We recently reported that Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) appeared set to headline the monster mash Freakshift for hot up and coming filmmaker Ben Wheatley. Deadline now reports that Armie Hammer, breakout from David Fincher’s The Social Network, is joining the quickly coming together project as well. Production on the title appears on track to begin in August.
Wheatley has quickly built impressive screen cred amongst cinephiles and critics with a mix of challenging and eclectic works that include The Kill List and the Tom Hiddleston-starrer High-Rise. This month, his latest feature, Free Fire, an ensemble shoot ’em up starring Oscar winner Brie Larson, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley, Cillian Murphy and Jack Reynor opens in U.S. theaters. Hammer also appears in Free Fire. With Freakshift, Hammer would play Vikander’s love interest to leading role in which a rag-tag crew of cops join forces to hunt down nocturnal underground creatures. Wheatley also wrote the script alongside frequent collaborator Amy Jump.
Hammer’s casting here adds to what’s been a fairly credible for years for the actor following the crash of his wannabe blockbuster entry The Lone Ranger (2013). Most recently, Hammer has earned high marks from critics with a diverse range of roles including The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to last year’s Nocturnal Animals and The Birth of Nation. He earned even larger critical acknowledgment for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s Sundance hit Call Me By Your Name, which Sony Pictures Classics will release in theaters later this year.
He will next be seen in the war film Mime and heard in Pixar’s upcoming Cars 3. Also in the pike for the actor in the biopic Final Portrait starring Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush (which premiered at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival) and the recently completed Hotel Mumbai starring Oscar nominee Dev Patel (Lion).
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