According to Variety, Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor Kevin Costner (History Channel’s Hatfields and McCoys, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) is the latest addition to the cast of Fox 2000’s Hidden Figures.
The film reunites Costner with his Black or White co-star, Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer (The Help). Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson (TV’s Empire) also stars.
Ted Melfi (St. Vincent) will helm from Allison Schroeder’s adaptation of Margot Lee Shetterly’s nonfiction book Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race: An Untold Story, which will be published by William Morrow/Harper Collins in September of this year. The book is about a cadre of African-American women (Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan, Kathryn Peddrew, Sue Wilder, Eunice Smith, Barbara Holley), nearly all top graduates of historically black colleges, who were brilliant mathematicians helping NASA win the space race, yet were segregated from their white female counterparts. The feature will focus on astronaut John Glenn’s momentous launch into orbit, and his safe return. Henson will play Johnson, and Spencer will play another of the mathematicians in the group. Costner will play the head of the space program.
The title will be produced by Melfi along with Chernin Entertainment and Donna Gigliotti of Levantine Films.
In his 30+ year acting career, Costner is well-known for such classics as Silverado, No Way Out, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, The Untouchables, For Love of the Game, The Bodyguard, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He won two Oscars in 1991, for directing and producing Dances With Wolves. He will next be seen alongside Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) in Ariel Vroman’s crime action drama Criminal, which will bow on April 15th.
Hidden Figures is set for theatrical release on January 13, 2017.
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