When Jessica Chastain Oblivion, director Joseph Kosinski‘s Tron: Legacy follow-up, it was believed the film’s second female star could come from the field of actresses up for the part that went to Chastain. That list included Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy), Brit Marling (Another Earth), Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace), but it now appears the studio has decided to look elsewhere.
Mike Fleming at Deadline reports Universal has turned their attention to a group of (mostly) bigger names and will have Kate Beckinsale, Diane Kruger and Hayley Atwell (Captain America) read for the sought-after role. They’ll reportedly meet up with Cruise this weekend in Pittsburgh, where he is currently shooting the crime thriller One Shot.
In Oblivion, Cruise will play a soldier whose job is to repair the drones that patrol and destroy the savage aliens on a post-apocalyptic Earth where civilization lives above the clouds. The two female roles in question are for Cruise’s wife and for a mysterious woman that forces him to question everything he knows after discovering her in a crash-landed pod.
When the Chastain casting was announced, it was not distinguished which role she took so your guess is as good as mine. Either way, Atwell, Kruger and Beckinsale are three can’t-miss prospects that would solidify the film’s already solid frontline cast. The $100 million film has teetered between the names Oblivion and Horizons and landed at Universal after Disney decided its targeted PG-13 rating didn’t fit into its family-friendly mold. It currently has a release date set for July 19, 2013.
