Chris Evans has signed on to star in Neill Blomkamp‘s (District 9, Elysium) disaster thriller, Greenland. The Avengers star will play the patriarch of a family who must fight for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster.
Given the title and the social themes tackled in Blomkamp’s previous work, this sounds like a film about climate change, and if so, the director is a perfect choice to helm another socially conscious thriller. Thunder Road Pictures’ Basil Iwaynk (Sicario) is producing the film, while domestic distribution rights are currently being shopped at the Cannes Film Festival.
Further plot details are being kept under wraps, but this will be Blomkamp’s first feature film since Chappie after a number of projects he liked failed to get off the ground. There was the ill-fated Alien film that would have brought back Sigourney Weaver and ignored the events of many of the sequels, but that was halted after Ridley Scott was not too happy and got Fox to put a stop to it.
Then there was Firebase, which Blomkamp attempted to adapt from his one of his own short films that he made at Oats Studios, which were essentially test balloons to see which stories fans wanted to see on a larger scale. The director attempted to crowdfund the financing for Firebase, but wasn’t able to raise enough money.
As for Evans, this is a clear step away from Captain America, a role he may be done with after Avengers 4 next year. He recently wrapped shooting on The Red Sea Diving Resort and is currently starring in the Broadway play Lobby Hero, making it a chance that Greenland is his first post-MCU film (if that is indeed the case) and a potential new era in his career.
Blomkamp’s star never quite rose to the heights expected of him after the huge success of District 9, and his follow up films were perhaps too similar to that one and ended up just feeling like mere imitations. Hopefully Greenland can offer something different. We’ll look out for more information in the coming months.
#Peace.Love.Greenland
