Armie Hammer and Alexander Skarsgård are the top choices to play the titular character in the upcoming Universal & Blumhouse film ‘The Invisible Man.’ Leigh Whannell will serve as producer, writer, and director of this reboot.
Johnny Depp was originally going to portray the character, but he is no longer part of the film. However, he may be featured in another one of the monster movie projects in development. (But let’s hope not.)
The role of Adrian Griffin, aka The Invisible Man, is below:
“A billionaire sociopath who made his money by developing an invisibility suit for the Department of Defense.”
Hammer is popular for his role(s) as the Winklevoss twins in David Fincher’s ‘The Social Network.’ There’s also his role in the Academy Award winning ‘Call Me By Your Name.’ He got a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in that film. He was recently in Boots Riley’s ‘Sorry to Bother You,’ and Mimi Leder’s ‘On the Basis of Sex.’ He will next be in Babak Anvari’s ‘Wounds,’ releasing March 29th.
Skarsgård has been in several projects over the years, such as HBO’s ‘True Blood,’ ‘The Giver,’ The Legend of Tarzan,’ and BBC/AMC’s ‘The Little Drummer Girl.’ He is also a Golden Globe winner thanks to his performance in HBO’s ‘Big Little Lies.’ Next up for him is James Kent’s ‘The Aftermath,’ releasing March 15th, and Jonathan Levine’s ‘Long Shot,’ releasing May 3rd.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth Moss (‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ ‘Us’) is in talks to play Cecilia Kass.
Whannell and Blumhouse have made quite a few successful films, primarily the ‘Insidious’ franchise. Their most recent collaboration was last year’s ‘Upgrade.’
This is the first step in the plan to bring creative directors with distinctive visions to the classic Universal monsters characters. In other words, the studio mercy killed the interconnected ‘Dark Universe.’
The decision comes after ‘The Mummy’ underperformed at the box office. This led to the studio taking a new look at the strategy for the remaining monster characters. This includes ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Dracula,’ ‘The Wolfman,’ and ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon.’
Further, it is unknown what other projects are in development, or which people are currently making pitches to Universal.
According to Production Weekly, ‘The Invisible Man’ will begin filming this July. However, That Hashtag Show states it will start this May.
‘The Invisible Man’ does not have a release date yet.
Source: That Hashtag Show