invasion.
