The march from premium television to the big screen continues for the stars of major shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and, perhaps particularly, Game of Thrones. Kit Harrington, Emilia Clarke, and Natalie Dormer are all forthcoming in leading roles, but it’s Jamie Lannister himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, whose beaten them to the punch. With major roles in Mama and Oblivion already under his belt, he’s now setting off for the Nile valley (or at least an Australian approximation of the same), and it’s looking like Gerard Butler (300, Olympus Has Fallen) will be joining him there.
Butler is in negotiations to star in the rather directly titled Gods of Egypt, a fantasy tale that sounds somewhat in the mold of Clash of the Titans, with Egyptian mythology substituting in for Greek. Butler would play Set, Egyptian god of the desert, who in this tale feuds with and kills Osiris, god of the afterlife. Coster-Waldau is on as Horus, son of Osiris, who after an ill-fated attempt for revenge that leaves him minus one eye, enlists the aid of a human thief to bring Set back in line. We’re not hearing anything as to a shortlist for the thief just yet, but we can expect something sooner rather than later, as production is expected to get underway in the first half of next year. As mentioned above, the picture will shoot in Australia.
In terms of the behind the camera team, Alex Proyas (I, Robot) is on to direct from a script by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama; the writing duo’s first feature, the recently retitled Dracula Untold, is currently filming, and they’re also behind scripts for Clue, Flash Gordon, and Missile Command. Summit Entertainment (Red 2, Warm Bodies), Thunder Road Pictures (Wrath of the Titans, The Town), and Mystery Clock Cinema (Dark City, Knowing) are producing.
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